So. That Happened.

Maggie the Wonder Beagle is Maggie the Sickie Beagle.

We started to notice last night that something wasn't quite right.  She had to be coaxed to eat her dinner which, if you've ever met a beagle in your life, you know this is more than a little unusual.

This morning she completely ignored her breakfast.  She was acting lethargic and just not right.  Then, as I was getting everyone out the door and heading toward the bus stop, Liam nudged her toward her crate and she YELPED in pain.  Suddenly, it was clear something was not right and it seemed as though she was acting like she had joint pain around her hips.

After I got the kids off to their respective schools, I called my Mom.  (Have I ever mentioned that my parents are veterinarians?  Well, they are.)  I talked with her a bit about what might be wrong with Maggie and whether or not she might need to see the vet.  She thought Maggie might have wrenched her back while at the kennel while we were away last weekend but said "Take her temp just to rule out something else."

So I took her temp and she was 104.5.  That's 2.5 degrees above normal for a dog.  Instead of ruling something out, we ruled something in: a vet appointment.

I called our vet and they were able to get me in quickly (thank goodness!) so I trotted off with Maggie who was clearly feeling like a pile of you-know-what by this point.  Once there they took a quick history and re-temped her (still 104.5) and then sent the Doc in.  Once the doctor started examining here, all sorts of weird things started emerging.

She looked like she had massive amounts of bruising over her hips and some along her back.

The vet found a spot that looked like a wound and was oozing pus.

She was clearly in pain from all this.

So, out came the clippers and they started shaving down a couple of areas to get a better look.  They started with the wound that was oozing.  They kept shaving and shaving and shaving, finding more and more sores all over her back.  She ended up with the majority of her back shaved down (the reverse mohawk!) to reveal that her back was a mass of hundreds of sores (now oozing because of the clipper blades) from shoulders to hips.  But just her back - not on her sides, stomach, face, or legs.  So, the placement was kind of odd.

They decided to do some blood work and took a slide of what was oozing out her sores.  It became clear that she has a doozy of a bacterial infection going on.  While we can't trace the genesis of this little issue we can treat her for it so treat her we did.

Two hours, 3 medications, and a melting credit card later we were headed home.  Tonight her fever is down, she ate her dinner, and seems to be feeling more like herself.  She is sporting the most ridiculous haircut and an even more ludicrous bright green t-shirt to keep her (and bugs, ew!) from getting at the sores on her back.

Maggie definitely puts the "special" in "a special kind of crazy."