Canine Tetanus: the battle is real

I've learned something that I think is important for all dog parents to know.

About three weeks ago our chocolate lab, Nani, ate a fish hook she found on a river bank. The smell of the salmon eggs that were still on the discarded hook lured her to it, just as they were meant to do for a fish. The hook became lodged in the back of her tongue and needed to be surgically removed. 

After removal the vet sent us home with pain medication, but nothing for bacteria or infection. We thought it odd and even questioned it, asking if tetanus should be a concern. We were told dogs don't get tetanus.

About a week later Nani developed a foot injury, out of the blue, with no apparent accident. She was hobbling and limping, standing on three legs whenever she could. It perplexed us, but after a few days we thought it was getting better. 

It had only just begun. 

That weekend she threw up multiple times. She also stopped eating. Worried, we took her back to the vet. After running several tests they found nothing of immediate concern, they said. We asked again if tetanus was a possibility because of the fish hook, and once again, were told dogs don't get tetanus. They gave us medication for nausea and more pain killers.

That Monday her ears began to stand up in a pointed, flexed position, like she was on alert. Her lips were pulled back as if she was smiling, and she was breathing as if she had just gone for a run. Her jaw became tense and had bulges on the side like a pit bull. She was uncoordinated and walking into things, unable to jump in the car or on the bed, as she usually does with no effort. She still refused to eat or drink. 

We had had enough.

The next morning we took her back to the vet and demanded answers. With the series of odd behaviors and appearances, we knew that something was wrong, very wrong. 

We were right. 

On that visit, one of the vets finally decided to explore the possibility that the impossible was possible. She consulted a well-respected neurologist in Portland and after the consultation was 100 percent convinced that Nani had tetanus. In 50 years of practice, the vet said, they have never seen a case of it. There is a 1 in 500,000 chance a dog develops it, they told us. They didn't even keep the anti-toxins needed to fight it at the clinic.

They quickly began to search for what they needed for treatment. 

If untreated, death was a guarantee. And she was only days away. Her locked jaw, immovable muscles (her leg), pointed ears, stretched lips, lack of coordination—were all symptoms of the disease, which had two weeks to attack her neurons as we shuffled her back and forth to the vet. Her body was losing the receptors that told her muscles to move, and, eventually, would have attacked her lungs and stopped her from breathing.  

For the next 10 days she was hospitalized, in critical condition for most of the time. 

Treatment was intense. She had catheters, IVs, and a feeding tube sutured into her neck that ran into her stomach. She had daily seizures throughout her first week, as her muscles were infiltrated by the toxin that was still in her system. The anti-toxin only killed what had not yet been absorbed, the rest she had to fight on her own. She wasn't able to walk on her own until day six. 

The entire clinic worked around the clock to save her, all the while learning how to combat the disease with their first tetanus patient ever.

During her hospitalization there was not a day we slept through the night. Every time the phone rang we panicked, thinking the worst. Once we had to rush to the clinic not knowing if it was the end. It has been an awful experience from start to finish. 

Today we are delighted to bring her home. In the upcoming weeks she will need daily at-home physical therapy to relearn things like eating, jumping, and turning. We will continue injecting her medications and liquid food through her feeding tube for the next week, every four hours. She still doesn't have enough control of her tongue and throat to swallow solids.

I have seen first-hand how invasive and detrimental tetanus is; now wonder humans get a vaccine for it. 

Every dog owner should know that this possibility is very real, no matter how rare it may be. After learning more then I've ever wanted to know about tetanus, come to find out, there is a vaccine for dogs, it's just not used very often. I wish I would have known that the day she ate the fish hook.

I tell this story in hopes that I can remind other dog parents that you know your dog best. You know when something is wrong. Follow your gut. Ask questions. Tell details that seem insignificant. Be persistent. Everything helps. We must speak for our dogs when they cannot speak for themselves.

This was a battle to the death, and we are extremely lucky Nani won, but she needed us to help her do it.