Bring Bodhi Home

Our sweet Bodhi began with vomiting and diarrhea just before the weekend and quickly progressed to become lethargic and would not eat. 

We took him to be evaluated at Arizona Veterinary Emergency & Critical Care Center at 4:15 pm on Friday. They triaged him and advised me that it would be a 6-8 hour wait for non critical patients. They did not find Bodhi to be in critical condition despite the fact that he was becoming more and more dehydrated to the point where stool was seeping out of his rectum uncontrollably.  

I am a nurse, and so the processes and protocol for caring for ill people and pets is my language. I specifically asked the vet to make sure blood is drawn and to test for parasites and take stool samples to see what was going on. In medicine, blood tests can often be a window into what is going on deep inside of the body. I gave verbal ok to have the labs drawn, meds administered, X-rays performed, etc.

My fiancé went to pick him up at midnight as they ruled out an obstruction via X-ray and called this gastritis/colitis.  I was at home with the kids. In the early morning hours, I received an invoice for the services rendered, and noticed that they did not do any blood or stool tests.  The vet from that night  documented that I declined the blood work during his visit. This is a bold face lie and goes against everything I know as a Registered Nurse. He continued to suffer for 12 hours unnecessarily, unnecessarily at home because the professionals who I entrusted him with did not do what was discussed.

In the morning, I went to look at Bodhi in his play yard and saw my sweet boy nearly lifeless, hypothermic with bright red liquid seeping out of his bottom uncontrollably. He also had agonal breathing, which is similar to when a humans fluids are accumulating in the chest in their last hours of life. At that point, Manny rushed him back to ER vet and they took him back immediately. Within the hour, they performed a set of vitals and determined that Bodhi was both Parvo positive and in a state of extreme Sepsis. 

UPDATE

Sadly, Bodhi passed away peacefully surrounded by his loving family on Sunday, 6/6. His body was overtaken by the sepsis and we could not let him suffer anymore. To say that we will miss him is an understatement, and we are still all trying to process this great loss. Unfortunately, due to the highly contagious nature of the virus, and Bodhi's close exposure to his littermate, best buddy and brother, Kawi began with the same symptoms early Saturday night and was admitted to the hospital on Sunday morning.

 At this point, we have spent approximately $6,000 in attempt to save our boy Bodhi's life, and now to treat Kawi as well.  We will have to continue to pay approximately $1,500 per day to sustain his care, and they are estimating that he will need another 3 days in the hospital. The fact that we caught this early for Kawi gives us great hope, as the earlier Parvovirus is treated, the greater chance of survival.  Manny and I are always trying to pay it forward and spread generosity in this world, and our only hope is that this generosity is returned to us so we can help save our remaining fur baby.  We are incredibly grateful to those that have donated so far and are hopeful that soon, we will have Kawi back at home snuggling with us soon.