Rosco- the oh so adorable puppy that Denver and I have now had the pleasure of owning for almost 4 days- has put us through quite the rollercoaster already.
To start off with, we just thought he was a tired puppy. As I mentioned in the prior blog, he slept all the time, with small itnervals of playtime. The first night we brought him home, he slept from 10 p.m to 6 a.m.- we figured this a miracle for a 6 week old, un-potty trained puppy.
As he began to sleep more and more, on Monday, he got a bad case of diarrhea. I researched diarrhea in puppies and saw that this is very common for a young, recently relocated pup. They're scared of the new home, new faces, and miss their mom and familiar scents. There's a parasite in all dogs called Coccidia that when they're stressed, it'll flare up and cause them to have diarrhea. I was familiar with this, so I let it be.
Denver kept texting me while I was at work telling me it was getting worse and worse.
I eventually called a vet to ask their opinion, and they told me the same thing I hasd researched. They told me so long as he's still eating and staying hydrated and not throwing up, to not worry about it unless it persists for 3 days.
I got home just after 5, and he was as sleepy as could be. Once 6 rolled around, he started to throw up. And when I say start, I do not include stopping. Within that hour, our poor 5 lb, 6 week old puppy had thrown up probably 20 times. He got to the point where he couldn't walk or drink on hs own, so Denver and I wrapped him in a towel and rushed him to the pet E.R.
It was the saddest sight I had ever seen. Every time he threw up I just started to cry. I hated seeing him in such obvious pain.
Once we finally got our own room, an assistant came in to check his temperature. She stuck the thermometer right up his bum and he didn't even move or open his eyes. His temperature was normal at least.
By the time the vet came in she said we had to test him for the Parvo virus. I had read about this disease online in my earlier research and hearing that word made me fall apart. It's a disease where the pup dies of dehydration because they can't stop throwing up and having diarrhea. The diagnosis is practically fatal, considering the treatment is $1,500, and at that- the chances of survival are still slim. Denver and I sat in the room just crying, waiting for the results to come back. That was a long 1o minutes... When she came back, she said the results were negative. I out loud thanked God, but I was too soon. She followed that with, "But I don't trust the results. It's not uncommon that we'll get false negatives early in the disease. Everything I'm seeing from this puppy is telling me he has Parvo." What a rude false confidence she gave us with that gap in phrases...
She told us Parvo has an incubation period of 7-14 days, and we had only had him for 2.5. If he truly had Parvo, the other pups should too, so Denver called the seller to ask if she had heard anything. She was completely suprised saying she hadn't, and that she would call the other new owners to check in. She also offered to refund the money we bought him for if he didn't make it. I did not want that money back for that precise reason... He had to make it...
The vet gave Rosco a de-wormer and a shot of fluids and sent us home with 3 medications, 2 cans of liquid dog food, directions to feed him rice or oatmeal with chicken broth, and syringes to try to force him to drink water.
We went home scared to death for our new puppy. It is insane how quickly he burrowed into our hearts... Den and I were just falling apart, trying to remain optimistic.
We got him home and gave him the first doses of two of the medications and made him some rice. It was amazing how quickly he perked up. He started to walk around, trying to play, but he looked drunk, unable to walk straight and avoid obstacles. None the less- he was trying. He gobbled up the rice Denver made him and went potty outside right after. To our utter joy, it wasn't diarrhea. It definitely wasn't the most solid thing, but comparitively, it was so much healthier looking. He also kept the rice and medication down- no throwing up.
We pampered him and assured each other he would be alright. I can't say we really went to bed... We both took turns watching him and playing with him when he tried to play with us. I'd say Den and I got about 4-5 hours of sleep.
I made him rice in the morning, but he would only eat a few bites and walk away. I'd put him by his water dish, and he'd walk away. Things weren't looking as good as the night before. I took him out to go potty, and he was back to diarrhea. Twice that morning it hit him, and it was just as bad as the night before. I started to panic, assuming we would have another day like the one prior, knowing we were lucky he lived through it once. His littly body couldn't take another series of that pain.
We kept a close eye on him and fed him the liquid dog food they had sent us home with. Luckily he really dug that stuff- he would voluntarily drink it all right from the syringe. We couldn't get him to drink any water, but so long as he was taking the liquid food, we knew he was at least keeping hydrated.
Denver called the seller once more to inquire what she found out. She said all of the new puppy owners reported nothing but healthy, happy pups. This meant it should not be Parvo, otherwise the other puppies would also be sick. We crossed our fingers hoping this confirmed it was some otehr bgu we could fix.
By the time the 2nd round of mediations rolled around for the day, we made him some fresh rice, and he perked right up and ate it and played with us. He stayed up for an impressive amount of the rest of the day, playing with us and chewing on whatever he could get a hold of.
He didn't poop for teh rest of the day or night, which was really weirding me out, but boy was he peeing. I don't even know how many times he peed yesterday... And they would come rapidly in multiple times- like 4 in a row within 10 minutes- and a decent amount every time, too- not nice little dime size puddles... Once I'd finish cleaning up one spot, there'd be another new one to get to. Denver put him on the bed for 2 minutes, and in that time he managed to pee... Needless to say, as happy as I was last night that he was doing better last night, I was pretty exhausted and frustrated with my puppy who finally started to behave like a puppy.
I weighed him and he was at 5.6 lbs last night compared to the 4 lbs he was at the vet. Nice to see he's holding down what we're giving him. It was when I weighed him and had to weigh myself in the process that I discovered I'd lost almost 6 lbs in the flurry of stress..
I did my best to wear him out before I went to bed at 10 last night, but he still woke up at 12 whining having to pee. And then 2. and then 4. and then 6. And every time he would be wide awake after, wanting to play. The first time, I (somewhat) happily took him otuside and took him in and played him with for 30 minutes until he fell back to sleep. I put him in his kennel and followed suit. When he woke up at 2, I took him out to pee, then played with him, but very tiredly and not so happily. At 4, I took him out, brought him inside, and while he ran around wearing himself out, I fell asleep on the living room floor. Denver came home early not feeling good and found me on the floor. He sent me to bed while he tired the pup out. At 6 when he woke up whining, I honestly don't remember if I or Denver took him out that time... I think Denver did. He did not, however, wait until he tired out again and put him in the kennel to whine. Denver was feeling bad and tired enough he could sleep through the whining, but I'm not a deep sleeper in the least, so in my frustration, I grabbed my pillow and a blanket and slept on the floor in the living room while he ran around until I had to get for work at 7.
I sort of got ready... threw on an outfit, tried to straighten the crazy parts of my hair, brushed my teeth, and spent the rest of my time wirh Rosco. I made him more rice (that he did eat this time- Denver gave me a hard time saying I'm such a pab cook even the dog won't eat my food), gave him his medications, and took him out to go potty before I left.
He FINALLY pooped, and I'm proud to say it was in no way diarrhea. It was a good moment, watching him bound in the falling snow, obviously feeling so much better after evading a near death encounter.
I left for work, late, after watching him attack Denver's sleeping face with his front paws and mouth. It was adorable, as much as it both hurt and annoyed Denver.
Denver and I already love this puppy so much. We've definitely spent more money on him in the last 4 days than we had anticipated, but he's already brought us so much joy and love that we could care less if it means living frugal for the next few weeks.
All I care about is the fact that our prayers were answered. We were given a second chance to raise this puppy and we couldn't be more excited.
We COULD be better rested- but not excited. :)
Thank you for all of you who kept him in your prayers. It's amazing how soon he recovered after I had reached out and asked for friends to pray for him.
Thank you again.
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