Michelle84
Novitiate
Day 1 Tuesday 12/22/2020
I am writing about my experience along the way, because it is helping me cope. I also hope no one ever has to go through this, but if they do, they have my experience to help them pull through this.
It started roughly around 8:30am. Meadow (10.5 weeks old Doberman) was sleeping in between my husband and me. As she was sleeping, she suddenly got up and went towards the foot of the bed, and started making that sound...the gurgling sound before vomiting. By the time I picked her up, it was too late. The vomit consisted of puppy food, pretty mushy looking. I cleaned it up, took the blanket to the wash, and she went back to sleep. The night before, she ate quite a bit, so I wasn’t alarmed at first. I thought maybe she ate a little too much. Not within 30 min, she makes that sound again. I grabbed her in time and she vomits on the floor. I see her food she had. I cleaned it up. The next 90 minutes was spent cleaning up 4-5 more vomits with the last two being clear and looked like saliva. She would also make the gurgling sound and heave, but nothing came out. In the 90 minutes, she had diarrhea twice. I initially saw one that was by the front door, it smelled. I cleaned it up. The smell lingered, and I knew there had to be more. My husband finally found it under the Christmas tree. At this time, she seemed fine, not like her usual, spunky self, but like her I’m done for the day, about to go to bed self. After observing her for a while, she seemed tired, so I put her on the couch with my boys and asked them to keep an eye on her. She didn’t vomit or have anymore diarrhea within the last 40 min, so I thought, whatever it was, it’s gone, and now she wants to rest. I headed off to work, leaving the puppy with my boys and my husband, getting continued updates on Meadow. She pretty much rested the whole day, which is NOT like her at all. My husband felt the same way, that this was not her normal behavior, so he drove her to the vet. As he was waiting, he started texting me. He told me they wanted to test her for parvo. I immediately got defensive, as she’s just a puppy, no way! I mean yes, she’s had her first round of shots, and was literally getting her second round the next couple of days. We keep her at home at all times, and the only other place she goes to is to a vet for her ears. Within 20 minutes, he calls me, but I couldn’t answer. I was with a patient. As I finish with the patient, I look down at my phone and see his message of, “she has a strong positive for parvo, and they told me to take her to the emergency right away for the best chance of survival!” My patient is still standing in front of me, and at this point I’m trying so hard to keep a straight face. I finish with her, and had my employee help me clean, so I could leave right away. A million things were running through my head. How? When? Where? We’ve raised 3 dogs, and this has never happened! Why now, just two weeks after having her? Incubation period of parvo is 3-10days, where was she 3-10 days ago?
I finally get to the hospital, and we sit inside a waiting room. It was a long night of back and forth. We couldn’t get a direct answer of her chance of survival, they wouldn’t know for a while. Numbers being thrown of 30-50% chance of most puppies her age pulling through. My stomach turned.... knowing math pretty well, that is not promising. I asked to see her but was told we needed to make a decision first on if we were hospitalizing her or taking her home. I will say this part was a little hard. I know it’s their job, but it’s hard because they are not doing anything for her until we agree to hospitalize her, and I wasn’t able to see her till I gave them an answer. They presented me the estimated bill.... a little over $8100 to keep her for 3 days. My stomach turned more. I know nothing about parvo, I know it’s ignorant of me, but I’ve owned 5 dogs my entire life, and I’ve never had to deal with parvo. Of course, you hear, parvo is bad, but until it happened to my animal, I didn’t really know or look into it. I was also never told, hey your breed is highly susceptible to this disease, yet when I googled, all dogs I’ve previously owned or still own were on that list of high susceptibility. I told the vet tech, let me speak with my husband. They leave the room, and we both start googling away, trying to read up on parvo, taking care of puppy at home with parvo, survival rate if we take care of parvo puppy at home. The more we read, the more serious everything sounded. I tried to calm myself down by telling myself, ok she doesn’t have the worst of these symptoms; no blood was in her vomit or stool, she only vomited and had diarrhea in the morning, and it’s stopped. The only signs she has is lethargy, and I’m sure dehydration. However, I just doubted myself, I felt as though I didn’t know enough about this disease to be taking care of her. I mean what if this makes her get worse and her health plummets? I would blame myself forever. My medical brain starts to kick in, ok let’s have them run a CBC first. Let’s see what that shows, since they have to do that anyway if we hospitalize her. So, I tell the tech, and they do so. Lab results come back, everything is within normal range, except for her liver. Her RBC is a little low, but not by much, but is normal considering she’s a puppy, and most puppies are anemic/plus she’s sick. Her liver levels are 522, which is very high. However, the veterinarian told us she believed it’s elevated because she was dehydrated, and it was most likely from the vomiting and diarrhea. I thought that knowing her lab results would make the decision easier, but it didn’t. Everything I read on the internet while waiting stated the first 48 hours are crucial and puppies can be fine one minute, and then drastically drop the next minute. I tell them, “let’s hospitalize her for now, let’s get her fluids going, and I would like to see her.” I gown up, I follow the tech back, and I see this tiny brown bundled puppy sleeping. I go to her, she stares at me with her green eyes. I had a gown on, gloves, footsies, and a mask. I didn’t know if she would recognize me. I called her name, she looks at me, kind of like,” is it you?” I calm her and touch her for about 15 minutes. During this time, she was receiving iv fluids. Her little body was shaking. After trying to exert her energy looking at me, she closes her eyes to sleep. I told her she would be ok, and I turned to leave, so she could rest. They told me they would call me for an update at 7am the next day. I finally walk out, it was 12:04am.... 5 hours... Her vitals at the time were: temp 102.8, RR 30, HR 180, weight: almost 20lbs. Labs showed no blood in stool, and objective assessment findings were all within normal range.
We head home that evening, and my husband starts bleaching ( 1 part bleach/10-30 parts water), the entire house. We start throwing away things, he starts deep cleaning the front and backyard. The vet tech told us, “even after this, you don’t want another puppy in your house for at least a few years.” I wasn’t planning on anymore puppies for a while, but the thought of being told you couldn’t, made me feel a bit saddened. That night was the worst sleep ever. I tossed and turned, got up four times, and sat up wide awake since 4:30am. So, here I am, typing away, waiting for the vet to call me. I will give an update as soon as I know.
I am writing about my experience along the way, because it is helping me cope. I also hope no one ever has to go through this, but if they do, they have my experience to help them pull through this.
It started roughly around 8:30am. Meadow (10.5 weeks old Doberman) was sleeping in between my husband and me. As she was sleeping, she suddenly got up and went towards the foot of the bed, and started making that sound...the gurgling sound before vomiting. By the time I picked her up, it was too late. The vomit consisted of puppy food, pretty mushy looking. I cleaned it up, took the blanket to the wash, and she went back to sleep. The night before, she ate quite a bit, so I wasn’t alarmed at first. I thought maybe she ate a little too much. Not within 30 min, she makes that sound again. I grabbed her in time and she vomits on the floor. I see her food she had. I cleaned it up. The next 90 minutes was spent cleaning up 4-5 more vomits with the last two being clear and looked like saliva. She would also make the gurgling sound and heave, but nothing came out. In the 90 minutes, she had diarrhea twice. I initially saw one that was by the front door, it smelled. I cleaned it up. The smell lingered, and I knew there had to be more. My husband finally found it under the Christmas tree. At this time, she seemed fine, not like her usual, spunky self, but like her I’m done for the day, about to go to bed self. After observing her for a while, she seemed tired, so I put her on the couch with my boys and asked them to keep an eye on her. She didn’t vomit or have anymore diarrhea within the last 40 min, so I thought, whatever it was, it’s gone, and now she wants to rest. I headed off to work, leaving the puppy with my boys and my husband, getting continued updates on Meadow. She pretty much rested the whole day, which is NOT like her at all. My husband felt the same way, that this was not her normal behavior, so he drove her to the vet. As he was waiting, he started texting me. He told me they wanted to test her for parvo. I immediately got defensive, as she’s just a puppy, no way! I mean yes, she’s had her first round of shots, and was literally getting her second round the next couple of days. We keep her at home at all times, and the only other place she goes to is to a vet for her ears. Within 20 minutes, he calls me, but I couldn’t answer. I was with a patient. As I finish with the patient, I look down at my phone and see his message of, “she has a strong positive for parvo, and they told me to take her to the emergency right away for the best chance of survival!” My patient is still standing in front of me, and at this point I’m trying so hard to keep a straight face. I finish with her, and had my employee help me clean, so I could leave right away. A million things were running through my head. How? When? Where? We’ve raised 3 dogs, and this has never happened! Why now, just two weeks after having her? Incubation period of parvo is 3-10days, where was she 3-10 days ago?
I finally get to the hospital, and we sit inside a waiting room. It was a long night of back and forth. We couldn’t get a direct answer of her chance of survival, they wouldn’t know for a while. Numbers being thrown of 30-50% chance of most puppies her age pulling through. My stomach turned.... knowing math pretty well, that is not promising. I asked to see her but was told we needed to make a decision first on if we were hospitalizing her or taking her home. I will say this part was a little hard. I know it’s their job, but it’s hard because they are not doing anything for her until we agree to hospitalize her, and I wasn’t able to see her till I gave them an answer. They presented me the estimated bill.... a little over $8100 to keep her for 3 days. My stomach turned more. I know nothing about parvo, I know it’s ignorant of me, but I’ve owned 5 dogs my entire life, and I’ve never had to deal with parvo. Of course, you hear, parvo is bad, but until it happened to my animal, I didn’t really know or look into it. I was also never told, hey your breed is highly susceptible to this disease, yet when I googled, all dogs I’ve previously owned or still own were on that list of high susceptibility. I told the vet tech, let me speak with my husband. They leave the room, and we both start googling away, trying to read up on parvo, taking care of puppy at home with parvo, survival rate if we take care of parvo puppy at home. The more we read, the more serious everything sounded. I tried to calm myself down by telling myself, ok she doesn’t have the worst of these symptoms; no blood was in her vomit or stool, she only vomited and had diarrhea in the morning, and it’s stopped. The only signs she has is lethargy, and I’m sure dehydration. However, I just doubted myself, I felt as though I didn’t know enough about this disease to be taking care of her. I mean what if this makes her get worse and her health plummets? I would blame myself forever. My medical brain starts to kick in, ok let’s have them run a CBC first. Let’s see what that shows, since they have to do that anyway if we hospitalize her. So, I tell the tech, and they do so. Lab results come back, everything is within normal range, except for her liver. Her RBC is a little low, but not by much, but is normal considering she’s a puppy, and most puppies are anemic/plus she’s sick. Her liver levels are 522, which is very high. However, the veterinarian told us she believed it’s elevated because she was dehydrated, and it was most likely from the vomiting and diarrhea. I thought that knowing her lab results would make the decision easier, but it didn’t. Everything I read on the internet while waiting stated the first 48 hours are crucial and puppies can be fine one minute, and then drastically drop the next minute. I tell them, “let’s hospitalize her for now, let’s get her fluids going, and I would like to see her.” I gown up, I follow the tech back, and I see this tiny brown bundled puppy sleeping. I go to her, she stares at me with her green eyes. I had a gown on, gloves, footsies, and a mask. I didn’t know if she would recognize me. I called her name, she looks at me, kind of like,” is it you?” I calm her and touch her for about 15 minutes. During this time, she was receiving iv fluids. Her little body was shaking. After trying to exert her energy looking at me, she closes her eyes to sleep. I told her she would be ok, and I turned to leave, so she could rest. They told me they would call me for an update at 7am the next day. I finally walk out, it was 12:04am.... 5 hours... Her vitals at the time were: temp 102.8, RR 30, HR 180, weight: almost 20lbs. Labs showed no blood in stool, and objective assessment findings were all within normal range.
We head home that evening, and my husband starts bleaching ( 1 part bleach/10-30 parts water), the entire house. We start throwing away things, he starts deep cleaning the front and backyard. The vet tech told us, “even after this, you don’t want another puppy in your house for at least a few years.” I wasn’t planning on anymore puppies for a while, but the thought of being told you couldn’t, made me feel a bit saddened. That night was the worst sleep ever. I tossed and turned, got up four times, and sat up wide awake since 4:30am. So, here I am, typing away, waiting for the vet to call me. I will give an update as soon as I know.