I’ve done it again, fallen way behind in my blogging, I was sure I’d have much more time for blogging over winter but I just don’t know where it goes??!!
I’m going to do a couple of separate postings to catch up re. different things rather than another mammoth one ;o)
On a general note, the parson puppies are all doing great guns (4 weeks old tomorrow and I really must get some new pics) apart from our little ‘squidge’…at this very moment I am struggling to make a decision on her future, she is gaining weight but so incredibly slowly, she hardly seems able to take on enough food to sustain herself let alone grow and yet she is relatively bright, she sits up and is on her feet and toddling around with the others but she just looks so pitiful. She is painfully thin, a real tiny scrawny little thing and her coat is rough and disheveled despite being kept immaculately clean by Squirrel. She makes attempts to feed with the others but my feeling is that there is something wrong with her gullet or epiglottis that makes it virtually impossible for her to swallow correctly so while she is hungry, she can only feed for a very short period at a time and seems unable to take on enough before she starts to struggle. Poor Squirrel knows there is something wrong and is trying her best to care for her, she even picks her up and carries her to me like she’s asking for my help and as the other puppies grow bigger and stronger and more boisterous I worry that she won’t cope amongst them all for much longer. Early on I had decided to let nature take it’s course, if she lived she was meant to and if she didn’t then she wasn’t but now I am really concerned that she is surviving and suffering, hungry and weak and struggling to breathe. I’ve obviously grown very fond of this baby and don’t want to let her go and despite her best efforts to stay alive I wonder if the kindest thing I can do is make the decision for her. It’s a really tough call and one that is testing every emotion I have.
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3 comments:
I feel for you, it's an horrible decision. My friend had a pup like that in her litter of labs; there was something wrong with her bowel and it was touch and go. They decided to let the vet do an operation to bypass the problem. "Tinker" grew up fine and is now a working gun dog. But they have to be careful with her food and could never breed from her. Sadly there isn't always such a solution, and it wasn't easy seeing a pup go through that.
We see all the disabled humans and those with medical problems they were born with and there are many. This is because we are able to keep them alive...often treat them...or even if they have no quality of life, we insist on making them stay alive anyway to suffer.
We don't usually see it in other creatures because they usually don't survive. Some puppies are born with things wrong and it's a real shame that they don't get to have a life before losing it. There's a lot of bitches who know when something is wrong and they will deliberately oust the pup knowing there's no point putting any effort into it...as heartless as that seems to us.
My dad had a litter of BCs about 7-8 years ago and one little boy was returned to him because he was suffering sickness in his new home and such. They'd had him opened up and found nothing wrong. My dad took him back anyway and he was always thin and it also seemed like he wasn't fully with it. Wasn't the same outgoing pup that his sister was...found even simple things like clambering over a really small log way too much to handle and when my dad tried to rehome him again, he couldn't handle that either so he kept him. He knew there was something up, said his faculties weren't all there and, at 11 months old, he took a bad turn and had to be put to sleep. The vet reckoned he had something wrong inside his head and he'd experienced extreme pain from it during his bad turn. It was such a shame because he was a really sweet lad. Bless the poor thing. So sad that mother nature makes many mistakes as she does successes.
So sorry Nat, a v sad situation and an awful decision to have to contemplate. Thinking of you, I know you will do the best for her you can x
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