Dog Blogging, the Good and the Bad
I don't do much personal stuff here, but I can't help but write about my dogs. My soon-to-be step-mother-in-law is a breeder of labrador retrievers and as I've written before, two of her six dogs live with my finance and myself- Callahan, a year and a half old chocolate boy and Devon, a nearly five-year old black girl. Devon was bred at the end of November and was expecting a litter of puppies sometime next week- at least she was until Monday night when we had to race her to the emergency vets.
She was a little sick on Monday, throwing up a few times, but dogs throwing up is not always a sign that anything is wrong. We were keeping an eye on her and when I came home, Devon wasn't even able to drag herself out of her own crate. She was clearly in pain and couldn't work up the energy to walk. We acted quick and got her to the emergency vets, where they quickly put her on an IV and gave her some antibiotics. Her condition improved over night and we planned to driver her to her usual vet on Tuesday morning to see if the puppies were still healthy and if they could be saved. Just before we picked her up, she expelled two of the puppies- neither had a heartbeat and had likely been dead for some time.
I didn't have much hope for the other puppies, but since getting her to her regular vet, she's given birth to two more living, breathing puppies. The first was a black boy, who, after being placed on oxygen, got up enough strength to nurse on his own and may be coming home with his mommy tonight. The second is a little black girl and we're waiting to here from the vet to see how she's doing.
The past few days have been such an emotional roller coaster and I can't believe an actual happy ending is in sight. Monday night, it took all my strength to pull the hundred plus pound pregnant Devon out of her crate and even more effort to carry her to the car. I was terrified that she wasn't going to make it, let alone any of the puppies. I didn't get much sleep Monday night worrying about her, so I was thrilled Tuesday morning when the ER vet brought her out on a short leash and she pulled away and trotted right up to me. Going from worrying about whether or not Devon is going to make it to actually having her safe and healthy with two puppies is nothing short of a miracle in my mind. It's tragic to have lost the first two pups, but I'm still almost in tears- in a good way- as to how this has turned out.
At this point, the worst part is my other dog, Callahan, has been forlorn ever since we took Devon away- I just wonder if, in his doggy mind, he thought that she was dying. He's such a sweet, compassionate dog, who spent most of the day Monday fretting over Devon and it sucks that there's no way for me to tell him that she's all right. I'll try and keep updating as to how the puppies are doing.
She was a little sick on Monday, throwing up a few times, but dogs throwing up is not always a sign that anything is wrong. We were keeping an eye on her and when I came home, Devon wasn't even able to drag herself out of her own crate. She was clearly in pain and couldn't work up the energy to walk. We acted quick and got her to the emergency vets, where they quickly put her on an IV and gave her some antibiotics. Her condition improved over night and we planned to driver her to her usual vet on Tuesday morning to see if the puppies were still healthy and if they could be saved. Just before we picked her up, she expelled two of the puppies- neither had a heartbeat and had likely been dead for some time.
I didn't have much hope for the other puppies, but since getting her to her regular vet, she's given birth to two more living, breathing puppies. The first was a black boy, who, after being placed on oxygen, got up enough strength to nurse on his own and may be coming home with his mommy tonight. The second is a little black girl and we're waiting to here from the vet to see how she's doing.
The past few days have been such an emotional roller coaster and I can't believe an actual happy ending is in sight. Monday night, it took all my strength to pull the hundred plus pound pregnant Devon out of her crate and even more effort to carry her to the car. I was terrified that she wasn't going to make it, let alone any of the puppies. I didn't get much sleep Monday night worrying about her, so I was thrilled Tuesday morning when the ER vet brought her out on a short leash and she pulled away and trotted right up to me. Going from worrying about whether or not Devon is going to make it to actually having her safe and healthy with two puppies is nothing short of a miracle in my mind. It's tragic to have lost the first two pups, but I'm still almost in tears- in a good way- as to how this has turned out.
At this point, the worst part is my other dog, Callahan, has been forlorn ever since we took Devon away- I just wonder if, in his doggy mind, he thought that she was dying. He's such a sweet, compassionate dog, who spent most of the day Monday fretting over Devon and it sucks that there's no way for me to tell him that she's all right. I'll try and keep updating as to how the puppies are doing.
posted by lonely libertarian at 11:48 AM
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