my bichon is the love of my life. she was a birthday present when i was in the SIXTH GRADE, and i'm…read morecurrently in medical school. she's a sweetheart and loves to cuddle, and when my baby stopped eating and drinking, and started coughing rapidly, suddenly, and spitting up blood, i legitimately thought she was dying. i was scared she wouldn't last the night, especially when AV diagnosed her with pulmonary edema secondary to mitral valve prolapse due to congestive heart failure. her murmur was so loud, you didn't even need a stethoscope to hear it.
i spent the night with her and the next morning, her prognosis was poor at best. with my mom overseas, and my sister off to college, i was constantly crying, fearful i would have to put her down by myself, without any warning this was going to happen so soon. i wasn't ready to lose my favorite family member yet.
dr. conlin saved nina's life. it's honestly a miracle that my 15-year-old pup is still alive with such advanced CHF, but she's alive BECAUSE OF DR. CONLIN. he stayed up with her for two 12-hour overnight shifts in a row, constantly monitoring her, while i was commuting to and from west virginia, which is an hour away, to take care of both nina and my studies. he kept me updated every hour basically lol and never was annoyed when i called to check-in no matter how often and even called me sometimes with both food and bad news.
dr. conlin and his team are not overly optimistic, don't get me wrong. they were almost too honest the entire process, which i appreciated. i don't think being lied to that your dog is going to survive when her medical providers know she will not is the best way to say goodbye to your best friend, so i was ecstatic when he called informing me that he was wrong about her prognosis and he thinks she might have another week or 6 months with me who knows. the bottom line is they saved her life for the time being, and that's more than good enough for us right now given her critical condition upon admission.
this facility is more than accommodating to their clients, more than reasonable regarding price, and their vets truly care about their patients. the process of transferring nina from the overnight hospital to the day hospital was extremely streamlined, and the entire process was as early for me as it could've possibly been. i thanks tou from the bottom of my heart, dr. conlin, for giving us a little more time together.
if i could give this place 10 stars out of 5 i would. she went from peeing air, stumbling around in circles due to delirium, and literally vomiting blood to drinking water and wagging her tail and laying in her bed and eating for the first time in nearly five days because of these miracle workers. i hope i can be as good as a doctor as these vets when i'm older. they saved her life. her prognosis was "poor" on her charts and she made it. i can't believe it im so proud of her for fighting through the night and so thankful she had a great team fighting with her the whole time.
