Friday, May 11th, our wonderful foster mom, Trish, had no idea how much her life was about to change. She has been amazing in fostering 1-3 puppies at a time, but never a mom with ELEVEN babies! Bravely, she drove to Springfield, MO to pick up this skinny mom and her precious brood. Trish took to this like a natural, while realizing just how much work is involved in keep momma fed, clean water, and a puppy pen of eleven puppies clean.
We knew Millie was not well due to her malnutrition, but were not sure the extent. She also had a little bit of a runny nose. By Sunday we noticed that she didn't want to get up very easily, and seemed lethargic. First thing Monday morning we rushed her to the vet and ran a complete blood panel - slightly anemic, but otherwise healthy. Hmm...We also did another fecal and she still had some roundworms. So nothing was obvious about why she was acting that way. Her stools were a little loose, so she went back to Trish's on antibiotics, panacur (for worms) and metronidozale (for loose stools).
For the next 10 days all seemed well as Millie started feeling better, gaining weight, and settling into life as a spoiled, special girl in a warm, loving home. Her only issue continued to be periodically having issues with her hind legs and a quirkly head tilt every now and again. Then I got a message from Trish that a couple puppies had snotty noses, so off to the vet again for the normal cold/kennel cough that we are used to with every litter that comes from a shelter... or so we thought. We started them on amoxicillin. Then a few days later the snotty noses turned green and 2 of the puppies had really weapy eyes, even a bit of crust - like you would see in a child with conjunctivitis. I rushed over with a gel that is an antibiotic for the eyes and knew we needed to go back to the vet the next day. Obviously amoxicillin was not working. The vet changed to a stronger antibiotic and gave Trish drops instead of gel, and to come back in 5 days.
Within 5 days, the first puppy started feeling better and a few others had a short couple days ofnot feeling well, but had recovered. A black puppy with quite a bit of brown still was not feeling well and others were just starting what seemed like a bad cold that spread to their sinuses and eyes. Third vet visit (Saturday), he said just keep doing what Trish was doing and gave more oral and eye antibiotics.
Well, yesterday (Tuesday, June 5th) Trish said that the two blonde boys were not doing well. As you can see in this picture, poor Lucky's eyes look awful. We also noticed that some started coughing, and a few were pretty lethargic. One of the original ones that got sick almost two weeks ago, was still not acting right. I felt it was time for a second opinion. This is one of the reasons that we work with two vets, so I made an appointment with our other vet.
Which brings us to today. After extensive conversation with other long term rescuers, our vet tech, and then our vet, we agreed that it was necessary to test for distemper. After having just gone through our first outbreak of parvo, this was the scariest thing I could imagine, and it was right before us. Our other vet was pretty confident it was just a bad cold because in a well vaccinated community, distemper just does NOT happen! However with Millie's history of coming from a possible drug house with unknown caregivers (if any), the probability of her ever being vaccinated is pretty low. Here is a link to read more about distemper.
This may be the longest 24-48 hours in our rescue history as we wait for the test results. Our vet took 4 swabs of Lucky's eyes, nose and mouth, plus 2 viles of blood. She is testing for every possible respiratory illness it can test for. We have started the puppies on yet another antibiotic (doxicycline this time) and a different eye drop. We are watching for further symptoms such as head shaking, vomiting and watery diarrhea. As we have shared, all puppy visits are on hold, and we will not finalize any adoptions without more information and making sure the puppy is as healthy as possible. Sweet Murphy, 2nd puppy chosen for adoption, looks great. But again we want to be sure she will always be healthy!
So. We. Wait.
In the mean time we can focus on how beautiful Millie has become! As of today, she has gained 18 lbs while in Trish's care, is learning to play, chew, and act like a dog. She was a perfect lady on the ride to Lawrence and back to Trish's in the passenger seat of my van, occasionally giving me kisses or dozing off. I am so proud of how far she has come and what she has in her future.
As usual, thank you so much to everyone for your unending support, well wishes and prayers. If you would like to donate to Millie and her puppies' care, please click the link below. Every dollar is extremely helpful and appreciated!
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