When life threw us and our spaniel a curveball

If you have followed my Instagram account you will see that I planned to launch my blog once I had added all my past projects, however I have now decided that full posts will come in time and what is there will be completed in the fullness of time. Now is the time to launch my blog when I have some public thank yous to take care of.

This is a personal post and having read all about ‘how to blog’ I realise personal to some may not be seen as the ‘correct thing’ to do, however I am human, this blog is about my life and projects in the woods so this site will be launched with a personal story that I hope will provide hope and comfort for anyone in a similar situation.

This time last week our happy woodland life was rocked when our ‘furbaby’ became desperately unwell. If you know me or you’ve read my about page you’ll realise that this little furball is our first ‘child’, he’s hugely important to us and integral to our life here. The symptoms were worrying; a young, fit cocker spaniel was suddenly in huge discomfort.

A visit to our vet followed and he was sent home with what was a suspected tummy upset and prescribed some medication and lots of care and he would be better soon. Unfortunately, things deteriorated and he took a worrying turn, he was suddenly unable to walk and his breathing became fast then laboured. It was a bank holiday weekend so to call the vet again would incur a high cost, however this didn’t matter, we could tell he needed to be seen by a professional and fast. It was then our local wonder vets took over; Digby was examined and tests were taken but our boy had the vets completely stumped. We live in the woods so of course, it had to be a natural poison he’d picked up, or perhaps he’d picked up a nasty bug from his outdoor life… they just didn’t know.

As the country enjoyed their bank holiday weekends, we cursed the fact that he couldn’t be referred out of business hours and any further tests would need to be done at a referral centre, however they couldn’t take him as there was no-one to run the tests over the holiday, so all we could do was wait.

The first thank you goes to our local vet at Pierson Stewart & Partners. An on call vet took unbelievable care of Digby and even vets who were not on duty over the weekend rallied to help work out what was wrong. They kept him going and they let my OH visit and comfort our boy when it probably wasn’t ideal for them.

The bank holiday ended and on Tuesday the referral was made. By early Wednesday morning Digby was at North Downs Specialist Referrals. We had an appointment at 10am but such was the emergency, this incredible place said they’d see him immediately. Within 12 hours further tests were done and an MRI discovered a ruptured disc in his neck, we then had a chat with the neurologist who would be performing the operation to answer our questions and to explain the next steps to us. These people are professionals, but the care and attention we received was second to none. By the end of Thursday Digby had come out of surgery and by Friday he was walking again and home by 6pm.

There simply aren’t enough words to express the gratitude we feel to those who “fixed” our furbaby. Not only are we grateful for having him home but also the level of care he received from both practices. Despite the bank holiday, the swift professionalism, information and care we received was incredible.

All of this care obviously comes at a huge price but so often I hear about the colossal cost of pet care rather than the care and services provided. We have a long road of rehabilitation ahead of us and some adjustments to make but we have our boy home and he has had the best start in his recovery thanks to those who have looked after him this past week. He is now the Weald’s most expensive dog as well as having the silliest hair cut ever but my goodness are we pleased to have him home!

Thank you Pierson Stewart & Partners and North Downs Specialist Referrals.

{Photographs by Lyndsey Goddard}