♥ LEARY ♥

Please read my story. :)
Many, many thanks to everyone who came out to "Drinks for Leary" at the Store on October 11th! We had a huge turn-out and it was an amazing success. Special thanks to Kevin for donating the back room at the Store, bartenders, raffle prizes, money and so much more! He is the best! Also thanks to Vince & Umphrey's McGee and Brad for their amazing raffle donations, Heidi and Robbie for all of their help in preparing for the event, Brian for his expert Bingo and Raffle Announcing, Rachel for her wonderful food donations, and to all of our incredible friends for their support.
UPDATE: I am doing wonderfully, thanks to all of you! Please read my blogs for updates, and for those of you who don't know me or my mom, please read my incredible story of survival.
MY STORY:
My name is Leary and I am an 12 year-old Black Lab/Chow mix. My mom Melissa rescued me in Colorado when I was 10 weeks old. I have been swimming in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, played in the Redwood Forest, been coast to coast in an RV, pranced through the streets of San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, and even Canada, hiked in Yellowstone, the Badlands and Rocky Mountain National Park, lived at a Tibetan Buddhist center and was a favorite among the monks, been to countless festivals and live music shows with my mom, and lived in 7 states before I ended up in my favorite place, Chicago.
Back in March of '07, I started having runny poop. Yep. When I was 6 months old, I swallowed a fish hook while swimming in Turquoise Lake in Colorado and had to have six feet of intestine removed, so I've always had some digestive problems. I also have Thyroid Disease, so my mom thought maybe those two factors could be the problem. She took me to a new vet (we'd just moved here), and they did all kind of blood tests but said I was fine.
My mom wouldn't settle for this. I am everything to her and my health and happiness are the most important things in her life! She tried me on all kinds of fancy foods, and even made me boiled organic meats (which is a big deal, because my mom is a vegetarian) and steamed rice. Sometimes I would be okay, sometimes I wouldn't. She did lots of research online but nothing seemed to permanently work.
Early last fall, I had a really bad day, with lots of diarrhea. It was a Friday, and mom rushed me to the vet, and they took fecal and blood tests. They prescribed an antibiotic called Metronidazole used to treat bacterial infections. I took it over the weekend, but on Sunday night I was worse, and I even threw up. My mom called the emergency vet and we tried all sorts of things, until the next morning when I could get into my regular vet. All of my blood and fecal tests had come back normal, so they took x-rays. I had some weird metal discs in my belly (I love to eat things!), so they did a couple of days of barium treatments (yuck!) to move them through me. The vet didn't think this was causing my problems though, so she continued me on the Metronidazole. My mom did some research online about this drug and expressed her concerns to the vet, but the vet insisted this was best for me.
Over the weeks, my health seemed on and off. Mom noticed that I seemed to be losing energy and that my joints seemed ache-y. I've had joint problems for a while but they seemed to be getting worse. I finished my run of Metronidazole, but I was still having diarrhea, so my mom called the vet, and they said I needed to have more. They said sometimes it took a few weeks. They also gave me another antibiotic called Tylan powder to sprinkle on my food.More weeks passed and I seemed to be getting worse. My mom was making me special meals everyday now because I couldn't digest regular food. My mom called the clinic back and had to talk to another vet because my regular vet was out of town. They said to just be patient and give the antibiotics more time. My mom decided that this wasn't right, and that on Monday she was going to take me to a different vet.
One Monday morning, I seemed to be having a really hard time walking. Mom took me for a walk and I was having trouble moving my back legs, and couldn't get up to steps. She lifted me into the car and drove me right to the vet. They gave me more x-rays and said that I had Hip Dysplasia! This explained the achey joints, but my mom didn't understand why it was so bad so suddenly, and why the diarrhea continued. The doctor gave me an anti-inflammitory and MORE antibiotics. As the day went on, I got worse. My mom's friend Rachel had to sit with me while my mom drove back to the vet to get more medicine to calm me down. I was panicing, and my back legs couldn't even move anymore.
When my mom got back, she called the emergency vet clinic. They gave her some instructions, but I got worse. My mom sat by my side. My front legs stopped working too, and I threw up white foamy stuff. My body got very stiff. My mom called the emergency vet back and said she was bringing me in immediately. At this point I started having seizures! My mom was freaking out but trying to be positive for me. She refused to let me see her cry! She called my grandpa, and had to wrap me in a blanket to lift me into the car, and drove me straight to the emergency room. I was having grand mal seizures really badly in the car and my mama said her good-byes to me through tears. We were sure this was it.
The emergency vet gave me all sort of blood tests and started pumping me with saline. I had a 105 degree fever! (I should have been at 101!). The emergency vet was very nice to me. After the blood tests came back, she asked my mama how long I'd been on the Metronidazole. My mom told her, and she was in shock. I was overdosing from this medicine that my regular vet was supposedly giving me to make me healthy!
The vet told my mom to go home and gave me some sedatives so I could relax and put me in intensive. My mom was a wreck and didn't sleep all night. She couldn't believe she had spent over $2,000 at my regular vet and all they had done was poisoned me! She felt horrible. She called throughout the night to check on me. My fever started to go down and the seizures have almost completely died down, which was a positive start. My mom did reseach online too about Metronidazole poisoning too, and I had all the symptoms.
The next morning my mom came into visit me and it was really hard because she could tell that I was really scared. I tried hard to move to my mom and cling to her, but my body won't listen to my brain! It was really hard for me to focus too because of the neurological issues I was experiencing, and the vet said I had bad motion sickness from all of the drugs. My new vet is really nice and she was hopeful that I would survive, although unsure. But we stayed positive! Once I get completely better, we will have to start all over again to see what is causing the diarrhea, because my old vet misdiagnosed me repeatedly.
I continued to improve in the hospital, and my new vet (Dr. McGreer) told my mom that I was such a determined boy (I even wagged my tail!) For a couple of days I still wasn't able to move my back legs, but my front legs began to improve a little, and eventually I could lay on my chest instead of just on my side. I was unable to eat and couldn't stand up to go to the bathroom so I was going on myself (yuck!), but after a few days in intensive care and lots of visits from my mom, I really started to show signs of recovery (and now I am home! See my blogs for updates!). It can take two full weeks or more to recover from Metronidazole poisoning, but I am getting better everyday.
Dr. McGreer did some xrays and the walls of my intestines are very thick, which could have been the reason that I am having such serious gastrointestinal issues (OR the reason they are thick could be a result of those issues). I also had a really bad bacterial infection in my intestines and my mom and my vet couldn't believe that my old vet didn't find this.
My mom and I are certain that the positive healing energy you all sent me made a huge difference and were part of the reason I survived!
My mom and my best buddy Robbie started a fund for my medical bills, which were thousands of dollars. Thanks so much to all of you who helped me out, even many of you who didn't know me at all! I am happy to say that I did eventually recover from overdose/poisoning, and we have since been able to focus on healing my digestive problems, as well as treatment for arthritis.
My mom tried repeatedly to get a response out of the original vet clinic where I was poisoned. All she got, after several weeks, was a letter making excuses. Our only hope is that this doesn't happen to another animal. We will continue to stay in contact with this vet clinic and keep a watchful eye to make sure that no other pets are harmed by their negligence.
Love, Leary