Sojo

Short version: Sojo is happy, playful, lapping up formula with glee this evening, as we await test results that may or may not tell us why she doesn't seem to be growing like the other pups.

Much longer version: 

Tuesday was a chilly, wet, and dreary day. The weather was positively delightful however, compared to the sight that greeted me when I went out to clean and feed the puppies Tuesday morning. Two large pools of very liquid diarrhea, obviously tinged with a good amount of blood. First things first, I got the pups out of the shed and assessed the situation. Aside from the bloody diarrhea on the floor, there was a copious amount of soft and mushy poop all over the pads. Even before cleaning up I collected a sample from the bloody stuff and ran a parvo test on it. The result was negative, which was a huge relief.

The pups had been outside a lot the day before, and in addition to eating twigs, leaves, and dirt, I had also introduced a new food to their systems, mixed with the old, because, ironically, none of the pups had really been producing a solid stool. That was obviously much worse now, but my biggest concern was the blood, and Sojo. Tuesday was Clay's day off so he spent most of the day out in the shed with the pups, on poop watch. There was no more bloody stuff, from anyone, and even Sojo's next poop was at least better.

You can't help but notice that Sojo hasn't been growing and developing like the other pups. After the switch to solid food her weight did pick up, but mostly she's been growing this distended belly, while her frame is still small and bony. The other pups' growth has accelerated and that has made Sojo's lack of development even more obvious. She is now barely half the weight of the larger puppies.

Wednesday morning I took Sojo in to a vet for bloodwork. In addition to the regular full panel they did a bile acids test. I don't pretend to understand it but I just hope it will give some answers that will help. 

The bloody diarrhea may have just been a bout of colitis due to the food change and all the non-food things they've been ingesting since being outside. Her lack of development may be because I switched her to solid foods too soon when she was behind the others and still needed the replacement milk formula. She's been back on the formula since this happened and she's lapping it up like a hungry kitten, every couple of hours. 

She seems happy, playful, and is acting completely normal now. That's all good. I'm just feeding her separate from the others for now so she gets her formula while they devour the kibble. We'll see if the blood work tells us anything, but for now we will just work on getting her guts back on a track and see how she develops. This has all been a big expense to the rescue, of course, so if you've been waiting to make a donation, now would be a great time. Thank you to everyone who has donated funds, food, and supplies, we are using it all, believe me.

Heading to the vet in a cardboard box, Sojo size.

This is the sight that induced panic on Tuesday morning.

This sight is as beautiful as the last one was ugly, because this is a negative parvo test.

Sojo is back on a replacement milk formula diet for now.

She's not complaining a bit; she loves it and she doesn't have to compete with the others for it.

I love the fact that she laps it up out of a bowl, no more bottle feeding.

She looks so tiny here, and she is.

Although this picture shows her playing and having a good time, it also shows

what we're concerned about. She hasn't put on flesh like the others. You can see her

spine, her ribs, and her hip and shoulder bones, although her belly is swollen and full.

Although we're concerned about her, I don't want to give the impression that she's sickly and miserable. She runs, she plays, she mixes it up with the others. After the last feeding I did before finishing this post this evening, she was wrestling with Elliott, one of the biggest of the pups. She's tough and she's strong.