Indy’s emergency surgery

Well talk about your high to lows.  After a great weekend last weekend, Jenny packed up and headed to Key West, FL, to celebrate her cousin’s bachelorette party.  Marc is off on Thursdays, and spent a portion of his day off getting the dogs out on some birds.  Halo in particular did a fantastic job.  She is probably even closer to being ready for Senior than Karma!  We don’t typically test our dogs in Senior or Master tests until they are 5, but maybe Halo will change our philosophy on that!  Anyway, Indy came along and had a fantastic time, as always.

Friday, Marc didn’t think Indy was quite himself.  He thought maybe he overdid it at birdwork the day before and thought maybe his arthritis acting up.  However, Marc’s spidey senses were working and he actually came home early on Friday because he felt like there was more to the story.

By Saturday, Indy was having an emergency surgery to repair a gastric perforation.  It was a VERY scary 72 hours.  He had a really hard time (he is 10.5!) getting his blood pressure back up after surgery.  Then they couldn’t get his temperature up.  To keep him warm enough, he was under a TON of blankets and they have this oversized dryer called a “Bear Hugger” that was blowing hot air on him.  He also had a feeding tube because he wouldn’t eat.  And Jenny was on vacation for all this!!  Needless to say, it was straight from DIA to the VRCC when she got back.  And guess who ate for his Mommy!! 🙂

He had to stay another couple days before we could finally bring him home today.  We think it’s going to be a hard month, and then hopefully the worst will be behind us.  However, going through this ordeal has made us very thankful for a couple things:

–Specialized veterinarians.  We use the Veterinary Referral Center of Colorado (VRCC – www.vrcc.com)  These guys have a TON of experience and are all Board Certified.  They were amazing and very accommodating.

–Our Pet insurance.  When all is said and done our vet bills totaled over $11,000.  While we were happy (thrilled even!) to trade money for a healthy Indy, it was VERY nice to get 90% of our money back.  Trupanion.  Check them out: https://trupanion.com  They were wonderful and reimbursed our cash within 24-48 hours of receiving our claim AND it was direct deposited to our bank account!  Our dogs are all covered and we added it up…paying premiums for 4 dogs on insurance for their whole lives (2 yrs (Halo) + 5 yrs (Karma) + 9 yrs (Schmav) + 10 yrs (Indy)) was still LESS than the amount we were reimbursed for this ONE incident with Indy.  If we had been banking money every month versus paying for insurance we would have been behind.  We HIGHLY suggest them to everyone (especially now!)

-Our Veterinary Office — We LOVE Dr. Kelly.  She is so knowledgable and very well researched.  She doesn’t tell us what we should do, but presents us with the research out there and her recommendation.  LOVE her and LOVE the practice.  Everyone in the whole clinic is great.  They always call and check up on us and were even telling Jenny how worried they were about Marc — he was obviously very worried about Indy  and it’s nice to know how much they all care.  If you need a wonderful veterinarian in Denver — VCA Aspenwood, http://www.vcahospitals.com/aspenwood

So your assignment — if you don’t have it — get your pet insured today!!  And then give them a big pat on the head from us…you just can’t believe how much you love these guys until you think you are about to lose them.