What a roller coaster the past few weeks have been. We had an amazing Father’s Day celebration and a fabulous time celebrating Emery’s Sweet Sixteen, but in between all of the festivities our beloved Chihuahua, Knute, gave us quite the scare.
Backstory on Knute: we do not know his age or history. We found him as a stray a little over four years ago. Although he was in good health, the vet was unable to give us an estimate of his age other than to say that he was definitely not a puppy. He’s always been so wild and perky that we assumed he was on the younger side. Turns out we were likely wrong.
As I was getting ready for bed the evening of Tuesday, June 10th, Emery carried Knute into my bedroom and said he was making a weird noise with each breath. Indeed he was. Knute was breathing rapidly and making a gurgling/wheezing sound. I immediately knew he needed to be seen by a doctor, so we loaded him into the car and rushed to the nearest emergency vet.
Knute was taken by a technician the second we walked into the door. Several hours went by (thankfully, Emery and I were given a room instead of having to wait in the lobby) before a doctor was able to explain the situation. Essentially, Knute was in heart failure. The exact term is “degenerative valve disease.” For whatever reason, Knute’s mitro valve was no longer closing and fluid was building up in his lungs and around his heart. The doctor was not able to give us a definite prognosis and sent us home without our spunky little fella. This was such a traumatic shock; Knute had been completely fine all day.
At this point it’s the middle of the night. I spent the next six hours staring at my phone. Around 9:30 Wednesday morning I received a call from the cardiologist letting me know Knute made it through the night and was showing signs of improvement. He was receiving major doses of a diuretic via IV and was in a little oxygen chamber, but we were told we could come visit him in a few hours.
Knute at the Vet
He was pitiful, but he perked up when he saw us and even ate a few bites of the chicken we brought him. The doctor was starting to feel hopeful. He responded very well to the treatments and we were given the best news ever: if Knute continued to improve, he might be able to go home the following evening. Thankfully, that is exactly what happened!
Knute is home and on lots of medication (likely for the rest of his life) as well as a bland, low sodium diet. We don’t care. We are just thrilled to have him with us! Every day is a gift and we will take what we can get. Other than an episode of pancreatitis that resulted in another trip to the ER last week, Knute is handling his new normal like a champ. I am extremely grateful to the wonderful staff at Upstate Vet Emergency and Specialty Care. They are a very special crew.
Gipper would be lost without his little brother. The dog we never intended to own has stolen our hearts. He is an integral part of our motley crew…even Hunter the cat loves him.
My Babies
We leave town tomorrow and to say I’m stressed would be an understatement. Thankfully, my mom is coming to Greenville to stay with my babies. She will make sure Knute gets his medications on time and will cook him fresh chicken and give him lots of TLC. I am incredibly thankful I can leave him in such capable hands, but I am going to miss him EXTRA this trip. I always miss Gipper, Knute and Hunter when I travel, but this time will be different. That being said, I am so excited for our trip! Stay tuned…
