I ran into the people who have Odin's daddy and they told me they had a Briarwood/Kay Hill lines bitch about to whelp so after they were born I went to visit.
[I like to keep tabs on my boy's dad]
The pups were in heated/cooled outbuilding but had no whelping box or other bedding.
It was chilly when I got there and they both work long hours so they 'set the temps' for the dogs and leave for the day and hadn't turned on the heat yet.
There were two boys and two girls, one of which was a runt but viable.
I picked up the bigger girl and noticed she was shaking oddly as were some of the other pups but not to as great a degree.
I assumed the inability to thermoregulate and/or cold and stress of the mom being out of the building was responsible.
I put her down and she mostly just sat there until she tried to eat the crappy dry 'confetti' food put out for them.
The dam came back in and the shaky girl went for the back teat with gusto and I helped the runt find an empty faucet as she wasn't managing well against her much bigger siblings.
At that time, the pups were chubby but I took over 50 pounds of very good dog food for them [which they still didn't moisten] and 3 dog houses.
Flash forward to yesterday when I got a frantic call that the bigger girl was still shaking, possibly 'seizing' and so forth.
The pups had been wormed with Nemex? the day before.
I had to wait until they got home from work and went over.
The girl was in their bathroom in the tub with some milk [from which she had supposedly drank greedily that morning] flat out and listless.
I took her out to the living room and out her down and she walked around a bit but seemed weak.
The next thing I know, she and her papers are being shoved to me so that I can 'take her home and fix her up'.
We hadn't gone 10 miles before I knew we had to get to an e-vet NOW.
35 minutes later, we were there and they ran a CBC on her.
She was anemic, dehydrated, low blood protein and some other less horrific things I can't recall right now [sleep deprived] but her breathing/temps/heart rate were good.
So they gave her a huge SubQ and as we were about to leave, I asked if they'd done a fecal.
So they did one and found she still had a 'substantial roundworm infestation'.
They wormed her again with Drontal. [I think was the name]
We left.
Halfway home she got restless, started yelping, pushing her front legs straight and arching her head back.
I thought she had to pee and stopped to let her piddle in a parking lot.
She didn't there but did pee in my lap once back in the car a few minutes later.
She was now doing a "Stevie Wonder" imitation where her head was moving around oddly and she didn't seem to be able to hold her head up.
We turned around an went back to the evet.
By the time we got there [30 minutes] she was limp and somewhat unresponsive.
Her front legs were in a locked and extended position which did get a little 'better' after an hour at the vet, alternating from flexible to 'locked forward' again.
They her took back to the exam room again and then came out and told me she was not reacting to fingers flicking near eyes...she was "blind".
The 'breeder' says she walked right to her that morning and I can't say myself if she seemed to be able to see during the brief span of time I's had her on the floor of their house.
The evet postulated neurological issues, seizures, possible issues from worms/dehydration, etc and kept her over night in an 'incubator'.
I called this morning and she did eat greedily but threw it back up, probably from not eating then pigging out.
She is, in the vet's word's "more normal" today but she is still "blind".
I had her tested for TBDs and she is negative.
And I noticed she has a calcified lump on her right elbow that appears to be a healed bone break, possibly acquired during birth, according to the vet.
I have never seen or heard of anything like all of this.
*Any* help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated since she is, apparently, now "my dog".
[and racking up the vet bills at an incredible rate]
Has anyone ever encountered something like this, that I might have any suggestions for the vets to check for?
Although this was a wholly unexpected and shocking turn of events in my relatively calm life, of course, now that I've spent time holding her and trying to save her, sadly, I love her and am emotionally invested.
And I've named her...so I'm truly doomed.
Please offer anything you've got...except, please, condemnation for getting involved, riot acts for 'taking home strays' or yelling at me for answering the phone.
I've already flogged myself quite thoroughly.
[note to self: turn the caller ID back on]
If it helps at all, this is a photo of her about at [around] 3 weeks or so when her eyes had just opened and again, about 10 days ago:
[I like to keep tabs on my boy's dad]
The pups were in heated/cooled outbuilding but had no whelping box or other bedding.
It was chilly when I got there and they both work long hours so they 'set the temps' for the dogs and leave for the day and hadn't turned on the heat yet.
There were two boys and two girls, one of which was a runt but viable.
I picked up the bigger girl and noticed she was shaking oddly as were some of the other pups but not to as great a degree.
I assumed the inability to thermoregulate and/or cold and stress of the mom being out of the building was responsible.
I put her down and she mostly just sat there until she tried to eat the crappy dry 'confetti' food put out for them.
The dam came back in and the shaky girl went for the back teat with gusto and I helped the runt find an empty faucet as she wasn't managing well against her much bigger siblings.
At that time, the pups were chubby but I took over 50 pounds of very good dog food for them [which they still didn't moisten] and 3 dog houses.
Flash forward to yesterday when I got a frantic call that the bigger girl was still shaking, possibly 'seizing' and so forth.
The pups had been wormed with Nemex? the day before.
I had to wait until they got home from work and went over.
The girl was in their bathroom in the tub with some milk [from which she had supposedly drank greedily that morning] flat out and listless.
I took her out to the living room and out her down and she walked around a bit but seemed weak.
The next thing I know, she and her papers are being shoved to me so that I can 'take her home and fix her up'.
We hadn't gone 10 miles before I knew we had to get to an e-vet NOW.
35 minutes later, we were there and they ran a CBC on her.
She was anemic, dehydrated, low blood protein and some other less horrific things I can't recall right now [sleep deprived] but her breathing/temps/heart rate were good.
So they gave her a huge SubQ and as we were about to leave, I asked if they'd done a fecal.
So they did one and found she still had a 'substantial roundworm infestation'.
They wormed her again with Drontal. [I think was the name]
We left.
Halfway home she got restless, started yelping, pushing her front legs straight and arching her head back.
I thought she had to pee and stopped to let her piddle in a parking lot.
She didn't there but did pee in my lap once back in the car a few minutes later.
She was now doing a "Stevie Wonder" imitation where her head was moving around oddly and she didn't seem to be able to hold her head up.
We turned around an went back to the evet.
By the time we got there [30 minutes] she was limp and somewhat unresponsive.
Her front legs were in a locked and extended position which did get a little 'better' after an hour at the vet, alternating from flexible to 'locked forward' again.
They her took back to the exam room again and then came out and told me she was not reacting to fingers flicking near eyes...she was "blind".
The 'breeder' says she walked right to her that morning and I can't say myself if she seemed to be able to see during the brief span of time I's had her on the floor of their house.
The evet postulated neurological issues, seizures, possible issues from worms/dehydration, etc and kept her over night in an 'incubator'.
I called this morning and she did eat greedily but threw it back up, probably from not eating then pigging out.
She is, in the vet's word's "more normal" today but she is still "blind".
I had her tested for TBDs and she is negative.
And I noticed she has a calcified lump on her right elbow that appears to be a healed bone break, possibly acquired during birth, according to the vet.
I have never seen or heard of anything like all of this.
*Any* help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated since she is, apparently, now "my dog".
[and racking up the vet bills at an incredible rate]
Has anyone ever encountered something like this, that I might have any suggestions for the vets to check for?
Although this was a wholly unexpected and shocking turn of events in my relatively calm life, of course, now that I've spent time holding her and trying to save her, sadly, I love her and am emotionally invested.
And I've named her...so I'm truly doomed.
Please offer anything you've got...except, please, condemnation for getting involved, riot acts for 'taking home strays' or yelling at me for answering the phone.
I've already flogged myself quite thoroughly.
[note to self: turn the caller ID back on]
If it helps at all, this is a photo of her about at [around] 3 weeks or so when her eyes had just opened and again, about 10 days ago: