On December 26 my husband went to celebrate the holidays with his family and when he came home his arms were filled with gifts galore, including toys and bones and treats for our girls.  After removing the tags we immediately gave them their new toys to play with; they were so excited!  Haley went about her usual business of seeing how quickly she could tear into their new toys and, in the process, tore a red, round ball off of the hat of their new snowman toy.  I found Nala chewing on the ball and took it away from her because she has a habit of swallowing these toy pieces, but she looked up at me and plead with me to let her have it back.  I gave it back to her, told her not to swallow it and didn’t think about it again.  The next morning Nala vomited, but she does that on occassion and there was nothing abnormal about the color or contents of the vomit.  We went about our usual daily routines until about 5:30 when all of a sudden Nala’s tail dropped, her eyes glazed and she could not get comfortable.  I just knew that something was wrong.  Call it mother’s instinct or anything else; I just knew.

I immediately called our primary vet and even though their office was closing soon they agreed to see her in about an hour so we watced over her like hawks until it was time to get in the car and head to the vet.  Nala’s tail remained down and it was clear that she was very uncomfortable.  Even when the staff at the vet’s office came to say hello she continued to just sort of mope around very slowly, which is not like her at all.  They put us in an examination room and out of nowhere Nala started vomiting; it was brown, it was pouring out of her mouth in puddles, there was blood in it and it was like nothing I had ever seen before.  We called into the hallway and the veterinarian came right over to start examining her.

The initial exam showed that Nala was dehydrated, her belly was distended and it was painful to the touch.  The vet recommended blood work and x-rays so that’s how we proceeded.  While Nala was having her x-rays done I remembered the red, round ball from the night before.  Although the x-rays were inconclusive the vet suggested that there may be an obstruction because her belly was quite obviously distended.  I disclosed the information about the red, round ball and after discussing some other possible diagnoses the vet recommended that we take Nala over to the emergency vet right away for an ultrasound.

Nala seemed a bit more comfortable on the ride over; it appeared that clearing some of the contents of her stomach had helped her for the moment.  When we got to the emergency vet Nala was whisked away and soon after we were called into an exam room to meet with Nala’s doctor.  She advised that there was a long line for ultrasounds, but that’s what the next step would be, in addition to blood work and IV fluids.  Haley and Gabby were with us through all of this and so the four of us waited patiently to find out what was going on with our beloved Nala.  The results of the ultrasound showed a pyloric obstruction.  (What we assumed to be) the red, round ball from the night before was caught right in the area where her stomach empties into her small intestine; the ultrasound pictures showed that it really kind of fit perfectly in there.  Nala was scheduled for surgery, we visited with her to give her some love and support and then we went home to wait for the call that Nala was out of surgery.  The first thing we did when we walked in the door was corral the toys and cut off every nose, eyeball, tail… Whatever could be ripped off by the girls and swallowed was removed!!!

After some worry-filled hours we received the call at about 12:30am that Nala was out of surgery, the obstruction was removed and she was doing very well.  Nala bounced back quickly after surgery.  We visited her twice the next day and the following day she was ready to come home.  Nala’s a very sweet girl and she’s somewhat lazy, so my husband and I thought that her recovery would be slow and gradual.  I am happy to say that she pleasantly surprised us because she was an absolute trooper!  Like Haley, Nala was brave and strong and didn’t even need any of her prescribed pain medication.

After Nala’s incident my husband and I, again, discussed moving closer to to a 24-hour veterinary emergency facility, but we have yet to take action.  I, personally, have made the decision to be productive about my fears of future emergencies with our girls; thus, v911.  One month after her surgery Nala is completely recovered and supervised VERY closely when she plays with toys!  She loves to eat and her digestive system is back to working as it should be; we try to keep her interested in bigger toys with no little parts.  Her tail is almost always up so I know that she is feeling well and you’ll often find her sleeping with her favorite octopus toy!

♥ WE LOVE YOU NALA ♥