My GusGus <3

Last night around 9pm GusGus, my french bulldog, started acting "weird". He seemed like he was uncomfortable and his belly looked really full and it was hard to touch; so I figured he just had a belly ache and he'd get better. After about an hour of him still seeming uncomfortable, we have him some Pepto Bismol hoping it would help his belly and he could relax. He seemed to calm down a little with the Pepto so we went to bed, of course he was by my side in bed so I could make sure he was ok. Before we went to sleep he was worrying me cause he was breathing heavily, fast, and seemed short of breath. I woke up to him crying and whining around 3:30am and woke up my fiancé so we could both make sure he was ok. I called an emergency vet clinic in Murfreesboro and the lady who answered the phone didn't seem too bothered by his symptoms and said we could bring him if we wanted to. I called my Mom and woke her up to ask her opinion... She didn't seem too worried either and told us to wait until 6 to make a decision. I took him out to use the bathroom and he just sat there looking at me, when we came back inside he got in his crate & he wouldn't come out. I stayed up with him until about 7 and he seemed somewhat more comfortable in his crate so I moved his crate into the bedroom and went back to sleep for a little while, still in and out of sleep making sure he was still breathing. Rachel woke me up at 8:30 saying we had to take him to the vet, his back legs were limp and not moving, he wasn't walking or anything. We jumped in the car and went to the vet, they told us they thought he had a ruptured disc in his back and advised us to take him to a bigger facility in Brentwood. We get to Brentwood and they tell us that it is a ruptured disc and that we have two choices: 1) take him home, put him on morphene for 10-14 days and keep him on muscle relaxers and pain pills for 6-8 weeks and see if he gets better. BUT, if we do that, if he gets worse then we'll have to go ahead and so surgery anyways and at that point he may only have a 20% chance of fully recovering. Option 2) Put him in emergency surgery, he'll have a 90% chance of full recovery, and a 6-8 week recovery time frame. Of course this is a no brainer, we opt for option 2... This came with a price tag of $3500-$4000!!! Eeekkkkk! Thank God my parents helped us out being we had to put EIGHTY % down today! He went into surgery and we waited at the office while he was going through surgery. The surgeon met us with and told us surgery went smooth and he did really well! Thank God. He told us we couldn't see him for at least 5 hours so we decided to come home for the evening and let him rest. I will head back there first thing tomorrow morning to see him and make sure he's doing ok. He has to stay there for at least 3 nights and then be can come home. They say it will be 6-8 weeks before he starts walking on his own again. Today has been extremely emotional and hard for both me and Rachel (my fiancé) and our parents as well. I'm so proud of my little boy, he's so strong and I cannot wait to see him in the morning! I am so grateful for everyone in my life who helped me get through today and sent prayers and good thoughts GusGus' way. Still praying that my baby will have an easy recovery! <3 I love you GusGus <3

We called the vet office to check up on him and she sent us a picture of him after we hung up with her! I love her for that! So glad he is doing ok!!

My sweet baby <3