I was all ready to write this happy little post about a new puppy in our lives. I was going to tell you that over the weekend I was looking at dogs that were up for adoption at local shelters and rescues because I was really sad and missing my girl Jizzy. I was going to say that I found a beautiful AKC German Shepherd puppy that was only 3 months old looking for a new home. About how we were going to wait until we moved, but something about this puppy spoke to me and I decided to at least fill out the application for her, even though I wasn't sure we were ready (plus, I was pretty sure she would have already been adopted out, being so young and purebred). I would have then told you how surprised I was when the rescue called on Sunday and about how after talking for an hour about the pup, we decided to meet her at my house on Monday afternoon. About how we fell in love with her right away...she is so cute, has ears that could fly her away, and she has a sweet mellow personality. And all those things are true, but something happened to prevent me from writing that post. Our sweet puppy got very very sick. We knew on Monday that she was feeling a little under the weather, she had apparently had a bad reaction to the anesthesia that they gave her for her spay surgery last Friday. So she came with some nausea meds, and not much of an appetite. She ate a little on Tuesday, so we though things were looking up. Wednesday brought us a very sick little girl. She was refusing to eat anything, I even cooked her up chicken breasts, turkey hot dogs and turkey burgers and tried wet and dry dog food....she wouldn't touch any of it. By midday, she was so weak that she didnt even want to walk, and spent about 95% of Wednesday laying on her bed. Definitely not normal 3 month old puppy activities. Wednesday afternoon we took her to the rescue groups vets office because she was failing so fast. Turns out that she had lost 5 pounds in 5 days and the vets were very concerned because thats an awful lot for a little pup. They did xrays, blood work, and various tests, and sent us home with yet more meds and a promise that they would call on Thursday with the results. We still couldn't get her to eat and since she was throwing up so much, we had a hard time keeping her pills down her. We were really worried about her at this point....we had to carry her up and down the stairs, to and from the car, and sometimes help her outside to go potty. It was a sad and scary night for everyone. Thursday morning I started force feeding her with a syringe. It wasn't as bad as it sounds, at least, she didn't really fight me on it. I fed her every hour, a couple syringe fulls of watered down wet dog food. I also got all her pills down her, and at about 4 pm she got up on her own and walked into the kitchen to get a drink of water. By that night, she was even taking a couple bites of cooked chicken breast on her own. It was a turning point for sure, and today she is like a new dog. Full of that puppy energy, chasing the cat, eating on her own, and trying to eat Rowan's underwear :) We are all so pleased (well...not about the undie eating)!! All her blood work came back normal from the vets, the best guess they have is that she had a huge imbalance in her gut bacteria, and that her whole internal system was wonky. It was a strange start to our relationship....I expected her to help heal my sadness but as it turned out....we healed each other <3
Here she is the first night we got her....look at those ears!!
This is my sickness fighting arsenal:
Here she is today....look how skinny the poor girl is :(
Here she is again from today, feeling MUCH more alert:
Isnt she sweet? Her name now is Kayda, thats the name she came with, but we are actively searching for a new one. Now that we can see her personality we may have a better chance of picking a name for her. Although, we did take two weeks to name Mac, so don't hold your breath ;)
Here she is the first night we got her....look at those ears!!
This is my sickness fighting arsenal:
Here she is today....look how skinny the poor girl is :(
Here she is again from today, feeling MUCH more alert:
Isnt she sweet? Her name now is Kayda, thats the name she came with, but we are actively searching for a new one. Now that we can see her personality we may have a better chance of picking a name for her. Although, we did take two weeks to name Mac, so don't hold your breath ;)