Poorly Puppies Perk Up

Well, the good news is… they will both be ok. Sort of.

(See the Nasty Creepy Crawly story)

On returning from the vets on Monday evening, Paddy was so ill, we really thought that he would die. He constantly drooled, and couldn’t stand up. We tried to force feed him cold water, but he simply ran away, very distressed. We tried to hold him still, and wipe his mouth, but it was obviously painful for him. In the end, we just left him.

Ed spent the night on the settee, keeping an eye on them both. Finally, at around 3am, Paddy got himself up, and tried to have a drink. His tongue was so swollen, it simply fell out of his mouth like a piece of liver. He couldn’t drink. Again, at about 6am he tried, with little success. At least he was getting himself around.

In the morning, Ed fed them with a special food from the vets. Very high nutrition and calories – especially for recuperating animals. Thankfully, they managed to keep it down. A little later, Ed then fed them ½ tin of puppy food, which they also kept down. At lunch time, I gave them a handful of biscuits, but Paddy was sick. This was obviously too much.

By the end of Tuesday, Max was much better, and Paddy was showing signs of making a good recovery. By Wednesday, we felt like fraudsters. Both dogs were bounding around as though nothing was wrong – although they were sleeping a bit more than previously.

Today (Friday) was D-day. What does the vet have to say? Well, we duly waited outside, for 5 pm, and this time there was only 1 person in front of us. When she saw us, she asked “Good?” we nodded and waited for our turn. Then came the hideous moment. As we sat and waited, Paddy yawned, and both Ed and I saw what we had been dreading. Paddy’s tongue was discoloured at the tip, and curled up, dying. We both looked at each other and felt sick. It hadn’t been like that earlier. Necrosis.

We wnet is to see the vet, and she looked at Paddy first. She saw his tongue, and explained that he would lose the end of it. ‘Does it need to be cut off’ we gestured? No, it would simply dry out, and crumble off. Nice. Thankfully, it is only the tip that has been affected, not the sides. Max was fine. They need to continue with their antibiotic tablets, but otherwise they are ok. She was very pleased with them.

I can’t believe that such a small creepy crawly caused so much distress.