A day in the life of a Husky puppy: March 2011

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Run Koda Run!!!

What a busy weekend for our little guy! Well so far Koda is doing better. He does have Giardia again and is on a few different meds. The vet thinks it was probably either from the rain or the water in our area. Where we live they use reclaimed water in our neighborhood and the vet said that some puppies can get it from the grass. I guess it is just something we have to deal with until he gets older. This is what happens when people try to go green... our puppies suffer ;-P haha! His diarrhea is getting better but now the lovely Giardia mucus stool is coming out... YUCK! We have him on a special diet until tomorrow to help give his GI tract a little break. They also had to give him a subcutaneous fluid bolus. That pretty much means where all the fur is between his shoulder blades they stuffed a boat load of fluid there. He looked like a hunchback! This helped him stay hydrated while we fasted him for 6 hours yesterday and not have to give him IV hydration. Well the hump is gone and he is back to his usual self. In-fact I don't think he even noticed it was there.

Later on that night we went down to Jeff's parents house since it was the last time we would see his brother and his girlfriend before they went back home. It was funny to see him sniff EVERYTHING! His poor nose was in overdrive and left no spot un-sniffed. His parents also have 2 cats... that was interesting! This was Koda's first encountered with anything but a dog. He started to husky talk/bark; for those who have husky's you know what this sounds like. It sounds like a bark but when a dog has lost his voice... its really quite but you can tell he is trying to talk at the same time. All Koda wanted to do was play with the cats, but they wanted nothing to do with him. At one point we got them close to each other (but they weren't able to touch in anyway) and the cats started to hiss and try to swat at him. He gave a, "WHAT THE HELL" howl.

Today we were originally going to take him to the mountains to let him play in the snow but we wanted to him a little break. He slept all morning and part of the early afternoon. Once he officially woke up he wanted to play and go outside. We took him down the street to where we have this HUGE trail; we went on a 3 mile run! He loved seeing all the dogs and people out walking and loved running through the spots where there was tall grass. He was bounding through it and had a huge smile on his face! He is now pooped and laying at our feet below our couch. He wants to be around us all the time and we love having him. Jeff and I still can't believe that he is ours and we are responsible for him. We can tell that he loves us just as much cause when we are on a run or just out and about he always looks around to make sure we are there. If he can't see us right away he runs to us, he doesn't do that with anyone else but us. We love our little boy!

Koda talking to Kizmet on the stairs

Charlies is on the left and Kizmet is on the right

Getting ready for our run

Such a happy boy

"Hey say hi to me!!"

Water break

Koda trying to pull Jeff

Such a happy puppy after a long run

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Success!

Well last night we attempted to leave Koda home alone for the longest we've ever done before. We went out for a friends birthday and we were nervous about having another accident. Well we devised a plan we got him all tired out from daycare then we took him out to potty and pretended it was bed time. We put him in his crate then we both climbed into bed and put on I love Lucy like we always do. Once he fell sleep we snuck out. It was weird having to sneak out of our house. Well we were gone for 4 hours and NO accidents!!! We were so proud of our boy!

Well this morning he was still having the watery diarrhea and he vomited once. Ugh old memories came flooding back. Well we called our emergency vet since our regular one is closed and told us to come in. Well here I sit waiting for our little boy get his subqutaneous fluid hydration and anti-diarrhea meds. They are resting him for any intestinal bugs which it could be or Just the food change over we are doing. The vet said that he is making loads of friends in the back. He looks good but he has had diarrhea for 3 days now with no sign of improvement. So here we wait. He is going to have a 6 hour fast then start on a really bland diet and mix back his food. Hopefully he'll feel better really soon.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Boys night in

He LOVES peanut butter in his Kong :)

Boys night in :)

Our poor boy is having some stomach issues again :( We are switching over his food to a high protein diet and it isn't agreeing with him. Well I guess it is back to some human food and his new food until he stops having diarrhea. I got a call yesterday from the vet and his officially clear and doesn't have any intestinal junk! Wince we are having a lot of rain the mountains is getting a fresh dumping of snow. The plan is to take him to the mountains and let him play in the snow this weekend.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Our boy is getting big!

Uncle Ben

Aunt Megan

He loved watching the rain today

Well last night Ben and Megan came over for dinner since they were in town. He loves playing with new people even when he is pooped from being at daycare. He was so tired after they left he went straight to bed, which was probably a good thing since we had to get up for a vet visit this morning. It was supposed to rain today and we wanted to get his run in so we had him run to the vets. We roller-bladed all the way there and back, man was he tired when we got home. The vet said that he is looking really good and thinks he is going to be huge! The office manager was looking at him and noticed his ears went in at the tips and said that she has never seen a husky's ears do that. Come to think of it we haven't either... our little boy is special and unique! Koda weighed in at a whopping 22.5lbs!!! Im scared to think how big he is going to be. The vet also said that he has a couple of loose teeth!!!!!! This is the moment I've been waiting for! I really really want to get one of this teeth that falls out and then take a picture of his mouth when they are missing! How funny would those pictures be?! haha But we are still having being left alone issues with potty training. We were gone for a couple of hours and came back to a pen filled with poop! Sometimes he is great and others not so much. I have to keep telling myself that he is a puppy and they have accidents... but man I can't wait for this phase to be over with! I can hear my mom now... "But you wanted a puppy". I know I know, but you can say that it's good practice for the future right???? haha! He is hard work and takes lots of patience but he is worth it. Right now he is chewing on a new rawhide (since the other one had poop on it and had to be tossed) while Jeff is rebuilding the pen with new carpet. He is so cute trying to hold it with his paws while he naws the thing down to a nub. Jeff tossed the tape (which lines the carpet so he can't chew it) and he looked up so intently and watched it roll for a few seconds then went right on back to chewing. He is so cute when is at attention but when isn't he cute. Yeah i know im biased, but like I said, the good definitely out weighs the hard/frustrating times.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Just an update with pics :)

His new hiding place

peak a boo

Love this pic :) Such a ham!

My baby is getting so big!

Finally some pictures with aunt Tracy

He can finally see out the window

My sweet boy

I can fly!!!

Froggie is his security blanket

I love my boys!!!!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Siberian Husky's are children with fur

While my little boy sleeps in his pen after a fun filled day at daycare, I started to catch up on things that I have neglected. One of my little joys is a blog that I follow of one my patients I took care of a few months back. She had a beautiful little boy who was born with a congenital defect. The proud momma started a blog for her little boy and of course I was very interested to see how he was doing. Every couple of days she would update us on his condition. Well after a couple of weeks of not checking her blog I just found out that her little boy passed away at the very young age of 6 1/2 weeks. I know it sounds lame but reading her blog reminded me of all the time I spent with our first little puppy at the hospital. You can never erase the memory of your little puppy or child with a million tubes every where. She was there and able to hold him when he took his last breath. Not only am I extremely sad for her and her husbands loss but it just makes me wonder why do people/pets have to suffer so much before they eventually end up passing. Our first little pup had so many procedures, tubes and staples that when I look back was cruel and we shouldn't have done any of it. But I keep trying to tell myself that we had no idea of what his outcome was going to be. Hearing her hurt and sadness come through her blog breaks my heart and I don't wish this on my worst enemy. This blog I am doing in memory of our little puppy that is up in puppy heaven with his other brothers and sisters.

Koda I was a beautiful grey and white Siberian Husky with striking blue eyes... every complemented his icy blue eyes. You could see how much he wanted to play even when he wasn't feeling well. He was the biggest fur ball and you could tell he was going to take after his dad (very woolly). Every husky has a howl, and they all sound different. His always made me laugh, even to this day when I think of it I start to break out in a sea of laughter. My only regret was not to have it on video... he sounded like a rooster! I swear he must have been a rooster in a previous life. He was the biggest cuddle bug ever and just wanted to be held all the time! When he wasn't feeling well he would walk around me in a circle then crawl into my lap and look up at me. He knew he was loved and safe! When he was in the hospital everyone there was so sweet, not only to him but to us as well. They always referred to us as Koda's mom and dad. They went out of there way to make sure we had our special time with him. They allowed us to see him when other facilities would say no. He had the best doctors and vet techs taking care of him. Even when he passed he was surrounded with people that truly cared about him. The staff cried with him and just hugged me letting me know that they fell in love with him as much as we have. Even to this day they still remember him. I had to call them a month ago after we brought home our little boy and they remembered us!

To anyone who has a child... and yes pets are our children, just know that life can suck sometimes. But when I look at where I am now I know I have a sweet little puppy that we love more than anything. We still have not forgotten our other pup, and miss him everyday!