Yasmin let out a scream when she came home to find her dog motionless and a horrific scene she can’t get out of her mind
The family prepared to say their goodbyes to their beloved pet (Image: Yasmin Hadfield)
A woman screamed in shock as she came home to a “scene of devastation”, finding her dog motionless and bleeding profusely. Yasmin Hadfield, 32, came home after popping out quickly to find her nine-year-old whippet, Boo, had collapsed after covering the house in bloody diarrhoea.
At first, Yasmin thought the house may have been broken into before letting out a scream as she saw her beloved pet seconds from death. Boo was actually experiencing a life-threatening bout of a disorder known as Acute Haemorrhagic Diarrhoea Syndrome (AHDS).
Yasmin, mum to five-year-old Wolf and a content creator with nearly one million followers, said: “The house was like something out of a film set, it was just a scene of total devastation. Just thinking about it now makes me shudder and I’ll never forget the terrible smell. I could smell it from outside before I’d even opened the front door.
“I can’t get it out of my mind. It was truly horrific.” Never miss a Swansea story by signing up to our newsletter here
With it being 5pm, the family’s usual vets was closed so Yasmin scooped Boo up in her arms and rushed from her home in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, to the Vets Now out-of-hours pet clinic in Swansea.
The family have had Boo since she was a puppy (Image: Yasmin Hadfield)
Boo was rushed into a treatment room with principal veterinary surgeon, Lorna Joseph, who said that if Yasmin had waited before bringing her to the vets, then it was “very likely that Boo would not have made it.”
Yasmin’s husband, Lee, was getting on a long haul flight when he was told of the news that Boo was at the vets and she may not pull through. Anticipating the worst, Lee sent a video message saying his goodbyes to the family dog.
The whippet was hardly responsive, not even able to lift her head, losing large amounts of blood. With a heart rate of 210 beats per minute, she was dangerously close to going into cardiac arrest.
Lorna was helped by a team of nurses who worked to help save Boo’s life as it was apparent that she may not make it.
Lorna said: “I had our brilliant nurses working with me: one was putting in an intravenous catheter, one was giving Boo oxygen and one was applying a heated blanket to her body because she was extremely cold.
“Everything was happening simultaneously, and Boo was in hypovolemic shock which happens when very quick loss of blood or fluid reduces the oxygen supplied to a dog’s vital organs like the brain, heart and lungs.
“We took Yasmin in to see Boo in the treatment area and because Boo was in such a serious state we had to ask Yasmin whether she would want us to perform CPR or not if Boo’s heart stopped.”
It was an emotional time for everyone, with the vet and nurses’ eyes welling up as Boo’s machines that she was hooked up to began to flicker as her owner came into the room.
After six hours of intensive care at Vets Now, Boo was able to stand with some help and showed signs of a “marked improvement.”
Luckily for Boo she was able to make a speedy recovery after such a horrific and scary time for the family and after overnight care and observation the following day, Yasmin was able to take her home.
Boo is back to her energetic self (Image: Yasmin Hadfield)
Yasmin said: “I sat up with her all night, there was no way I could have even tried to go to sleep myself. In the morning I fed her a little bit of chicken which she took and digested, and I guess that’s the minute I realised for sure that we weren’t going to lose her.
“I’d never heard of AHDS before this and I don’t think many dog owners have – so the main thing I want to do is raise awareness of this syndrome so that people know it exists and know that if they get help straight away there can be hope – even in a terrible situation like this when it looks like there’s no hope at all.
“And Lee, Wolf and I are just so incredibly grateful to Lorna and her amazing team for everything they did. They never gave up on Boo and they were so, so kind to me as well as Boo that I get quite emotional just talking about it.
“Boo is part of our family and they got her back to us, which we’ll never, ever, forget – especially because that moment when I went into the treatment room, I honestly thought that was me saying my goodbyes to Boo and that we’d never see her again.”