Roxanne<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0instructed.\u00c2\u00a0 Baby food is all she could get Molly to eat so she sent a small jar of baby food home with Brian the other day.\u00c2\u00a0 Anyway, Molly ate a third of it.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe even less than that. <\/p>\nCompletely worried at this point, I decided to call the vet.\u00c2\u00a0 I had previously made an appointment for Molly’s vet check on Saturday but I didn’t think she would last until then without eating so I wanted to do something right away.\u00c2\u00a0 I wanted to figure out what we could give to her or what we could do to get her to start eating.<\/p>\n
The vet’s prognosis was grim.\u00c2\u00a0 She is very concerned about Molly’s anorexia.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure she looks fine in pictures.\u00c2\u00a0 Remember, the camera adds ten pounds.\u00c2\u00a0 Not having any prior experience with puppies, much less toy breeds, I really didn’t know that\u00c2\u00a0Molly is\u00c2\u00a0way too small for her age.<\/p>\n
The vet said that Molly should have a good, healthy appetite for her age.\u00c2\u00a0 She squeezed some canned cheese onto the examination table in hopes of capturing Molly’s interest to no avail.\u00c2\u00a0 She said a normal, healthy puppy would’ve been all over it.\u00c2\u00a0 She’s worried that Molly is sick and with the puppy being severely underweight, she believes that Molly hasn’t been eating for a while.<\/p>\n
She wanted to check for liver disease and parvo.\u00c2\u00a0 We couldn’t check for parvo yesterday because Molly had just gotten a parvo shot the day before and testing for parvo that soon after would probably result in a false positive.\u00c2\u00a0 So they took a blood sample and a stool sample from Molly yesterday and will be doing some tests on that.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m supposed to find out today what the diagnosis is and if we need to proceed with a parvo test.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, I have specific instructions to syringe-feed Molly every two to three hours.\u00c2\u00a0 The vet gave me some special canned food that is of loose consistency so it’s easy to suck up with a small syringe.\u00c2\u00a0 I also have a glucose supplement that comes in a toothpaste-like tube.\u00c2\u00a0 I have to administer 3-5 cc per day to Molly so that she doesn’t have seizures.\u00c2\u00a0 Small dogs and puppies are prone to hypoglycemia so I have to make sure her glucose levels aren’t too low, particularly since she hasn’t been eating.<\/p>\n
Brian is really upset.\u00c2\u00a0 He thinks we got a raw deal, having purchased a sick puppy.\u00c2\u00a0 I told him that adopting a puppy is much like having a child.\u00c2\u00a0 When that child comes out, you hope that it is healthy but sometimes it doesn’t turn out that way.\u00c2\u00a0 We will just have to take care of Molly.<\/p>\n
Personally, I’m hoping that the vet doesn’t find anything.\u00c2\u00a0 That Molly isn’t sick.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m hoping that we’ll find out today that she’s underweight because of her lack of appetite and nothing more.\u00c2\u00a0 If I have to syringe-feed her everyday for her entire life, I will do it.\u00c2\u00a0 The sickness is what worries me.\u00c2\u00a0 If she does get diagnosed with either liver disease or parvo, there isn’t much we can do for her.\u00c2\u00a0 Both conditions are pretty much fatal to puppies.\u00c2\u00a0 They are very costly to treat (think thousands upon thousands of dollars) and there is no guarantee of survival.\u00c2\u00a0 With Molly being so tiny, she isn’t likely to survive.<\/p>\n
Just the thought the Molly could leave us any minute upsets me.\u00c2\u00a0 I cried most of the day yesterday because I was sick with worry but I was glad that I could stay home to feed and care for her.\u00c2\u00a0 I decided to stay home again today because someone has to feed her and Brian can’t stay home from work.\u00c2\u00a0 If we don’t syringe-feed her, I’m afraid she won’t eat.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m hoping that we can get her appetite going in the next three days so I don’t have to stay home from work next week.\u00c2\u00a0 However, I will stay home if I have to.<\/p>\n
I think part of the reason Brian is so upset is because he feels that Molly is taking me away from him.\u00c2\u00a0 He starting crying yesterday because I slept on the couch to be with Molly the other night.\u00c2\u00a0 I had to sleep on the couch again last night.\u00c2\u00a0 He understands but at the same time it still upsets him.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s also upset that she won’t eat.\u00c2\u00a0 He says it’s not normal to have to go through all we are going through to nourish her.<\/p>\n
I am sad that Brian is depressed.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m sad that Molly isn’t healthy.\u00c2\u00a0 But I am happy that she is with us.\u00c2\u00a0 I love her and will do my very best to get well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I don’t know who to feel more sorry for, Molly or Brian.\u00c2\u00a0 Molly hasn’t had an appetite at all since Brian brought her home.\u00c2\u00a0 She had some vomitting on Wednesday but Brian and I attributed that to carsickness and thought nothing further of it.\u00c2\u00a0 When I tried to feed her yesterday morning she still wouldn’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}