Monroe's Accident

Today ended up being a very stressful day! The girls have lots of toys and one of their favourites is a chew bone, which Monroe was lying playing with on one of our sofas. Monroe has trouble with her throat/soft palate and hacks/coughs quite a lot, but she usually either sorts herself out or is pacified by one of us rubbing her throat gently.

This afternoon though, mid chew, she began to choke. It was different from her usual 'hacking' and as I picked her up I noticed she wasn't actually breathing and her stomach was pulled right in. I patted her back and rubbed her throat, but nothing happened and she couldn't get her breath in for a good 30 seconds. In situations like this it's incredibly hard not to panic!

I pushed her head back so her nose was in the air and (on our vets advice) pushed my finger down her throat to try and free whatever was stuck. It must have dislodged something because she managed to suck a breath in. She continued to breathe, although she was extremely wheezy and obviously very frightened. (Jonny was on the phone to our vet throughout the ordeal.) After 5 minutes she was breathing normally and after 10 she'd stopped shaking and the panic was mostly over. She was quiet for a while, understandably and is now back to her normal self. I've been around dogs for years and been around a few emergencies, some with happy endings and some not so, but I've never been around a dog unable to breathe.

It's times like this I honestly believe Animal Ambulances should be a national service, with the same status and availability as the human version! It's a 15 minute drive to our vets and if we hadn't been able to sort her ourselves, with our vets advice, she simply wouldn't have made it to the vets. It doesn't bare thinking about...

Luckily we can say Monroe is fine and seems to be none the wiser as far as what happened!

Love & licks,
Rio, Jonny, Buffy, Rafferty, Monroe, Lily and Lola.
xo