I Spoke too Soon...

Last night I had the worst possible scare.  Manga and I went out to play a harmless game of fetch, or so I thought.  On our way back, Manga started staggering and walking like she couldn't see very well.  When we met up with Manga's neighborhood fan club, she was still moving around all funny.  So, I decided to take her upstairs and give her some water.  Well, she started up the stairs like normal, but when I got to her she has collapsed on the landing and looked as if she was having a seizure.  She wasn't responding to her name or anything.  Naturally, I freaked out and ran back downstairs to get the kids who play with her.  They took one look at my face and knew that it was Manga.  A few scouted out the vet's office to make sure he was open, and the other helped me carry Manga down the stairs.

At the vet's, he took her temperature and was shocked because it was off the termometure's reading.  In addition, her heart was racing and she wasn't breathing normally.  He then gave her an injection to start lowering her temp, put her on a sodium chloride IV, and had a wet rag placed on her forehead.  The kids stayed right by Manga's side the entire time.  They were so unbelievable sweet with her.  During all of this activity, the vet began to ask me questions about where we had been.  As soon as I told him that we were playing ball, he immediately began to suspect poisoning.  Thus, he re-examined her and sure enough she had gotten a dose of the poison the government puts out for the stray dogs.  She didn't eat anything, but between her ball rolling through the stuff and her saliva slobbering on the ball, she got a good amount of the poison.  The next step was to give her some injections to lessen the affects of the poison.  Slowly all of the meds started to work and she began to cool off.  I took her home, but the story doesn't end there.

At home, she was stubbling around just like a person does after waking up from anesthetics.  She was not responsive to anything and kept walking straight into anything in her immediate path.  The vet informed me that this was a side-effect of the toxins leaving her body and that she should start to walk normally in a few hours.  It was so bad that she couldn't even lift her foot up over a 3 inch ledge.  Luckly, my friend, Timithia, who lives down the street and her son Jon came to my rescue because I had begun to sob uncontrollably again.  They sat with Manga while I hunted down the medicine she would need for the next couple of days.  Over the next hour, her breathing slowed, she walked a smidge better, and she even slept some.

Once I had gone to bed, I could still hear her wandering around, but eventually she settle down to sleep.  At about 2 am, she jumped/clammered her way onto the bed.  That was a good sign as it meant her legs were beginning to function properly again.  At 4 am, she drank an entire bowl of water, another good sign.  By morning, her reflexes were much better, she could go up and down stairs without help, and she was perking up.

By this afternoon, the tail is waggin and she has her smile back on her face.  We went back to see the vet, with the neighborhood kids in tow, and he said that she looked fine and dandy.  There are a few preventative measures that we are still going to take, but we are in the clear :-).  As the kids were chanting, "Manga's good, Manga's good!"