Our Sunny Girl

*This post contains some medical information that may upset some people--I'm just saying...

This is Sunny. We've had her since July 4th of 2002, when she was just 3 months old. She is the perfect dog--she is protective of her family, especially the kids; she never has an accident in the house; she is polite and doesn't steal food or mooch; she loves to play; she listens; she puts up with the kids and Marley; she trained herself to "do her business" in the woods instead of the middle of the yard; she stays in the yard and pasture, though she's never tied and there's no fence. She is The. Perfect. Dog. And this weekend I thought we were going to lose her.

For the past few days, Sunny had been a bit lethargic and blah. She wouldn't run up the stairs, but walk up them. She would only wiggle her tail a bit in greeting instead of a vigorous wag from side to side. We thought that maybe she was a little out of sorts because of the extreme cold we've had, which limited exercise and outside time. Then on Friday I noticed that she hadn't eaten any of her food and seemed constipated. Andy and I were slated for a weekend away, and my parents assured me that they could handle the girls and a sickly dog. So we went on our way. When I called to see how things were on Saturday morning, Alayna told me that Sunny had thrown up a few times. That was the deciding factor that she probably needed to see the vet. My mom told me not to worry about coming home, that she'd check with Dad to see if he could take Sunny in for us. In the meantime, I called the vet and explained what was going on. After hearing her symptoms, they said they could "fit her in" within 45 minutes. That told me they thought she was pretty serious.

When my dad called me back and told me the vet wanted to talk with me, my stomach dropped. Dr. Sue (we love her!) told me that Sunny had pyometra and was very sick. Pyometra is a severe uterine infection, and she said that it can often fester for 3-5 weeks after a heat period before showing any symptoms. Dr. Sue said that Sunny needed to have her uterus removed or she would not survive; the infection was too severe to be treated by antibiotics alone. After consulting with Andy, I told her to go ahead with the surgery and then anxiously waited for her call.

My phone rang about 3:00 and I knew it was Dr. Sue. When I answered, she told me that everything had gone perfectly and that Sunny was just starting to wake up from the anesthesia. She also told me that her uterus was so pus-filled that it weighed 7 lbs. That's a lot. She went on to explain what they had done, how we would move forward and ended by telling me that Sunny was the sweetest dog and she just loved her. Then she put me through to the receptionist, who informed me that she also loved our Sunny dog. Yeah, we know. Everyone does.

We went to pick her up this afternoon and it was so great! She was herself again! After going through a major surgery just 24 hours ago, she was excited like a little puppy. She had light in her eyes again. Her tail went crazy at seeing us, and she started whining and tried to run across the exam room to us. I don't know who was more excited, Sunny or Andy and I. We talked with the on-call Vet, Dr. Grant, and he went through her discharge information with us. He told us that she should be just fine and ended with..."She is such a great dog!" We know. As we left, Sunny's tail went into overdrive when we asked if she was ready to go home and see "her girls" (that's how we always refer to the kids to Sunny) She jumped into the car, even though she wasn't supposed to, and Andy was trying to help her in. She wanted to go home.

We are so glad that Sunny is going to be okay. When I think about how we could have lost her from this, it just kills me. She is a huge part of our family and will now hopefully be with us for a lot longer.