On Saturday, June 6, 2020 at 2 AM my 4 year old yellow Labrador retriever named Daisy quit breathing. When I say she quit breathing, in all honesty it was more like she was breathing extraordinarily shallow and couldn’t get her breath unlike a human being who quit breathing and needs CPR. I knew something was wrong immediately but it was obviously above my pay grade and after trying to clear her wind pipe of any obstructions I drove her to Southern Oregon Veterinary Specialty Center. Abbreviated as SOVSC. SOVSC is a highly sophisticated emergency clinic for animals founded by Adam Reiss, DVM. Thus began a two-week battle for Daisy’s life. Initially I was told that her lungs had collapsed and they figured it was probably congenital being as though she had not been hit by a car which was usually how this happens. In addition they found abnormalities in her spine for a four-year-old dog that led them to believe that she was more like nine or 10 years old!!! ...and last but not least her heart was enlarged which they said it had to do with the fact that we were actually feeding her the wrong food even though we were feeding her the best raw dog food money could buy from Petco! Little did we know that dogs actually need food with Grain in it!!!
As my son and I discussed options with Dr. Renee White DVM, he and I had made the decision to put Daisy to sleep and Dr. Renee White DVM talked us out of it for the time being as she really felt Daisy would make a full recovery (what a prophet she has turned out to be) once they sorted all this out.
As we sorted through the diagnosis my youngest son and I found there was alternatives here that may be able to save the Daisy's life. So the following day Daisy went in for a CT Scan and exploratory surgery with Dr. Adam Reiss DVM, DipACVECC and John Davies, DVM, DACVS-SA, the surgeon standing by!
What Adam and John found was one of the entrances to her her lung had been punctured by a foreign object which they think was a Foxtail.
John Davies, DVM, DACVS-SA went ahead and removed the damaged portion of the lung (a collapsed lung called a Pneumothorax in a dog) which was about 15% of the lung and then John Davies, DVM, DACVS-SA applied titanium staples to the lung to hold it together along with sutures and then he sewed her up on the exterior of her body and by God if they didn’t release her four days later!!!
So far Daisy is doing great! She is taking two different types of antibiotic's and one anti-inflammatory pill which is also a pain reliever and in addition a pain reliever called codeine and a heart medicine in addition for the last six days every 12 hours and she’s gotten to the point where she’s eating her normal amount of food twice a day and in addition she’s been able to advance from small walks out in the front yard to walks around the block. Her scarring is simply unimaginable as it starts just above her sternum and runs all the way down to the bottom of her belly!
They had to cut the sternum open and split the rib cage in half to get to the lungs where they did the surgery and then they repaired the lung but they also had to repair the rib cage and the sternum with titanium staples! OMG!!! Her chest is actually a piece of artwork when you look at what John Davies, DVM, DACVS-SA did to my yellow lab's body in regards to the Sutures or Staples whatever you wanna call them. Her hair is cut from her genitalia area and goes all the way up to her throat and it is as wide as her entire belly. There is no doubt that John Davies, DVM, DACVS-SA is one of the best veterinarian surgeons there is in his field as a DVM, DACVS-SA and I could not be happier with the results even though the week in the emergency clinic cost me an arm and a leg (not complaining, it was cheap at twice the price)!!!
The coast is certainly not southern Oregon veterinarian emergency clinic’s fault I would be the one that takes the blame from the standpoint as I knew the field I was running my two yellow labs in had fox tails in the field but I proceeded or should say I continued to run them in that field for the last eight months even during the worst times of the year when fox tails are seeding or very prevalent.
Daisy is expected to make a full recovery within four or five weeks and quite honestly it’s only been about a week and a half since she left the hospital and she’s already jumping up onto the bed with me and resting with me at night which was her normal habit before the injury.
What a pleasure it is to have her back among the land of the living and carrying on like her normal self thus far, and we cannot say enough about the staff at Southern Oregon Veterinary Specialty Center!!! Over the week that Daisy was in the hospital I personally saw hundreds of animals and I talked to many the people in the parking lot about the miracles that were taking place in the building and although it’s not cheap to take your dog to an emergency clinic or veterinarian clinic for emergency the bottom line is these are our family members and where would we be without organizations like Southern Oregon Veterinary Specialty Center and their staff???
I give them all 5 Stars to say the least!!!
Sincerely and Respectfully, Bret Martin
Daisy got her stitches out today and John Davies, DVM, DACVS-SA of Southern Oregon Veterinary Specialty Center says to start allowing her more activity!!! Here we go!!! Thanks so much to everyone at SOVSC.