The day after Emmett was born, Rex had a stroke that made his back legs unusable. I went home and took him to the vet in tears, sure I was saying goodbye. The vet said, "you go take care of the grandbaby and let me take care of Rex." When I returned, Rex came running out of the back only dragging one leg. It took him about 3 days to regain the use of his leg, then he was fine!
A month or so later, shortly after I got home from work, Rex passed out then quickly came too. I took him to the vet the next day and she said it was a heart murmur. She said it then explained the stroke as related to heart disease.
Rex has had many other episodes where he falls over, loses consciousness, sometimes twitches, sometimes screams, and almost always pees. It's pretty horrible to watch but it doesn't ever last long and within 15 minutes, he's his normal happy go lucky self. At one point, the vet had us put him on low salt food and he almost starved to death! There was another time he was pretty sick that I took him to the vet prepared to do whatever and he recovered yet again. At that point, they said he has congestive heart failure.
The last episode was a doozy. I took him to the vet and she said his heart murmur is bad. She said don't take him for walks, and try not to let him get excited.
Last week Rex got pretty sick. He was panting hard and coughing and didn't want anything to do with me. So we had conversations and let everyone who cares about Rex know, and made two appointments for euthanasia, one with the vet, and then one with a vet who will come to your home. I prepared myself and the kids as best I could but when I got home from work, Rex had regained his health! He was breathing easier and followed me around happy as could be!
This dog has more lives than a cat. He currently has a cold, but I guarantee he will get over it soon.
