From the monthly archives: October 2011

Writes Sender-Inner Clayton R.: “I apologize in advance for the length of this, but it is a great story with a happy ending. We got him on Saturday August 6th. The following day,my girlfriend had to leave for New York. That same morning, he began vomiting and diarrhea. I took him to the emergency clinic, and he tested positive for parvo and a few other things. He weighed 15 pounds that day. The vet wanted $2400 to treat him for 6 days and gave him a 50/50 chance of survival. He recommended putting him down. I called my friend that owns his own veterinarian clinic and he recommended the same thing. I phoned the people who we purchased the puppy from and they said they would give me my money back if I returned him and they will put him down. I decided that I might as well try to save him regardless of what they all said. I took care of him that day by squirting pedialyte in him (orally and enema) every 15 minutes, day and night! The following day was a Monday and I took my week of vacation from work. Thankfully, another vet tech friend of mine agreed to help me by providing some antibiotics and IV’s. I also was able to find a local shop with some homeopathic remedies (Parvaid and Vibracta Plus). I began by giving him the parvaid every 15 minutes the first hour and then every 30 minutes for the rest of the day and night. I kept giving him his antibiotics and meds and trying to keep him hydrated as the IV’s I were to give were for subcutaneous administration. Tuesday, my sister and I brought him to the vet tech and the puppy was so dehydrated that the only place he could get the IV in was directly in his neck (jugular). This was the point where we all thought we would lose him as he was basically lifeless. He didn’t even make a fuss about the needle. We kept him on the IV all that night, but every time he would turn his head, the catheter would get kinked and the IV would stop. My girlfriend returned from out of town on Wednesday night…what a relief! We went back to the vet on Thursday and had them place the IV in his leg. He was also given an injection of antibiotics since he was still throwing up and having very bloody diarrhea. We kept up with this routine until Saturday. Keeping him on a heating pad or in our arms. He began to come around, but then we noticed the paw of the leg with his IV had swollen to 5 times its normal size. We removed the catheter and IV and went back to forcing pedialyte, parvaid, and molasses for his blood sugar orally. Monday, he was looking dehydrated again, despite all of our efforts. The vet tech was unable to place the IV anywhere. We tried again on Tuesday, and the same results. We kept up with giving him fluids every hour. Wednesday, the vet tech didn’t give up until the IV was placed. What a relief! Jax, the puppy, did make some noise about the needle this time. He weighed 10 pounds at this point and you could count every rib and vertebrae. The vet tech also loaned us a pump for the IV since his veins were so far gone. Jax started to come around that night. We purchased some plain yogurt, cottage cheese, raw beef liver and baby foods. He ate a little bit of the raw liver and licked the other stuff. We were super excited! The following days he would eat a little more each time. Every time he needed to go out, we would have to stop the pump, unwrap and disconnect the IV, take him out, flush the IV, reconnect and rewrap. It may have been all of this movement of the catheter, because we noticed his IV leg (in his shoulder/armpit area) had a huge amount of fluid under the skin (a scary amount). The pump had pumped it under his skin as it was out of the vein. Once again, we removed the catheter and IV and let the swelling subside. Once the IV was out for a day, he began drinking on his own. He had developed a secondary bacterial infection and his white blood cell count was through the roof. He had large amounts of mucas and was coughing like he had pneumonia. We placed him in his crate, covered it with a sheet and placed a humidifier in there to help break up the stuff in his lungs. We also tapped/cupped each side of his body every so often to help break it up. The vet tech gave us some drops for his nose and eyes to treat the infection and recommended to stop using the humidifier. After a couple of days, he was starting to walk around and really show some life. We then started oral administration of the strongest antibiotic we could give a puppy that size. The coughing finally stopped and the snotty nose dried up. We were still giving him pedialyte and parvaid orally every two hours at this point, because he was not drinking enough. After a week he was eating and drinking on his own, playing with his toys a bit and would walk to the neighbor’s house. He slept most of the time, but every day he did something new. He wags his tail a lot and gives us lots of kisses. We are giving him high calorie foods and put prebiotics/probiotics on the food to help his digestive system. He is fully recovered now and is sooo happy! We treated the yard with hydrated lime, but were unable to water it into the yard due to the water rationing in effect here (had not rained in forever). The following morning, it rained hard and took care of it for us. Sometimes, you just have to do a little hard work and God will take over from there.”