TBK tells - Chester's accident

One night in September Chester, my 17 month old Labrador dog, woke me up in the night ( he sleeps on the floor at the end of my bed) because he wanted to go outside to urinate. I let him out and as we live in a gated compound waited for him to do his business and return , but he did not. He found a hole in a neighbours fence and ran off. He has done this before so I waited a while and when he did not return went to sleep. When I heard him bark outside I let him in and at first he went to sleep but then was very sick with diarrhoea. He wanted to go out again but only got half way down the stairs before he collapsed and was sick again.

Chester after he returned from the vet- he could not get up so just urinated where he was

I tried to clear up the mess as best I could ( it was 3 am by then so I was not at my best) and sat with him for a while. the next morning he was still there and when my houseboys Noel and Frythy came they did a through clean up of the bedroom and stairs. The next day Chester slept but , unusually, would not eat or drink water. My neighbour suggested he may have eaten some poison she uses to stop snails killing her plants or some other people se to kill rats . I wanted to take Chester to the vets but I had no money ( the money I had transferred from the UK the week before never arrived due to some new Pinoy regulations requiring a 10 figure code to say what the money is for).

Chester after Jhoanna gave him a shower ready for the vet

It looks like his legs were paralysed and he could not get up

I had asked some of the scholars I support to lend me some and the next day Jhoanna delivered that and paid for my wi-fi so I could try and move more money here online. She came with me to the vet and they did an excellent job doing blood tests and trying to identify the problem. We used our normal vet, Palawan Animal Health clinic in San Pedro. As our normal vet, Miguel , was off sick we were looked after by the son and daughter of Gerry Ortega. If you do now know who he was read this article:

https://www.saferworldforthetruth.com/investigations/gerry-ortega

They suggested we take Chester to another vet where he could be kept in overnight for observation and rehydration and they could do further tests and x rays. We loaded Chester back in the car ( he is now 30 kg and could not walk) and went to the other vet but they were fully booked and asked us to return in the afternoon . We took him back home and he slept again and then we loaded him back in the car and took him to Pets United Veterinary clinic in Santa Monica where he was seen by vets Elyn Sorio Buitizon and Ian Jagmis.

They gave him an x-ray and there appeared to be something in his stomach. They ran more blood tests and confirmed his Heart , Kidneys, liver, blood sugar etc were in the normal limits- I responded he was healthier than me! They put him on an intravenous drip and gave him an injection and asked us to collect him at 4.30 pm. I took Jhoanna home ( she is down in PPC , although she graduated, staying with her sister near WPU).

My neighbour , Andy, had kindly lent me 10,000 peso so I went home to get that and back to collect Chester. It turns out they are not a 24 hour operation as we had been told so they gave Nurse Neil instructions on the required 2 hourly observations of his breathing rate , gums, vomiting, diarrhoea, urination etc and their assistants carried him and the intravenous drip to the car for me and I managed to get him out and into the house where he stayed by the front door all night.

Normally I am tucked up in my comfortable bed upstairs at 7 pm but I managed to stay awake until Midnight recording my observations and comforting Chester. He knew when I was there and wagged his tail and tried to lift his head but still would not eat or drink.

For some reason the intravenous drip got blood in which prevented it from rehydrating Chester as planned but he did not salivate or have any more diarrhoea. I went to bed and woke up to check on him at 2 am , 4 am and 6 am at which point I gave up on sleep and mopped the floor and made coffee and breakfast for me ( Chester was still refusing to eat or drink ) and loaded him back in the car at 730 am on Saturday, collected Joven and he helped me offload him at the vets. They asked me to leave him there all day and they said he slept all morning and when they used another line for the drip became rehydrated. I took Joven home ( after he cleaned the car, fixed my broken glasses, fixed my broken measuring half cup, polished the silver, did the ironing and made the spare bed ready for my guest Mike at the end of the month.

Chester with his intravenous drip at the vet ( photo by Jhoanna)

As I drove to the vet I was dreading what I would find. Would I have to put him down or would he be paralysed for life? Imagine my surprise when he sat up , tail wagging, and they told me he had eaten two cans of dog food, drunk water and walked outside to pee! As they are closed on Sunday they gave me more dog food ( a special "Recovery liquidised dog food") , some syringes to feed him with and to squirt water in his mouth, some tablets and two loaded syringes in case he had a relapse. They showed me how to inject him and gave me a prescription for some tablets to rehydrate him. I thought they were going to carry him back to the car as the previous day so had another lovely surprise to see them leading him out on his lead- we just had to lift him into the car. However on the way home he became very agitated moving round and round in the back of the car and when we got home he collapsed on the floor by the door. He later did a pee and slept and finally I managed to sneak upstairs for a few hours sleep returning to see him at 6 am.

This time he was wide awake , tail wagging and he ate two small cans of the special dog food. I could not keep up with the syringe as he was so hungry so I used a teaspoon and he licked it off there interspersed with syringes of water squirted into his mouth and his SamE tablet ( which the vets had shown me how to make sure he swallowed). After I had breakfast and coffee I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and sweep up the leaves, litter and dog pooh ( from all the strays) from in front of my house . Joven normally does it on Saturday but as he came to the vet with me as its near where he lives we lost a couple of hours .We had to take Chester at 830 and collect him at 430 whereas normally I collect Joven at 730 and take him home at 5 .

Chester was lying by the open door and I was in the sun sweeping when I suddenly saw Chester run out of the door, down the steps and to the grass outside. I was about to shout at him ( by running away before this is how all this started!) when he urinated and did his first pooh in 3 days on the grass. What a good boy. We had an impromptu celebration and he happily munched his dog treat before he collapsed on the drive to Maggie's house in the shade and I had to carry him back indoors!

In the afternoon, after spending Sunday Morning at University studying nursing Fry and Noel came to clean the house. Chester was so happy to see them he sat up for Frythy and ran to the door when Noel arrived , then lay at his side while he had lunch. I gave Fry and Noel a nursing practical feeding Chester and giving him water with the syringe ( they are smaller than me so closer to Chester on the floor). After lunch they kept an eye on Chester while I went to buy his re

So that's the story of Chester's accident, which cost me £217/ 15,360 Peso in vets fees. Andy told me it would be ten times that amount in the UK! I think it will be a slow road to recovery.

Chester before his accident looking out of the window

( photo by Jhoanna)

Previously Chester used to jump up on a chair and stick his head out of the window and the local kids would come and stroke him . He is like a local celebrity here! We had already prepared a December calendar page featuring some of the kids so I am going to share that here to say thank you to them for coming to see how Chester is and feeding him treats on the floor. He gets so excited with each visitor and tries to sit up tail wagging.

Let us hope its not too long until Chester is back in his chair by the window waving at all his friends and signing autographs.

Chester in his favourite chair by the window

( Photo by Jhoanna)

All that remains , as we are now well into the 1st BER month is to wish you and your families a very happy Christmas. I am not celebrating Christmas this year as I gave all my money to my scholars in July, so I will reuse last years card designed by Chester the Hooman ( who appears as an angel on the card) . Chester was only a few moths old then and looks so cute, along with my then scholars , who Chester "dressed" as Elves