Straydog UPDATE posted FRIDAY 7/11/03 at ~8:30 p.m. CT

Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

FRIDAY JULY 11 2003

The black puppy (of the new litter of five) has coccidiosis

     This morning the little black guy (whom Karen, the rescuer had named Aries) was very lethargic and didn't have much of an appetite, so Guy took him to the vet clinic. Dr. Morton diagnosed his illness as coccidia, the overabundance of a bacteria that can overtake the weak immune system of a puppy, making him sick. Albon is the medicine prescribed, and Dr. Morton wants us to give albon to all five pups for 20 days.

Bobby, who's doing better, will stay at Dallas Veterinary Surgical Center till Monday

     We called Dr. McDonald, and he said Bobby is doing better and has started putting some pressure on the leg now, but he would like to continue treatments till Monday. We are scheduled to pick up Bobby at 2:00 p.m. Monday.

Rosie and her son Benny dig from their kennel into Mommy Dog and Briar's kennel

     Luckily there were no problems between (or among) the dogs, tho Briar growled a little. The caregivers got Rosie and Benny out of the family's kennel and put them back in their own kennel next door, and Michael (our first shift kennel team leader) filled the hole and put cement blocks on top of it. We're probably lucky that Bobby (Briar's brother) wasn't home, as he might have put up a fuss and started trouble.

EVENING UPDATE:

Little Lassie has a bad seizure!

Little Lassie has another seizure--a very bad one--and is rushed to the vet

     At about 4:30 p.m. the caregiver covering "Central," our original section of kennels, called for help over the walkie-talkie that something was wrong with Little Lassie (who, as we've reported before, has been diagnosed with a pancreatic tumor--an insulinoma). This time, however, Lassie didn't snap out of the seizure but lay limp on the ground, and she felt very, very hot, so after giving her honey Guy put her in her swimming pool for a few minutes while Shannon brought the van around to the gate closest to Lassie's kennel. Shannon drove to the clinic (about 17 miles) while I sat on the floor in the back trying to comfort Lassie, but she wasn't responding to anything, just breathing heavily but not fast.

     When we got to the clinic, the first thing Dr. Morton did was to have his vet tech take Lassie's temperature, which was over 106 degrees (normal for dogs is about 102). While Lassie's temperature was being taken, the doctor took blood to test her glucose level. Next Dr. Morton quickly put Lassie in an ice bath, where she stayed for several minutes until her temperature got down to a little below 104 degrees. At this point they drained the water out of the tub and kept taking Lassie's temperature till it was down a little below a hundred, at which point they started putting warm towels on Lassie. All the while there was no response from Lassie. She just lay there.

     The glucose test showed her sugar to be at 50--way too low--so he added dextrose to the fluids he was already giving Lassie intravenously. The doctor also added a drug that would take the possible swelling down in her brain, which could have been caused by a heat stroke. After a while Lassie started to whine (a good sign), but there were no other reactions.

     Finally Dr. Morton said that we could take her home and watch her closely all night. If she snapped out of it, we could take the tube out of her arm, and he told us to call him if anything unusual happened. He was not very optimistic, but you never know, he said.

     Next they put Lassie on a stretcher and carried her out to our van. Shannon sat in the back with Lassie while I drove us back home.

     We were just a 10th of a mile down the road toward home, when suddenly Lassie started struggling to sit up. We turned around immediately to go back to the clinic. Within just a few moments Lassie was lying down quietly again. We pulled back into the clinic parking lot, and I ran in to get the doctor, who came right out. He looked at her again and said that her trying to get up was a good sign and to keep watching her throughout the night, which we will do.

     Little Lassie tried to get up a few more times on the way home. Since Bobby won't be back till Monday afternoon, we put Lassie in Bobby's kitchen kennel, where she has tried to get up a few times since we got back (at about 6:30 p.m.), but she always lies back down again and is unresponsive but appears to be comfortably resting. Erin, Shannon and I are taking shifts throughout the night sitting next to Lassie to calm her when she wakes up and tries to get up.

     We'll report more later.