One day at a time...

I can't believe we have had our boy for 5 days now! It's weird how much our lives have been changed but I wouldn't have it any other way. He keeps us on our toes and gives us so much joy!

We received a call from the Vet today and the fecal tests came back... NO PARVO!!!! That was the best news we could ever receive! No one quite understands how horrible Parvo is and what these poor puppies have to go through when they do have it. I just remember my Koda I wanting to cuddle all the time cause he felt so sick, he did not want to play and if he did it was only for a short period of time. His diarrhea was so bad that he couldn't even let us know he had to go (personally I don't think he even knew he had to). If the diarrhea wasn't enough the poor thing was vomiting! I know whenever I vomit I want to just die cause I feel so ehhh. I can't imagine vomiting every hour or more for almost a WEEK! He couldn't eat, drink and he was barely able to keep his eyes open. My poor baby was the sickest pup Advanced Critical Care has ever taken care of. They have an 80% success rate for the pups that have Parvo that get treated. He had 2 different IV's and an NG tube (a tube that goes through his nose that goes into his stomach). The NG tube was set up to suction and give feedings. NG tubes are uncomfortable to pup in in a human, but you dont realize you have it once it is in. My poor puppy didn't even fight it when they tried to put it in (he was that lethargic) and they had to use staples to keep it in place (cause of his fur). He had a staple on the tip of his snout, 2 on his nose, and 3 on his head. He also had to get ultrasounds of his abdomen every 6 hours to see how the fluid level in his intestines and stomach were changing. The virus just kept eating away at his intestinal lining to the point where everything was leaking out; his lungs had so much fluid in them he could hardly breathe! That was the final straw for us. The doctors said they could do a couple of things to see if it would help, but they also said it would probably just happen again. That was one of the worst days of my life, seeing this poor helpless puppy have to be put down on his 2 month birthday! Every Vet we talked to said that Parvo is one of the worst things a dog can get and unfortunately it really only happens to puppies (since they aren't vaccinated yet).

Although a little man was tested negative for Parvo, he did test positive for roundworms and giardia. The vet said that these two things are very common for puppies to get. Roundworms are normally given to puppies by their mothers and giardia is found when lots of puppies are in close proximity to each other (ie: his brothers and sister) or they can get it from camp sites. We have to give him some medicine with his meals for a week and test to see if it's gone. I took him to the vet when I picked up his medicine and man oh man what a flirt! Everyone there was googling over him and couldn't get enough of him. He didnt even want to leave. Afterward we had a nice walk around the park.

I can't wait until all of his shots are done and we have him play with the other dogs in the park, until then he can look but can't touch (at least he is small enough for me to pick up).

He is doing a little better about being alone, but still will bark and cry when we first put him in there. We had him sleep in the crate last night in our room and did REALLY well! He only cried for about 5-10 min at first then would play with his toys or sleep. We are taking each day at a time and hopefully really soon he will be able to go in the pen and crate without any fuss.