Sick Puppy

Hi Everyone! Hope you all had a grand Christmas! Ours was starting pretty good until my daughters puppy had to be rushed to the emergency vet Christmas morning. We had had our Christmas on Christmas Eve with some dear friends and my daughter and her boyfriend.

They had left their new puppy, Lab/Walker Coon hound mix at home because he was not feeling well, they had had him 4 days. They didn't want to bring him for fear that he had something contagious.

They were here about 3 hours then went home; she called and said they were taking him to an emergency vet clinic about 30 miles away. This clinic is open when regular vets aren't....thank goodness for them! The puppy was vomiting, had very bad diarrhea and seemed very depressed. Turns out he has Parvo! and has a 60% chance to pull through.

Wow, this stuff is nasty and can hit a puppy pretty hard in a short time. While at the emergency clinic he was on IV fluids and antibiotics. Yesterday morning, Monday, they took him to their regular vets office. He has improved a little but still not eating. The vomiting and diarrhea have stopped but he is not wanting to eat. He seems somewhat happier, tail wagging and seemed happy to see them last night when they went to see him. However he is not out of danger yet, they will see him tonight again and see how he is doing. They call the vet periodically to check in on him and will see him again tonight.

Hope he pulls through! I have never had a dog with this horrible virus and hope I never do; this is some bad, bad stuff!
Jane

Laverne....

Our little 5 year old Chihuahua, Laverne was diagnosed with Cushings disease this week. This is a picture of her last spring and she is much chubbier this year. She really doesn't have any of the symptoms except the over weight and some hair shedding.

My vet did a blood test to find this, I thought maybe she had hyperthyroidism. That would have been much easier to treat than Chushings.

I have been doing a lot of reading about this disease and it's not good. The meds, well, I'm not in favor of the most popular one, Lysodren, is a chemo type pill that kills some of the adrenal gland and has some harsh side effects. Lysodren has to be really carefully monitored so the dog doesn't get too much of it which and throw them into Addison's disease.

Laverne would have to stay at the vet's probably overnight, have lots of testing, poking with needles. I would have to take her in several times a week and the bloodwork, medicines and trips to the vet would be very, very costly. Laverne is a very sensitive little dog this would highly traumatize her, she sure doesn't need that! Also a specialist is needed to treat this properly and I don't know of any around here; Ohio State University would be the ideal place, except it's 2 and a half hours drive, one way, from here. Not an option.

From what I can find most of the dogs that have Cushings are older dogs, at least 4 to 6 years older than Laverne. Also the research says that they only live two to three years after being diagnosed. I am going to try an herbal remedy on her that has had good response. I am also going to work on feeding all the dogs better. Yes, I mean cooking meals for them, chicken, beef, vegetables, rice, good stuff; even healthy doggie cookies!

It's been a long week and a mental tiring one for me. No riding been way too hot and humid outside ....Gilly and Pokey won't come out of the barn during the day. Flies are eating them up, we are all miserable, thank goodness for AC and the fan in the barn for the boys.

Hoping that next week will be a better one.