As some have already deduced there was a bit of a scare with the babies yesterday. Wednesday night they didn't finish their dinner and Hunter(white) in particular stopped first and took himself off to lay down which is uncharacteristic. The next morning they still didn't eat everything and Hunter, while he was running and playing, it was with less exuberance than usual. 
I noticed at about 10am that there was some diarrhea in the pen but had no way of knowing who it belonged to. Then at about 11am I noticed that Hunter was trying to vomit. Alarm bells began to ring. I checked on them frequently then just before 2pm I went in to feed them to find white foam vomit in several places in the puppy pen. I let them out and although they were playing it was not the usual naughty play I am accustomed to. 
Hunter then pooped very runny poop and so did Elsa(maroon). Archer had regular poop which finished with runny poop. So it was spreading through the litter as it would of course. Alarms rang constantly in my head. Hunter did try to eat from Halo but threw it up a few minutes later and declined quickly. He went off on his own to sleep and began to shiver. I called the vet, made and appointment for that afternoon and called my mom. Of course I'd call my mom!
She said vet him which was already in the works and while on the phone with her I prepared his crate, put in the heating pad and popped him inside with a towel to cover him. After getting off the phone with my mom I checked his temperature - 37.2 degrees - very low for a puppy. I checked on him several times while waiting for the clock to tick toward my appointment time. The heat seemed to improve his state and he was responding more to attention. I picked out Elsa, because she also had the runny poop, and popped her in the crate with him for company. I also took a sample of Elsa's poop with me knowing they'd want to test it. 
They were silent on the way to the vet and every moment after that. The vet checked his hydration, announced him dehydrated(which I knew of course) and then went to test the fecal sample. She came back with good news, or as good as one could hope. The puppies were experiencing an overgrowth of cocci which has upset their tummies, caused an imbalance of bacteria in their intestines and was making them sick. 
An adult dog can fight off something like this no problem, maybe some runny poop for a day, possibly off their food but ultimately it would be attributed to a minor bug and be gone in less than 24 hours. For a 5 week old puppy, unless you treat it, it can be deadly. Vomiting, diarrhea, cold ... lethal combination for a baby. 
So poor little Hunter had 60ml of fluid injected sub-cutaneously(which he really didn't like) and a shot of penicillin(which he liked even less) and I was given a prescription for liquid Amoxicillin. The vet told me to inject each puppy sub-q with 60ml of fluid 3 or 4 times a day. Uh.
Okaaaaaaay. How exactly am I supposed to do that ... alone? It took two of us to do one puppy and she had to stab him 4 times and inject 15ml at a time. I have to do that up to 28 times a day? Good thing I'm unemployed. 
So I headed home and by the time I got in and let all the puppies out so I could start their antibiotics Hunter was much improved and although he wanted to sleep sooner than the rest of the puppies(of course, it was a big damn day for him) he was much more perky. The good thing is that they love the medication and line up for more! 
At about 9:30pm I let them out again for their last play and dinner and it was like a miracle had occurred. They were much more active, Hunter was a different puppy from that morning and they were ready to eat. Especially Hunter! He was hungry!
So today they are back on track and we have pretty much normal poops this morning. They were eager for breakfast and ate every bite. I put in extra water so as to possibly avoid fighting with the sub-q injections and unless they take a turn for some strange reason I may not have to employ it. Small miracles. Weasley is probably not celebrating much since they have discovered he is fun to chase and harrass ... 
No comments:
Post a Comment