Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Coco is dying.
I have no other conclusion than that.
I have given her the antibiotics, but it appears it's too little, too late.
She simply refuses to eat anything.  When I say anything, I mean chicken, beef, canned dog food, dog biscuits, whatever.  I cannot force the dog to eat.  She is so weak she can barely walk and at the point she can't walk? That's the end.  Dogs that can't get up and move around are dogs that do not live.
It seems unbelievable that I've had that dog to the vet twice and still nothing good has become of it.
She has been starving herself for about 2 weeks now and of course, you can't live forever without eating.  She took a LITTLE food yesterday, when I say little I mean like a couple of teaspoons full.  After that, she would have none of it.  I wish I knew what else I could do for her, but I don't know and I can't continue to ...........
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SNAP OUT OF IT.
Geeze.  Sometimes I piss myself off.  What can I do.  What can I do indeed.  Just took a can of beef broth, -poured in into a blender.  Took a whole leg of chicken (cooked, of course), tearing off both the skin and meat and dumped it in there.  Got some of my chicken and rice casserole that is left over from the other day and dumped that in there as well. Enough chicken and rice to make a good meal for a dog.  Turned on the blender and let'er whirl.  For quite a while, I wanted it watery in it's substance.

Sure enough, just like water or enough so that a turkey baster easily sucked it up.  Poured all of the mixture into a bowl and started force feeding her.  Yup, took that baster and shoved it into her mouth and near the back and let'er rip.  Holding her head up, she had no choice but to swallow.  I emptied that entire bowl into her mouth.  Waiting to see if she's going to puke it up or something, but in all of this, puking hasn't really been a factor.  It's been 20 minutes and no sign of rejection so far. If she can keep that down, I will do that every day, a couple of times a day until she starts eating on her own.

She is SO terribly thin she looks like death walking.  It's extremely saddening to watch your beloved dog wasting away, in pain.  The doc said no pain killers because - whatever he said, I didn't really hear it.  I was giving her some aspirins but he said no for whatever reason  - I think dehydration - but I think I am going  to shun that advice as the dog is drinking water, lots of it.  No, her problem besides the acute infection is the fact that she hasn't hardly eaten anything in that last 14 days.  A few dog biscuits, a bowl of spaghetti one night, but that's it.

It's been an hour now and no sign of vomiting/rejection.  She has also perked up quite a lot! Yes.  Tomorrow I will be stopping at the grocery store and buying more broth - though probably chicken broth this time and I already have chicken to cook in the freezer, take some of that out tonight to thaw.
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Well, about 2 hours now.  I was waiting for the worst, though certainly not hoping for it.  Instead, not only has she stomached the liquid food, she also to appears to have stopped dribbling and pissing out bloodied urine.

It is time for me to go to bed.  She is in for the night, on her bed and crashed out.  Yes, I care for my dogs.  Very much so.

ben

3 comments:

Lowandslow said...

It really hurts to read this, Ben, as my best friend/dog Emma died last December from pancreatitis. I did everything I knew how to do, but nothing worked. I still mourn her passing. I hope Coco can recover and you can have lots more quality time with her.

S

Anonymous said...

I would be doing the same as you, Ben (feeding her through a tube). It has to work!

Sending you lots of positive thoughts that Coco will soon be on the road to recovery.

My thoughts are with you as well "S".

Lynne
Western Australia

BenB said...

Thanks for the support, Scott and Lynne, much appreciated!
ben

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