Meathead

He is improving.

It is slow, but he is pulling back from "the brink" we so terribly feared just 2 weeks ago.

This past Friday I took him back to the Emergency Vet for a repeat chest xray.  My son met me there.  The xray showed improvement - the shadow over one lobe of his lung was receding.  The vet could see more heart and lung than before.  She could see more inflation of the lung.  That finding along with his general increased energy means that the antibiotics are making a difference.  They are leaning away from lung torsion as a diagnosis (exceedingly good news) and towards a deep seeded pneumonia.  His symptoms for pneumonia are considered atypical - so the vet cannot be definitive on her diagnosis.

No matter, he looks and feels better.  He will continue on his antibiotics for another 2 weeks and another xray will be done.

He is an old bully.  Age range for English Bull Dogs is 8 to 10 years.  He is 10.  And he is no stranger to many near-death experiences.  My daughter and I still vividly remember the time he chocked on food, stopped breathing, lips and tongue turned blue, and he collapsed.  She and I had minutes to turn the situation around.  The Heimlick Maneuver is very hard to perform on a stocky bull dog.  But adrenaline is a mighty "drug" and sticking my hand clear down his throat didn't hurt either.  He survived.

I suspect he will be on antibiotics for a long time.

It is a reminder that nothing lasts forever.  I will take every beautiful moment I have with this deeply loved bully and treasure it because "the brink" isn't gone forever either.