Sad News

I am sorry to have to report that one of the pups from Stella’s current litter has passed on. The smallest boy (we named him “Ready” and he wore a green rickrack) failed to wake up on Tuesday morning and just like that was gone from this world and onto his next journey. It all happened very quickly and with little warning.

Upon arriving from a weekend away, I noted to Cindy how much smaller he looked from the other four. He was always the smallest in the litter but, up to this point, was gaining weight and seeming just fine. We checked the weight chart, weighed him again and decided he would get special time with Stella without the other pups present. Having decided this made us feel better. That night was normal, Stella in and out of the box, in and out of the house, puppies alternately nursing, crying, piling up and then spreading out. The next day, Monday, I was working at the house and was trying to keep to the plan of giving Ready time with Stella…I would come up to the box every couple of hours, put Stella in the unoccupied side and settle him in with her. He would start nursing and when I returned a half hour later he was sleeping by her side. The day went like this but at some point later on I had the sense he was not nursing with much gusto and upon examining him noticed he was dehydrated. Cindy arrived home and we went to work on a more aggressive plan for him; hydrating and supplemental feeding every 2-4 hours. We had a feeding tube and a DVD and felt we could bring him around as we had done with a puppy from the last litter. We seemed to be getting the hang of the feedings, got the tube into the stomach, pumped in some good stuff, etc. One time he tossed a bunch of it back up and we felt disappointed but by and large, he was taking this fluid/food concoction in and keeping it in. He was showing no signs of an infection, nor did he have diarrhea or was he vomiting. He even had a normal bowel movement that evening. All in all, we did not feel the need to call the vet at 9:30 at night, did not choose to give a dose of antibiotics that we have in the kit, thinking, again, that we could rehydrate him, supplement his feeding and keep him warm and he’d be right in no time.

Cindy and I performed the tube feeding at 5 pm, 9 pm, midnight and then at 3 am. I could not get back to sleep so I stayed up with him lying on my chest, snuggled up in a fleece towel while I stroked his back. He made a soft sound with each stroke and I felt like we were going to be okay. I fell asleep like this and upon waking at 5:30, I returned him to the warming box, believe I heard another bit of puppy protest then went into the bedroom to wake my crew. I slid into bed and promptly conked out for another 45 minutes. We woke together and came out to take care of our boy. We found he had died sometime that morning. He was non-responsive and already beginning to stiffen up. We felt weird…sad, angry, sleep deprived, unsure if we’d done all we could have, etc.

We could not bring him back so we wrapped him up and laid him to rest looking out over the open water of Oseetah Lake. We think he’d like the view and maybe it helps him on his journey into the next. Peace.