Poor Puppy

Little Ruby is as sick as a dog.  Literally.  A few days after we brought her home from the shelter, everything began to fall apart.

First she came down with kennel cough, which she immediately passed on to Sharkey, the boxer, and then she got really REALLY sick.  We're talking blood out the back end.  And lots of it.  And she wouldn't move.  Or eat.

We took poor puppy to the vet several times, each time trying a new medication, hoping it would work.  Poor puppy had a subcutaneous (sp?) IV last night, so she has a camel hump.  Mr. Puppy Doctor also gave her a vitamin booster to replenish the nutrients she has lost which has made her prone to more infection.

She lost three pounds in three days.  When you were only 13 lbs, that's a whole lot of weight.

But!  The puppy booster turned out to be synonymous with puppy crack!  He said some dogs respond to it very well.  She was pushing us out of the way to get to this liquid vitamin you pour in a bowl.  It must have been like the best pizza you've ever had.  She will get this super expensive medicine every day until it is gone.  He gave us three big bottles.

He didn't make any promises.  In fact, he said she could still make a turn for the worse.  He believes she has Corona, a potentially fatal virus that she most likely picked up from the shelter. 

If puppy's mommy had been properly vaccinated, baby puppy would not have been so likely to contract it because she would have had antibodies from momma's milk.  But, since puppy's mommy was given up BECAUSE she had puppies, prior puppy's mommy's owner probably never took her to the vet either.  Bad puppy's mommy's prior owner.  SHAME!!

But, this morning, puppy ate her puppy food for the first time since Tuesday (it's Saturday).  So we called Mr. Puppy Doctor and said- thank you for saving me, we think I'm gonna make it after all!  But boy, it sure is exhausting being a puppy!