How Fido Fleece Helped Save My Dog's Life

It's hard to believe a simple Fido Fleece dog coat could mean the difference between life and death.

Dexter, my one-eyed dog, has had some amazing adventures. One of the scariest just happened about 2 weeks ago.

I was getting ready to go to bed one night, and Dexter got up from his dog bed in my bedroom, took a few steps, and threw up.

"Dexter!" I yelled, "Outside!"

I thought that he must have just had some indigestion, as dogs often do. I was immediately fretting about the mess I'd have to clean up. Little did I know that in a few hours, Dexter would be fighting for his life.

I rushed Dexter downstairs and my wife put him outside. She immediately noticed that he couldn't go down the steps to the yard. He just stood there, looking as though he was going to fall over. She called him back inside.

When he got back in, he threw up again. Then his whole body shook, and his legs collapsed. He fell unconscious, and I barely caught him before he hit the tile floor.

For the next two hours, I sat next to him as he went in and out of consciousness. Sometimes he struggled to his feet, but couldn't stay up for long. He drank a little water, but couldn't keep it down either.

I made a makeshift bed for Dexter in the kitchen, and checked on him throughout the night.

From Bad to Worse

The next morning, we took Dexter to the vet as soon as they opened. They didn't know what it was, but it was serious. He could barely walk, and was constantly shivering.

After a few tests, they discovered that Dexter's liver and kidneys were close to failure. He had either been poisoned or had caught a disease called. They shaved his abdomen and took x-rays, did an ultrasound and took blood samples. It would take several days to get the tests back, but he was in worse shape than a typical Lepto case. He was bleeding internally in his abdomen, and had lost almost a third of his blood.

The vet gave him almost no chance of making it through the night. They asked me if I wanted to put him to sleep. With all that Dexter and I had been through, I couldn't bear to do it.

"See what you can do," I said, "He's a fighter."

I went home that night without him, and I laid awake staring over at his empty bed.

The next morning I was at the vet's office the moment they opened. I didn't know if Dexter was still alive, and I peered into the eyes of the front desk clerk as she readied the clinic for the day, hoping for a hint of news.

The vet came out.

"He's still with us," she said, "but barely."

Cautiously, I walked back to his kennel. He lay under a giant pile of blankets, shivering uncontrollably. His body was freezing cold from the loss of blood. A technician put a hot water bottle under him to try to keep him warm.

"He needs a blood transfusion," she warned, "or he's not going to last long. He may not make it anyway, but that may give him a fighting chance."

I told her to do everything she could. Before I left, I told Dexter that I would be seeing him that evening, and that he had to stay alive so the kids could see him too.

At work, I had a hard time concentrating. I constantly wondered how Dexter was doing, and thought of him shivering in his kennel.

A Surprise Donor

When I got off work, I raced to the clinic. Dexter was still alive, and looked a little better.

"I couldn't find any donors," the vet informed me, "but we found a way. My black lab is back at home with orange juice and crackers."

She smiled.

"Thank you," I said, astonished. I didn't know what else to say.

Over the next few days, Dexter slowly stabilized. By Saturday, he had to be sent home. The clinic wasn't open on Sundays, so even though he wasn't out of the woods, he couldn't stay there.

My wife and kids went to pick him up and pay the bill (there goes our kids college fund). When she got him home, he was shivering uncontrollably. No matter how many blankets we piled on, he was still cold.

She called me and told me that he didn't look good, and seemed to be fading. I ran over to the Baxter Boo warehouse, and looked around for the warmest, most comfortable thing I could find. I saw the Fido Fleece dog coats, and recalled that our customers seemed to love them. I bought Dexter a size 16BC (broad chest) Fido Fleece dog coat, hoping it would do the trick.

Dexter tried to struggle as I put the Fido Fleece on him, but he didn't have much strength left. It fit perfectly and covered the area where his abdomen had been shaved while he was at the clinic.

Even with the Fido Fleece on him, I still piled the blankets back on top. Within a few minutes, his shivering died down and he fell asleep.

Late that night, I awoke to the sound of Dexter panting laboriously. I got up to check on him and was shocked to find that he was actually now overheating. I took the blankets off, and he stretched a bit before going back to sleep.

The Road to Recovery

The next morning, Dexter was able to get up and walk around some. He couldn't do stairs very well, but his shivering was almost completely gone. Even though he had lost half of his blood and much of his fur had been shaved, the Fido Fleece kept him warm.

He even stayed warm when we let him outside, though we're in the middle of a cold Colorado winter.

Over the past two weeks, Dexter has slowly improved. As I write this, he's finishing off his dinner next to me as I work late in our chilly warehouse, warm and cozy wearing his Fido Fleece dog coat.

We still don't know exactly what suddenly gripped Dexter. The tests, when they eventually came back, were inconclusive. What I do know is that thanks to the kindness of a vet, and a warm fleece dog coat, Dexter is still with us.