The Chihuahua with the heart of a Lion!

It was a typically rainy November morning in our suburban town outside of Portland, OR.  I had built a special smaller yard for Mojo, our Long-Coat Chihuahua, because he seemed to be able to find the tiniest spot in the fence to escape.  I had put Mojo in his yard and Jake, our Springer Spaniel, in the big dog yard.  I received a phone call which lasted about 20 minutes and when I hung up, I went to bring the two dogs back in. 

Now, Mojo and Jake have a rather unique relationship.  Mojo thinks that Jake is “his” dog and the world revolves around him!  I let the dogs out, I feed them, they sleep on my bed and yet Mojo’s world is Jake.   So, I went to bring them in and Jake came right in, however, there was no Mojo in the pen.  No Mojo in the yard.  That’s when I see the little flash of white along the fence.  I called for Mojo to come back under the fence, which he did, sulking because he knew he was in trouble.  I put him in his kennel and went out to figure out how he had gotten out of his yard.  The only thing I could figure out is that he had either escaped out the back section or climbed into my azalea tree plant and went over the top.  A few moments later I was sitting on the couch with my laptop checking e-mails and I could hear Mojo scratching in his kennel, but it wasn’t normal scratching…more like a dog sleeping and his foot is touching the wall during an animated running dream.  So, I pulled him out of his kennel to find him twitching and having mild convulsions.  I knew that these were seizures and I held him and waited for it to stop, tears coming to my eyes.  Several minutes passed, and I realized he was not going to stop.  I made a rather frantic call to the vet’s office and wrapped him in a blanket and drove him to the vet.  Even through the mild convulsions I could see the fear in his eyes.  They took him from me right away and continued to ask about what he had eaten, etc.  The only thing I could come up with is that the neighbors don’t have a dog, so maybe he got into something in their yard.  Chihuahuas eat anything – mine does anyway – so it could literally have been anything.

I was instructed to go home and ask the neighbor if they had anything out that he could have gotten into.  I must have been a sight…morning hair, no make-up, eyes swelled and red from crying.  To make matters worse, the neighbors barely speak any English.  They were kind enough to let me look in the yard but really didn’t understand why, and they thought I was telling them they had killed my dog.  I will never really know what, if anything was in their yard.  A search of my own yard turned up nothing.

The vet called to tell me they had pumped Mojo’s stomach and found a small amount of green substance that they would save for testing.  They had started him on an IV drip of Phenobarbital, Valium, and he was also given Robaxin, a muscle relaxer, all to try and stop the seizing.  The vet decided to put him under anesthetics until the poison could get out of his system.  Hours that seemed like days went by.  I picked my 9 year old son up at school and told him the news.  The waiting made it seem like the longest day I can ever remember.  My vet was so good about calling and giving me updates, but nothing had changed by late afternoon.  Things were not looking good, but he just kept telling me that time was all we had now.  I am lucky that my vet closes rather late in the evening; however, they are not an overnight facility.  I was told that I would have to pick him up and take him somewhere else for the night.  When my vet headed home for the night, he said he had taken him off the anesthetics, and he would now need to sleep off the anti-seizure medications before we really knew the damage.  I was allowed to bring him home, and they packed an IV bag for me to use in case he started seizing again when he came out of it.  No big deal, I have done this before, so I brought him home. 

I wasn’t at all prepared for what I would see.  All four legs were shaved and bruised from the IV, and he was completely comatose.  I was instructed to turn him every half hour, keep his temperature as close to 101 as possible, and check his temperature every half hour.  If he started the leg tremors again, I could hook him back up to the IV fluids.  My son helped me get him as comfortable as possible, and we laid there with him, seemingly helpless.  A half hour went by, and I turned him the first time, took his temperature, and made notes on a notepad of everything I was doing.  Soon after he started to wake up, the leg tremors started.  I tried to hook up the IV, only to find that it was blocked.  So, I decided that I better take him to emergency and we wrapped him back up and drove the hour drive to the emergency clinic at what was now 11 PM. 

Leaving him at the emergency clinic was hard.  The vet there seemed less satisfied with how he looked and told me to return in the morning and that if he was still alive, I could take him back to my regular vet.  I called every hour, and they nicely told me that he was sleeping.  I took the hour trip back to the clinic to pick Mojo up, bright and early the next morning, which was also my birthday.  There was still no change, and the emergency vet gave us the bad news.  He felt there was too much damage to his brain and that he would never come out of it.  There was no way I could talk to anyone, so I sent out a text to family and friends awaiting the news that he would not make it.  I explained to my son that we would have to let him go, and we both cried most of the way back home.  On the way, I put a call into my vet to find out what he wanted to me to do, and he was out of the office that day.  The staff told me to bring him in and leave him.  They were only doing their jobs, but there was no way I was going to just leave Mojo there!  I called my mother, who is always there for me when I need her, and she told me not to give up on him.  I decided that I would take him home and let him see his best friend, Jake, and then wait to hear from my vet.  That way if he was going to pass away, he would be at home with the people and dog he loved more than anything and not in some cold vet’s office. 

At home I brought him in and cuddled up on the couch with Mojo and asked my son to bring Jake in.  I will never forget the reaction.  Nearly comatose and only able to open his eyes, Mojo saw Jake and his nose twitched and his ears perked up, and I could tell that he was still in there.  I sat with him for a few hours until the vet called and I told him of the progress.  By then he could slightly move his head, but that was it.  I told the vet about Mojo’s reaction when he saw Jake, and the vet agreed that I should not give up on him.  Right at that very moment Mojo licked his lips!  Something we all take for granted, but a huge moment.  Hours later Mojo could almost sit up and his legs would still paddle a bit, but he was slowly making progress.  My vet explained that he given him so much medication to stop the seizing that he now had to get those medications out of his system.  He was nearly overdosed trying to save his life.   Later in the afternoon the vet suggested that I try to feed him.  Well, he couldn’t stand up and was barely coherent, so I was shocked when he dove for the canned food making a big mess out of everything, but I didn’t care!  Happy Birthday to me – Mojo’s going make it!

It would take days for him to come out of the drugs completely and a week for him to be able to walk normally without stumbling.  It took months for the hair on his 4 shaved legs and half shaven neck to grow back.  In January I decided I would go head and enter him in a show just for fun.  He still had shorter hair in spots, but he was able to win the breed and a group 4 on the tough Rose City Classic weekend. 

Mojo and Jake are still the best of friends, and I think Mojo is rather thankful to Jake for saving his life!!!  I wrote this story because I thought that people needed to know just what the medications the vets give them to save their lives can do to them.  In the meantime, don’t give up on them too soon.  Had I followed the emergency vet’s recommendations, Mojo would not be with us. 

Christy Marley ~ Proud owner of “Mojo” Ch. Dragon Lair Wildrose Mojo Risin