Oh Henry
Lets rewind to last year. After Mike and I put an offer in on our house he said, “Now we can get our own dog because we will have our own house.” My mind immediately went to Great Dane. I had always dreamed about having a Great Dane named Henry for as long as I can remember. You might be asking why?! To be honest with you, I just thought it would be comical because of my size and the size that these dogs get to be. We would be the total opposite of each other.
I definitely thought that the dog would be coming long after we renovated and moved into our new home. To my surprise, Mike had other plans. (I’m not sure why this surprised me.) We looked online at Great Danes a couple of nights and that was it. I left the conversation with, “Lets wait until we move in and come back to this.” We settled on our house Friday, December 22, 2017. On December 23 Mike told me he was going shopping and I just went with it. He said he was going to Ocean City, MD- I totally believed him! I went to our house to start ripping things apart and was having the time of my life because no one was there to monitor my destruction. OOPS.
After hours and hours I started to think something was up and wanted to know where the heck he was. I started calling my family and asking if Mike was getting me a puppy. They all lied- everyone was in on this. He finally got home from OHIO and out of the back of the truck came the cutest Great Dane puppy with a small blue name tag on. Henry.
My Sweet Henry. It was love at first sight.
He quickly became my best friend, best protector, and best reminder that patience is a virtue.
Fast forward to Monday January 7, 2019.
For anyone that follows along on Instagram you have seen Henry has been on a road to recovery. Unfortunately, on Monday night Henry had to undergo an emergency GDV (Gastric Dilatation-Volvulus) surgery. This is a rapidly progressive life-threatening condition of dogs, and can be due to a number of different causes. We are not sure why this happened, but we knew we had to get Henry to the ER immediately. When we got to there he was taken to the back and they told us his stomach had twisted 180 degrees. Sadly there are only two options when this happens. There was only one option for our Sweet Henry and that was obviously the surgery. We got him there at 9:30pm and at 2:30 am he was successfully out of surgery and thank goodness in stable condition.
How did we know?! Since the day Hen came home, I started to do my research on Great Danes since I had never had this breed or any experience with it. One of the top things that comes up about them is bloat. I have been a nervous wreck about this condition happening and tried to do all the right things to prevent it. I am a very over protective, annoying dog mom that sheltered him and had many rules for him. No running around 2 hours before or after he ate. Not too much food at one time, not too much water. I always wanted him to stay calm and just be.
I had read to symptoms for bloat a million & 1 times.
Enlarged stomach
Drooling
Restlessness
Trying to vomit and not being able to get anything up
On Monday night Henry was laying alone on the kitchen floor and not sleeping, just watching. This might seem normal for most dogs, but if you know him- he always wants to be close and comfortable. Then he got on the couch but just wasn't resting. He got down and tried to throw up but nothing happened. Mike immediately felt his stomach, probably because he knew thats where my mind was. It was extremely large and hard, and Henry tried to lay back down. There was no question what this was and Mike got him right into the car and off we went. Things progressively got worse on our ride and I was a complete mess, but Mike was calm and focused and got us there in record time.
I am very lucky to have someone that cares as much about Henry as I do. We got him there ASAP and that is most likely why this outcome was as great as it’s been.
We got to see him before we went home and that was such a settling feeling to see him doing better.
Thankfully he did so well and we were able to bring him home Wednesday. I have never been more thankful for all of the people that helped us keep our Oh , Sweet Henry happy and healthy. He will have a four week recovery period, and during his surgery he got his stomach tacked to prevent future twisting of the belly.
Until next time.
xoxo
