Hypochondria-Google Connection

With Toby’s wrist, skin tab, ear infection, sliced lip, and tummy ache each a thing of the past, I began to relax.

Until Friday night, when my unlucky Lab had to stop playing with his favorite red ball because he was coughing so hard he could not breathe. Even the girls knew something was amiss, following me inside the house without complaint; Leah abandoning her squirrel hunting for another day; Meadow voluntarily entering her crate instead of trying to shove her way out as I closed the door.

A steep vet bill on the horizon, I left the kitchen to retrieve my pocketbook, and when I returned, I realized Toby had stopped coughing and appeared to be breathing fine. Hmmmm…maybe the emergency vet can wait? I asked him to lie on his mat, so I could take a breath and make a decision.

Landing on his side with a heavy thud, he began to gag. Worried, I grabbed his leash to lead him out to the car, but as soon as he sat up, the coughing ceased.

Indecisive, I stood, waiting.

When the coughing did not resume and his labored breathing normalized, I decided to wait and see. After losing one dog and two cats suddenly and at relatively young ages, I have developed a bad habit of rushing my animals to the vet for every minor scrape and spending money that could be better used – just to reassure myself that they aren’t about to keel over.

After deciding to hold off on the e-vet, I went online to read about possible causes of coughing canines. In the past, I ‘worried’ that Toby had bone cancer, ‘strongly felt’ he had canine hip dysplasia, and was ‘quite certain’ he had Cushing’s Disease. (In my defense, what I thought was Cushing’s turned out to be a very rare, and very bizarre disorder, Psychogenic Polydipsia. Quite literally, Toby nearly drank himself to death.)

My misdiagnoses aren’t limited to just Toby, however. Meadow’s 'bladder tumor' turned out to be ordinary muscle weakness, Whisker’s 'hypothyroidism' turned out to be just an overweight, grumpy cat, and Leah’s 'jealous aggression' when we adopted Toby, turned out to be hypothyroidism.

A vet I am not – but a worrier I am.

Lately, I have felt that Toby is aging too fast. His muzzle is graying. His immune system seems to be faltering, judging by the four month long ear infection. He gets out of breath during play far easier than he did when he was younger – a concern I have been blaming on his lack of exercise during the two months that his wrist was mending.

By the time Nick returned home from work on Friday night, it wasn’t all that shocking that I had diagnosed Toby with Cardiomyopathy – an enlarged heart, a disease for which there is no cure. Worse, I blamed myself for missing the signs.

Through guarded tears, I rattled off facts to my husband. Common in Labradors. Usually strikes males, between the ages of 5 and 10. Symptoms include exercise intolerance (see above) and night restlessness. (Since a little before Christmas, Toby has developed a bad habit of circling and crying and digging at the floor at around three in the morning – for no determinable reason.) But the biggest symptom of Cardiomyopathy, and the one that usually gets owners to take notice, is exercise induced coughing.

And once the coughing sets in, the dog is on death’s door.

I spent the night crying, and at his regular vet the next day, when the doctor announced, “His heart rate is a little low, so I want to do an x-ray just to be sure,” I sat in the exam room, sniffling, and preparing for the worst. As much of a pain in the rear that Toby has been over the years, he is my pain in the rear, and I couldn’t imagine a day without him checking the counters for food, stealing my slippers, sneaking up on the sofa, or refusing to come when called.

As it turns out, Toby’s heart is fine - although I think mine aged ten times on Saturday. His vet thinks he may have a mild case of kennel cough – you know – the common cold. He has to stay out of school for ten days, take some antibiotics, and should be as good as new by next week.

So, unless I want to spend the rest of my days converting colds into cancer over the internet, I think it is time I stop using Google. Don’t you?