We almost lost him…

Father’s Day started like any other day. The puppies were given their breakfast of puppy mush, which they picked at and mama went in to nurse, but Simon, who is the smallest in the litter, kept getting pushed out of the way by his much bigger brothers. Mama has been weaning them for the past two weeks now and so her milk is all but gone, which means what little was there was quickly taken in by Alvin and Theodore. All three boys started out playing like usual but as the day went on we noticed that Simon was sleeping a lot more than normal. By 8 pm we knew something wasn’t right. I immediately gave Simon some Karo syrup. His blood sugar had dropped and he was very lethargic. I reached out to my vet who instructed me to give him puppy formula by syringe to attempt to get some nutrients into his little body. I syringe fed him several times before he started throwing it all back up. I kept a close eye on him all night. At about 8 am the next morning Simon suffered a seizure. I immediately notified my vet and rushed him into their office. He was examined and it was determined that he had a very low blood sugar also known as hypoglycemia. He was given fluids, nausea meds and a small amount of food. Once they determined that he was stable enough to go home, we were sent home with supplies for IV fluids, special canned food and more meds. I fed him small amounts of food every 1-2 hours all day and gave him 2 IVs for dehydration from the vomiting. We were told that it would be touch and go for a couple of days but that if he bounced back then he wouldn’t have any long term effects. He slept laying on my chest or curled up with my husband all of Monday. Then on Tuesday slowly we began to see small improvements. First, he began to whine to let us know that he needed to potty, then he began standing and walking and today for the very first time, he played with his brothers. He still isn’t 100% but he is so close.

I write all of this to say… I warn and educate my new puppy parents about the dangers of hypoglycemia in their small puppies. I give them handouts telling them what to look for and how to treat but I had never personally had a puppy experience it. I have always payed close attention to how much my puppies eat and they are fed at least three times a day but even with all of that I still almost lost sweet Simon. It happened fast and luckily I have an amazing vet who always responds to emergencies quickly. I hate to think what could have happened had I not known what to do and had a vet that took me seriously when I told him that something just wasn’t quite right. So… pay close attention to your sweet babies and monitor their food intake closely. This litter has been extremely picky with their food which has made the weaning process difficult. Most people will tell you that your dog won’t starve itself so if they turn their nose up at their food then let them but I am here to tell you that for toy breed puppies, you CAN NOT do that. They are so small that they don’t have a lot of fat reserves to pull from and they can and will go down extremely quickly if you aren’t careful. So don’t give up until you find a food that they will eat and make sure they eat it frequently. And once again, find a vet that listens and takes your concerns seriously. Thank the Lord, Simon looks to make a full recovery and will go on to live a nice long life with his sweet family.