koalathebear

It's been a very busy few days... On the puppies' first night, I slept in the lounge on the sofa so that I could keep an eye on them. I went out with a torch when toileting them at 2am to make sure that they didn't have blood in their stool.

They were poorly when they arrived but their stools firmed up in the short time they were with us and they also had excellent appetites and were very lively and attentive - showing no signs of illness at all. We had them vet checked upon arrival in Canberra. We had warned the vet then that they were high risk pups so made sure that we waited outside and didn't touch anything etc. They were totally fine then - good temperature, no alarming signs. We were going to wait for the weekend to pass before vaccinating to make sure they were stable.

Late on Saturday evening (29 June), without any warning, Smudge threw up four times and then lost interest in food and became listless so we took her to the vet immediately. To our horror, although not surprise, we were told that she had a very bad strain of parvo.

The vet told us that that they were both in relatively good condition for dogs with parvo because he usually only saw them when the disease was more advanced - but the prognosis still wasn't very good.

I don't want to write too much about parvo here - Google is full of information ... It is an awful, awful, awful disease. I burst into tears at the vet surgery ... even though I was half-expecting it, it was just devastating to look into their sweet, sweet and trusting little faces and think that they might die.

Pups at the emergency clinic

Nutmeg was all right but Smudge was quite listless ... although she was still showing an interest in her surroundings.

They were admitted and started on IV fluids. It has been a very stressful few days - both started getting diarrhoea and having vomiting ... Smudge's protein levels dropped. There was so much running around between vet offices, trying to juggle meds and all sorts of things.

To our relief, today the doggies stabilised enough to be taken out of intensive care at the emergency clinic to be transferred to AWDRI's usual vet.

This senior nurse sat with the pups overnight, monitoring them and chatting to them. They loved her.

About to be transported

Here they are in the isolation room

Nutmeg is doing better than Smudge but that's because she started receiving treatment even before she was displaying symptoms. Smudge is also on the mend so we will - touch wood - have them back with us tomorrow. We bought more bleach, gloves and panels today to bolster the segregation we have in the house.

The vet phoned me today - both of them had slight temperatures and Smudge vomited again. :( The vet said that he wasn't too worried at this stage and that they're on antibiotics. Fingers crossed they stabilise and continue to improve.

The treatment is very expensive. All up, we spent more than $4,000 on our parvo puppies. I know it sounds crazy but it was worth it, I love these puppies and they were given to us to take care of and they were not going to die on our watch.