Ace's Water Intoxication.

    Saturday a friend came over and we took the dogs hiking in the creek. They were in the creek the whole time there and back and we took a few times to stop and rest. I headed back home and when we got home we rested for 1hr and 30mins. Ace wasn't showing any signs of anything at this point. He was just chilling on the bed. After that we went outside and the sprinklers were on and I let them play in it for about 10 mins. After that we went into the backyard and I went to my room to put on my swim suit. My sister comes in and says Ace isn't moving and will not get up. I thought aww, his pads are probably ripped and she said no he's like shaking. I ran out the door and there he was laying upside down having a seizure. I started screaming and Chris picked him up and we took him inside. He was drooling so bad, eyes were huge, he couldn't walk and had about a 5 sec seizure. I felt like he was drying right in front of my eyes.

   Chris, me, and my sister all jumped into the car and we took him about 30 mins down the road. When we got there he peed when Chris picked him up and again when he was in the lobby. It took about 30 mins for them to take him back. They said he temp was 98 so they put heating pads on him. They asked all what happened and after about 20 mins of more waiting they came back into the room and I explained that he had water intoxication and she didn't know much about that and said it wasn't that but it was a seizure. Really?? he has a seizure?? No shit I just told you that!! I didn't say that but that's what I was thinking. We quickly left and looked up on ER about 30 mins away.

  At this point he wasn't drooling his much and was sitting up to watch cars but he was still really bad off. We got to the ER and we checked in and the lady said if he isn't critical you will have to wait 2 hours. I said ok thinking they would know that a dog that cant walk and is drooling all over is critical. She came to get Ace and I said can you hold him cause he cant walk and she said he will have to walk eventually. Umm...ok? So, after about 30 mins of waiting I went to the front desk and said can you see if Ace is critical or not? She checked and said that he wasn't critical. I firmly told her we were not waiting 2 hrs and I want my dog back now please and I wasn't going to pay. Ace did come back in her arms and we took him and started to look for another vet.

  We drove around for 20 mins trying to find another ER vet and we couldn't find one. I looked up on my phone an ER vet 45 mins away and we took of to there. When we got into the place right away they came to help us. While sitting down with Ace in Chris's lap he peed all over him. They immediately took him into the back to get looked at. While Chris went to Wal-Mart for new shorts they put me into the room. The vet came into talk to me and that dude knew what he was talking about. He told me that he thinks that it is heat exhaustion and I said we think its Water Intoxication. He said that that is a possibility and that in 3yrs that he has been there he has only seen one other case. He said he wanted to do bloodwork, check his electrolytes and Platelets.

   About 30 mins later he came in and said that his electrolytes were low and they would but him on an I.V. He said his heart was really strong and I agreed :). About an 2 hours later he came back and said everything is normal and he looks 100 times better but wanted to keep him for another hour to see how he does with the I.V's off. By the end of the night we were able to take him home.

 I have had a few people ask if I think it was because of the hike and I don't think so. They know better and I didn't see them drink very much water at all. Do I think it could be from both the sprinkler and the hike? Yes but I mostly think it is from the sprinkler. Ace does swallow a lot of water when he bites the sprinkler. Now since he has had it he will be more prone to having it again so I will be keeping a good eye on him and no more sprinklers! For more information about Water Intoxication please go here:

http://www.thebark.com/content/danger-water-intoxication