Well Buddy came home tonight!! He's still not better but he's getting better. His white cell count came up yesterday. He had a fever last night but it was gone today. He's more alert and drinking water. They did a parvo test last night and it came back negative. hmmm.. He's only home for tonight, he goes back tomorrow to see how he does. They thought he's at a point where it's ok to go home for the evening, and being home will probably help his spirits. They're going to try and get him to eat tomorrow. I have a feeling he'll be hungry.
I must talk about my vet, Dr. Katherine Benton of Charleston Heights Vet Clinic in North Charleston, SC. They're normally closed on Wed. They offered instead of having buddy go back to the 24hr ER vet, that they would come in today just for him. They are so awesome, and they really care about Buddy like he was their own. I took her up on her offer for two reasons. One, better care in a more positive environment. Two, they allow visitors anytime for as long as you want. My girlfriend took off work (I'm out of town to pay for all these bills) and stayed with him all day. A vet tech came in this morning, Dr. Benton came in this afternoon. The receptionist came in this morning, and came back again with her son this afternoon. All these people are normally off on Wed and all were happy to be there for Buddy. My girlfriend had a Dr. appointment this afternoon and came back to the vet and the receptionist and her son were back there petting him. They normally open at 11am tomorrow but are coming in first thing in the morning to see Buddy. She's also been actively dealing with the vaccine company, sending them samples, talking to their vets, etc. in hopes of better understanding how he got this.
My girlfriend, Dawn, was just diagnosed with Leukemia a few weeks ago and has been blogging about it. Her latest blog post is about Buddy and this whole ordeal. I thought it was good and she said I could copy it here:
From:
http://www.goshdawnit.com
"He's Home!
Parvovirus. We went from a gas blockage to a virus that can cause death in puppies. Luckily we caught it early and he was put on fluids right away. Buddy is a rare case because he didn't present with the symptoms of parvo, they came on throughout the week. The poor guy has been shuffled from his vet to the ER vet all week. He has been soo sick, for a while there I was questioning if he was going to live through this. Every time I saw him he looked so miserable, so depressed. All I wanted to do was sit with him all day and night. If it weren't for work I would have been able to stay with him during the day at his vet, but on Sunday night the ER vet put him in quarantine and I was no longer allowed to visit him after I dropped him off. It tore me up. I hated knowing that he was in a tiny cage where he was one of many. Not getting special attention or the love that I wanted him to have. The complete opposite of when he stayed with our vet. They love him there, and cared for him. Always visiting and petting him. They are normally closed on Wednesday's but they came in on their day off just for Buddy. Plus I was able to take the day off today and stayed with him all day. After a week of continually getting worse he finally improved today. We were holding our breath when he finally starting drinking this afternoon. I got so excited with the prospect of maybe being able to bring him home. It was a waiting game. Waiting to see how he would do. If he would stop vomiting and stop having diarrhea. But so far so good, and I was able to bring him home tonight. It is so good to see him walking around. Sitting outside sniffing things. Drinking water. He's slowly getting back to his old self. It's so relieving to see that he's finally turned the corner.
It has been such an emotionally stressful week for me. I've had a really hard time dealing with my little guy being so sick. I haven't been eating or sleeping like I should. I've just been so scared and so worried. I can't describe the emotions I've gone through this week. I had no idea how attached I was to my puppy. Mike has been gone almost the entire time Buddy has been sick. He was able to get off in between shows to come home for a few hours to visit Buddy. I know that it helped Buddy to have his daddy home if only for a few hours.
How ironic that he ended up with Parvovirus, a virus that makes his white blood cell count go way down, at the same time that my white blood cell count was incredibly low. Then come to find out, my white cells have been rising at the same time his have, causing us both to get better and him to be able to fight his infection. Strange."