NEW PUPPY!
Let's see, the last time I updated I wrote about having to put my poor dog Chloe to sleep, but now I have happy dog news to share - we got a new puppy! We have had her for almost a week, and I'm already completely in love with her. We named her Ellie, and she was born on Halloween (which means she is almost nine weeks old). Even though she is great, things haven't gone so smoothly. After having her for barely 24 hours, we had to rush her to the emergency vet. I'll put the story under a cut, as I tend to ramble and go into too much detail.
So, last Friday my mom came home with a new puppy. It was a big surprise. When Chloe died, she said she didn't want to get any more pets (we still have our dog Fox), and if she ever did get another one, it would be another Papillion (like Chloe). We went over to my aunt's house (my mom's sister) on Christmas Eve, and I can't remember what my aunt said, but it made my mom seriously consider getting another dog. We looked at petfinder.com and some of the Papillions that were up for adoption, but I guess my mom really wanted a puppy. She stopped at a pet store, and they had just got a Papillion puppy in, so my mom bought her right away and brought her home.
Then on Saturday (New Year's Eve), we had plans to go out to eat and see the new Sherlock Holmes movie, but we decided to stay home as Ellie was vomiting a lot and had a bit of bloody diarrhea. We called the pet store, and they said it was normal, and it was likely from stress. As the day progressed, Ellie seemed to get more and more lethargic, and then when I was holding her she had a seizure, and started howling after it happened. After that happened, my dad and I rushed her to the animal hospital*, where we found out that she had hypoglycemia (very low blood sugar). She also had coccidia, and the vet hypothesized that that made Ellie feel nauseous and vomit, which lead to the hypoglycemia because she wasn't eating or keeping anything down. If we hadn't brought her in, she probably would have died.**
Since Ellie is so tiny (about 1.4 pounds), she is in danger of getting hypoglycemia again. For the next two weeks, we have to feed her every two hours. My mom and I have been feeding her, and it is exhausting. She usually won't eat on her own, so we have to put the food in a syringe and inject it into her mouth. We have been doing it since Sunday, and she seems to be getting sick of it now because she is not cooperating well. We end up getting food all over ourselves and all over her. My mom keeps saying how lucky it is that I'm home from school to help. I don't know how people could do this if they had to work nine to five, Monday through Friday. I'll be here for another week and half, so just long enough to finish the round the clock feedings. I think the vet said that once she gets to 2.5 pounds, she'll probably be out of the danger zone for getting hypoglycemia again. But then we also have to worry about her liver, and they'll eventually test and see if she has a liver shunt or other problems, and if she does, then she's probably screwed.
My mom originally had another vet visit scheduled for tomorrow, but she decided to bring Ellie in today because she was afraid she was getting lethargic again and had low blood sugar. Her measurement was okay, but they want us to bring her back again on Friday to see if it increases or decreases. I really like having Ellie, but it is a lot of work and has been very stressful. I worry about her a lot too. I hope she stays in good health.
*It seemed to be a busy night at the hospital. While we were waiting to find out what was happening with the puppy, another family brought their 13-year-old dog in and had to put her to sleep, and I overhead them crying. Then a crying man came in with his dead dog and asked them to refrigerate the body because he was going to take it to a pet cemetery in a couple of days. Someone else (a cop?) brought in a coyote (I saw them wheel it in on a gurney) that someone had spotted lying by the side of the road.
**The next day my mom called the pet store and really bitched them out. She was feeling guilty for spending so much money to buy the puppy in the first place, and then it was about another $1,000 for the emergency hospitalization, so she felt even worse. The pet store basically said that none of it was their fault (I won't go into all of my mom's arguments, but I thought they were valid, and it was basically that we were sold a sick puppy), but they eventually gave my mom a $100 store credit and said they would pay for some things at future vet visits (like medications that Ellie will need after she is spayed).
Now for the fun stuff…pictures!
If you look at her right leg, you can see where they had to shave her to put the IV in
