Puppy Tails, Part II

We got Audrey and Olivia, our foster puppies, a week ago Saturday. Other than some puppy squirts, to put it delicately, all was well. They were playful. They were cuddly. Then they weren't.

Sunday evening, Olivia began acting droopy. She quit being playful. She didn't eat. She remained the same Monday. I called the humane society and left a message about her condition. She remained kind of listless all day, barely eating, barely drinking, continuing to suffer from her puppy squirts, which had turned particularly vile. I sat outside with her at 11 p.m. that night, snuggling her on my lap, crying, afraid this was something that she couldn't get over.

When I hadn't heard back from the humane society by Tuesday morning, I called the emergency number and talked to (I found out later) the manager of the facility. She asked me to bring in a fecal sample (that was a barrel of monkeys). She called me back within an hour and said nothing showed up, but I was to come by for an antibiotic for both puppies, which I did. In the meantime, I tried to entice Olivia to eat with plain yogurt with active cultures, baby food chicken, then canned chicken. She ate all of it, but was still a little droopy, regardless of some improvement in the poop department. Thursday, they called to say the other puppies in the litter tested positive for coccidiosis, so back to the humane society for a second antibiotic to take, in addition to the one they already had. 

Sick puppy in background. Ornery puppy in foreground.

The good news? Olivia's puppy squirts stopped. The bad news? Olivia stopped pooping altogether. I gave her chicken. I gave her milk. Nothing happened. But something's got to give eventually, and eventually it did, bless her heart, and we were finally on the road to recovery. 

Except for the cough.

Audrey started coughing on Wednesday evening. As she has a propensity for picking up sticks and rocks and eating them, I thought maybe she had something caught in her throat. Then we started looking up kennel cough, my son, daughter and I, and became more and more convinced that that is what she had. The more we researched it, the more frightening the diagnosis sounded, until the three of us were all crying with worry.

Naptime for Audrey.

Friday, Olivia started coughing. Audrey acted fine, full of energy and had plenty of appetite. Olivia was still droopy, although better than she was earlier in the week. She mostly wanted to lie down, especially in a lap. Sunday, they both got booster shots at the humane society. Sunday night, Olivia got listless again, her cough worsening. She wouldn't eat anything except a little chicken and some milk. She wasn't drinking water. 

And I held her and cried.

On Monday, I talked to the humane society again, and they told me to bring her in. New antibiotic for the kennel cough. Discontinue the first antibiotic. Keep taking the second one. Let them know if the cough worsens.

And that sweet little girl has rallied. She woke up Tuesday feeling a little better. Wednesday, she was playful. Today, she is wildly active, making up for lost time by playing extremely active games with her sister. 

And I cried, because I don't want to keep them, but I don't want to see them go.

Wait, Audrey just PEED ON THE DAMN RUG. Olivia quietly laid here next to me on the floor and ate the tip end off a shoelace. Oh, puppies! Someday soon, I'm going to miss this.