Before my class on pet CPR and 1st Aid, I wouldn’t have known to check the color of Honor’s gums. It was 9:30pm on a Friday. After clinic hours, obviously. She had vomited once, and she seemed tired- just not herself. Before that class, I would have waited until morning to see if Honor felt okay. Because I had taken that Pet CPR and 1st Aid class though, I knew to check her from nose-to-tail for injuries. I looked in her mouth. Her gums were so pale.
Charley and I rushed her to the 24-hour pet hospital where they were waiting for her. We had called ahead to let them know we were coming.
The ER vet said she was bleeding internally and had “lost too much blood to wake the surgeon”. They would wait until morning to decide what her chance was of surviving surgery.
The vet let us go back to tell Honor goodnight around 1AM. She was lying on the hospital floor, so Charley & I laid right next to her, one on each side, to sing to her the Honor Bo Bonor song. Neither one of us has pitch. we both have enormous hearts for dogs though, especially this dog.
The team of sweet, caring professionals who were working to stabilize Honor had tears in their eyes too…
Honor received more IV fluids and a blood transfusion after we headed home. When my phone rang at 8am that morning, we expected the worse; news a pet’s person is never ready to hear. Instead, we heard “Ms. Breece, Honor is resting comfortably.” The bleeding in her stomach, possibly originating in her spleen, had stopped. Honor was on the mend.
Neither of the two ER vets who worked on Honor that night could tell us why she had become so sick; what had caused her to bleed internally. One doctor thought Honor had suffered an extreme allergic reaction to an unknown source. The other thought maybe she had ingested rat poison. Neither could explain why she had almost died. Nor why she recovered. I knew though.
April is National Pet First Aid Awareness Month. Find a Pet CPR and 1st Aid class near you or sign up online. https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/first-aid/cat-dog-first-aid
I received my pet CPR and 1st Aid certificate just five weeks before the night that Honor started bleeding. It was January 1, 2016. Seven years later and Honor is still going strong.
This is her now. But ask the animals; they’ll tell you. God is good.