Kasidi's puppies

Wednesday 4th April

Caesar was a cause for concern yesterday.

Some of the puppies had diarroeah on Monday but appeared well in themselves so I changed their diet to rice, live yoghurt and cooked chicken for 24 hours and this seemed to halt it in its track. I have to admit to being very worried as I have been letting the puppies out in our garden and although they are mixing with my vaccinated dogs I have no idea what wild animals prowl around at night that could be carrying nasty viruses such as parvo.Also, the puppies had been licking old snow and I saw some of them drinking from a muddy puddle. Not very desirable but I also believe their systems have to be intrduced to such things to toughen them up. It is a close judgement call .

All seemed well yesterday, then yesterday evening I noticed that Caesar seemed quite lethargic and not his usual bouncy self. When I picked him up he seemed very hot and his temperature revealed a reading of 103.1. Although my entire nursing carreer was spent using centigrade I new this was hot.

The vets clinic was obviously closed and I suddenly became very worried so I went over in my head what I needed to do. I had amoxacillin tablets in my drawer which were 250mg stength so I quartered a tablet, crushed It and added a little water, so It could be sucked up into a syringe.
.I had surfed the net trying to find the correct dosage for puppies but had been unable to find anything. I figured that 60 something mgs would be ok so I gave the antibiotic to Caesar then rang the vets clinic to get the on call doctor.

I was put through to a very helpful on call vet who asked me if I happened to have some amoxyl in the house. I told her what I had done and she ok'd the dosage which I had given him which was a relief. She also recommended 1ml of pepto bismol which apart from having anti-diarroeal properties, also has a temperature reducing action. I then made up a solution of electrolyte solution which consisted of 1 teasoon of salt to 8 teaspoons of sugar in 1 litre of water and administered this to him via syringe.

I toyed with idea of keeping him with me that night but decided he would most probably prefer to be with his brothers and sisters.

I was quite anxious going into the puppies this morning but my first observation was plenty of pooh and no diarroeah. I gave them their food and milk and noticed that Caesar was enthusiastically joining in the feeding frenzy. I picked him up and his body temperature felt normal and he seemed more like his normal self.

Caesar reminded me of children when they are sick. They can deteriorate very quickly and bounce back even faster.

I will keep him on the antibiotics and the pepto for the time being but will ring my vet today to see what he recommends.

The weather is so foul I cannot find the words to describe it. My older dogs showed no enthusiasm for a long walk this morning, so I gave in and they had a quick run in the adjacent field.

I have to go to refuse centre this afternoon which is 20 miles away as I have run out of newspaper. Not the best of days to be going but needs must.