Poor Maddie...

Maddie got "sick" the other day. Before I go any further, I will let you know that she is fine now. But she sure gave us quite the scare...

On Tuesday night when I came home from work, I was sitting on the couch with Maddie. I was heavily engrossed in watching youtube videos on how to learn to crochet. (Yes, it is a new hobby I am picking up and I am beating my brains in trying to learn how to do it!)

Maddie was laying on her side when all of a sudden she sat up and began shaking. It was almost seizure-like, except not as violent and there wasn't foam coming out of her mouth. Instead, she got on all-fours and arched her back up really high (kind of how a cat looks when it's scared). Then she tried to walk, all the while still shaking uncontrollably. Her hind legs had stiffened up and she couldn't move. She looked at Vinny and I for help, and there was nothing we could do.

After about 30 seconds the shaking stopped and she layed back down in her spot. Her legs were still stiff, and she was really scared. After about another minute she reverted back to her normal self, and ran around outside in the yard and ate, drank, slept normally.

This was so puzzling and scary that I had no idea what to think. What the hell would cause something like that?

The next day we took her to the vet where they did a physical examination and blood work. The vet said she could have had a "partial seizure", but we wouldn't really know until the blood work came back.

Today we received the results and everything came back normal.

We also found a gift under the tree.

Maddie's vomit.

Since we have no clue when she vomited under the tree (don't worry, the gifts are okay!), we assumed it was there from the night she had her little 'episode'. After inspecting it, I found that it looked strangely like her raw-hide chew toy she's been working on for the past week or so.

I explained all of this new evidence to the vet and she believes this may have been the culprit. When dogs have severe stomach pain or discomfort, they may arch their backs like Maddie did. We think she bit off a large chunk, and with its coiled texture, we think it was trying to digest and pass through her intestines.

So, $188 later, and a puke stain on my floor: mystery solved.

Well, we're about 95% sure the chew toy caused this. If it happens again, then we'll seek more help and find out if she's really seizuring. She didn't have all the main signs of a seizure so we're really hoping it was just the chew toy and that it's passed. (literally.)

And now, a sad and pathetic picture of Maddie after she had blood drawn. Look at her little bandaides :( (they're almost leg-warmer-like!)