Straydog UPDATE posted TUESDAY 1/7/03 at ~8:41 p.m. CT

Pat Arnold's Daily Dog Log

TUESDAY JANUARY 7 2003

Blind Baby Chubs is sick, but seems to be getting better

     At three o'clock this morning I was busy changing a whole lot of potty papers! One of the new four-week-old puppies, either Little Chubs (the blind puppy) or his sister, Cassie, had had major diarrhea during the night. At first I couldn't tell which pup was sick, since the messy papers had already been messed upon before I came out to check on the puppies.

     After I cleaned the kennel and put nice fresh puppy papers down, I gave the pups two bowls of warm mushy food and set each pup at a separate bowl. Cassie began eating her food right away, but Chubs turned away from his bowl. He did not want to eat, and his appetite had up till now always been so good. So, Chubs was the sick pup. This little fellow Loves puppy milk, especially if given from a bottle, so I warmed some of his puppy milk and offered this to him, wanting to make sure he got some liquid, but he didn't want much puppy milk either, which let me know he really wasn't feeling well at all.

     By 9:00 a.m. I had the pups at the vet clinic. Dr. Morton checked Chubs and couldn't find anything really wrong with him. He even did a parvo test which came up negative. The stool sample showed very little bacteria, so the result of the examination is that Chubs probably has an intestinal bacterial infection. Home we came with a bunch of tummy medicine, which will hopefully have the little tyke feeling better very soon. Cassie checked out okay!

I saw Molly at the clinic too (after having checked on her by phone first thing this morning), and she's doing fine today after yesterday's surgery

     Before leaving the clinic I wanted to see Molly, so Dr. Morton took me to her hospital kennel. She really looked so pathetic and so sad. The sparkle was gone from her normally happy eyes, and I could tell she felt terrible. The E-Collar she had on didn't help her feel any better either, and I'm sure she couldn't understand any of the many things that had happened to her: Major surgery, feeling lousy and having to wear this cumbersome hat, and having to stay in a place she did not even know.

     I went into her kennel for a few minutes to pet her, which was either a good thing to do or not a good thing to do. I could tell Molly wanted to come home with me. I've often wondered about this: If a dog is recovering at a vet clinic and needs to stay there several days, should we go to visit the dog, or is it best to stay away? Does it worry the dog to be left in a strange place for several days and not see their owner at all? Or, is it okay to visit the dog, make the dog happy for a while? But then, of course, visiting the dog makes the dog want to leave with the owner, and the dog surely becomes confused all over again if the owner doesn't take the dog home. [Bill: Or do dogs intuitively understand and know, "She'll be back for me soon"? And if this is true, and I believe it is, it makes dog abandonment an even more horrible act of cruelty.]

     Well, I decided that I will go to see Molly every day that she is there, which is just for the next two days after today. I'll go into her kennel and stay with her for a while, and even give her special doggie treats. I'll do this every day and she'll probably just get to the point of understand my coming and going when it'll be time to bring her home! And she's scheduled to come home Thursday.