Sally is in the hospital

Right before I went to bed at midnight this morning I tube fed Sally, put a puppy warmer in the whelping box with Rosie and situated Sally between Rosie and the warmer. I thought if she were pushed away at least the warmer would keep her warm. When I got up at 2:30 a.m. she was way on the other side of the box. She was pretty cool (but not in a groovy kind of way). I tube fed her, wrapped her up in her little fuzzy blankie, put my sports bra back on, and put her next to my heart under my warm fuzzy jammies. Then I went back to bed with Sally with me. I had to be careful not to hug my body pillow or I might smother her. So it is official now, I'm going to have to Kangaroo her, raise her myself, and keep her forever. She is my puppy, hope you won't get sick of hearing about her.

I got a flat tire this morning when I was taking Bryony and Jill to school. Man I hate that. Good thing I was still in my driveway. I used Rick's truck to take them. When I got back home I tried to change it. One lesson my mother really tried to instill in me is to be able to be self sufficient. I kept hearing her say "Don't be a helpless female" "You don't have to have a man save you" "You can do this yourself". I tried and tried. I got the spare out from under the van, jacked up the van, and got the lug nuts off the tire. I just couldn't get the tire off. I even went online to see if there was something else I needed to do to get it off. I ended up calling the tire place to ask them. He said to give it a few kicks. I did, it didn't budge, and the jack slipped out. sigh I gave up, called my auto insurance company who sent someone right to change it for free. Man that is the way to go. They had someone out within 45 minutes, he was really friendly and encouraging. Best of all, his pants were pulled up all the way and it wasn't obscene when he bent over to change the tire. I messed around with the tire so long it was afternoon before it was all taken care of. Sister Teri is going to take my van to the tire place where they will fix it for free.

I had been in and out checking on Sally. I had fixed up a tiny box with a warmer in it and left her in Luida's care (man I'm going to miss Luida when she leaves next week - anybody want to came take her place?). When I was cleaned up from the tire fiasco I got Rosie and offered Sally to her. She cleaned her bottom, seemed only mildly interested in her and walked away. She just left her there on the cold hard floor all alone. DaVinci was interested in Sally but he was busy babysitting his own puppies. I put Sally back in her box after feeding her. About 1/2 hour later Luida noticed white froth around Sally's mouth. I took her and looked her over. She was burning up then she started having what appeared to be a big seizure. It kept going on and on, then she started turning blue. Her lung sounded just fine. I gave her some honey just in case her blood sugar level is low. I doubted that was the case since she had recently eaten. Still, that is just standard practice when in doubt. She kept seizing and she didn't look good. I picked up the phone and started to call the hospital. Then I put the phone down. I started talking to Luida (she probably didn't understand half of what I was saying, but it helped having her there, I'm gonna miss her...have I said that lately?) Did I really want to go above and beyond to save her? Remember Baby Junior and Ellie and their ongoing problems? Is it really a good idea? Is nature just trying to do what is best and take her? I have been promising I wouldn't knock myself saving another puppy. ooooooo Then we noticed a zit like pustule on her belly and another one on her head. Hmmmm, she has an infection...that would cause the fever and the seizure....if that was the only problem then yesssss we'll try to save her. Luida drove us to the hospital. I had to give a very brief report of what was going on, hand her over, then go sit in the waiting area. Hmf I've never had to do that before. This hospital is so different from my usual vet. Before too long the veterinarian came out to talk to us. They had x-rayed Sally's lungs to make sure she didn't have pneumonia, she doesn't. Her blood sugar was dangerously low, good thing I had given her the honey or she might have died before getting there. It turns out her umbilical cord is infected and she likely has sepsis. That caused the fever and the seizure. They put an IV in her neck and will be giving her IV antibiotics and IV glucose. They will also tube feed her. The estimated cost will be $300-$350 for the first day. This is MY puppy baby. Sally is the one on the right.

Forgot to mention we removed dew claws earlier today. I just did quick snip snips and didn't use the clotting stuff. They barely cried at all. This wasnt' traumatic.

The Fed Ex man was here. I'm so excited. I am now the proud owner of 100 incontinent pads. They are the blue backed washable kind and in like-new condition. I was really hoping to get them before Rosie had her puppies. I plan on using these for the bottom of the whelping box, for the bottom of the crates, for during deliveries, and for anything else I can think of.