Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Buzo, the gentle giant.

One Great dane, Buzo lives in our building. As a neighbor we knew each other and we knew about each others pets too. Every morning our communities strays and a heavy voiced dog are put into discussion about the area, as it belongs to whom and hearing that I knew that Buzo is going for the walk. As the discussion was too loud between the strays and Buzo that it worked as a alarm for us everyday. One day passed and Buzo did not came down for the walk, I thought maybe the owner is not home today, as only the ladies husband takes him for walk because he is too big to be handled by woman and almost drags the handler behind. The other day also passed and he did not came, I thought may be they are gone out of the city so they left Buzo to their friends place. Eight-Nine days past and still I did not see Buzo anywhere. One evening when I was walking in the society's compound I saw their son coming from somewhere.I called him to ask if Buzo is not here and to my surprise he said Buzo was admitted in the hospital and was given drip and blood and the doctors have said that its the case of intestinal failure. So whatever he is eating is coming out immediately in jelly like stool, he was having bloody stools and not just few drops or clots but it was just fresh blood every time, his stomach and intestines cannot hold the food. Buzo has become so thin and do not know how many days he can live.I was stunned to hear that how a healthy n such playful dog has gone this far, It was second time i heard this thing that some healthy dog suddenly fell ill and going to die, not to remind my Google was the first one.
I immediately went to see him and found him so weak, he did not had the energy to stand on his own and the whole place had a foul smell even after the room was nicely cleaned with so much antiseptic solution. As soon as Buzo heard my voice and saw me he wagged his tail but slowly, it looked like his eyeballs were pushed inside. He slowly placed his head in my hands and his eyes explained all his misery and helplessness. The lady said the same things to me as his son has already explained. Buzo looked very thin and pale, all his bones on his spine can be counted. I asked her to show me the medication given by the doctors. They showed me the bag, full of supplements and no particular medicine which can cure. I saw 3-4 variety of supplements and no antibiotic or any drug to stop the loose motion first. I was speechless, what kind medication is this? As far as I know supplements goes parallel with the corrective drug and after that to regain the strength of the body but here the doctors have not given any medication yet. I asked if they had given any anti biotic injection in the drip then show me the file made for him and she said no I remember there was nothing. I said send your son with me at my home and I will give you Dependal-M give one every 12 hour and he might be back in life. I asked her to give him medicine first and few minutes later some light food like, boiled potato and mix some green gram (moong) broken wheat (daliya)  and boil and make it like a thick soup and give a cup of that after one hour. She was still worried cause she was confident that he will poop as soon as he will eat potato.I said trust me and try this once nothing will happen. And if he is really dying then also you try whatever comes your way. She agreed, her son took the medicine from me and I told him that I will come after one hour to see if he ate well and retained in his stomach. I was worried too  and as usual read some material online about intestinal failure in dogs, but did not found anything satisfactory. After one hour I went to their house, my fingers were already crossed, she opened the door with so much joy and said it worked wonder, he had that potato and a cup of daliya and still fine and I knew it worked.  I said, now he will be fine. I reminded them to give the other dose exactly after 12 hours as we need to end the circle of reproduction of bacteria's. She started saying that they spend about forty thousand rupees on his 10 days hospitalization and all supplements and I laughed that how you only needed five rupees to make him healthy(10 tablets costs around five rupees). I said its the medicine we humans can take when the stomach is upset when we suffer from bacterial infection. Next day morning I went to see Buzo and she told me that she has already given the medicine and he did not do anything whole night and in morning the condition of the poop was incredibly sound and now even she is convinced that he will be fine now. I kept visiting Buzo and he was regaining his health everyday. He suffered severe bacterial infection, which was cured after five days with 10 tablets of Dependal-M. She later on told me that she saw so many dogs dying in the hospital in her 10 days visit because of the bloody stools and no proper medication in time.
Two months have already passed and Buzo is absolutely normal now, in fact it dose not look like he ever fell that ill. I am not a vet but I wonder at times are the vets here so fool or I am so extraordinary intelligent to cure two different breeds suffering from different disease altogether. Whatever, I am so happy that I saved two lives lying on the death bed. When Buzo started to walk on the road to recovery, the lady came to me with the bowl full of sweets and asked humbly that what gift I want in return as her husband is mad for Buzo and wants to give me something special, I smiled at her and said I have already got what I was looking for.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

How I saved my Furball (dog)..!

I have a pug dog whom we bought from someone when he was 2 years old (as i was told about the age and now i believe its little tough to judge the exact age in smaller breeds ). We started calling him "Google" as when he came home he started searching for things to play with.Soon he became not only the member but someone I cannot imagine to be detached from me and my husband as we both started loving him like our own son.
Google is our second pet, we already had a Labrador Retriever of  two and half years named 'Apple'. We brought Google mainly to accompany Apple as we thought he may need somebody to talk to when we were not at home and locked him inside and he also accepted him from the very first day, so in short everything was picture perfect for 3-4 months.
One morning around 5 a.m. or something I heard some one breathing heavily in the room, I got up to look if my fur babies need me, I saw that Google stood up to approach me. He was sleeping between my legs and as soon as he stood up, he fall on the bed like puppet, it looked for a second that he is dead, I turned white from fear,as one cant expect to see such thing and i was still in half sleep trying to understand where the sound came from n who made it,cause it was still very dark in the room .I screamed  n rushed towards to pick him up.He was still breathing, and I ran towards the outside door so that he could breath in the open air, and he gained consciousness. He was looking so tired and dull, I sat there for an hour till he could feel normal, offered him water, but he did not showed interest in eating or drinking. He not only remained dull whole day but also fainted 2 more times,specially whenever he showed any excitement. In the evening when he fainted third time, I picked him up n went to the nearby vet, she examined him, asked the symptoms and said that this might be the start of epilepsy and prescribed me gardenal syrup.We came back home and after giving medicine, he fainted one more time and looked even more sick and tired. We were totally left panicked and immediately called the vet again at 10.30 p.m. to tell her the situation and she said do not panic watch him over the night if it increases we will take the x-ray tomorrow morning. I concentrated on him whole night and took hold of him when he again fainted 2-3 times in night and in the morning took him to the bigger hospital where he could be x-rayed. Ultrasound and ECG was done on him in the hospital and the doctor concluded that its valvular problem (MVD) and his heart might be enlarged because of the problem. They prescribed diuretics for the proper flow of blood in the heart and light food. It was really hard to accept that it was really happening with our fur ball but we stick to the plan. For next two days we kept giving him the medicine and the fainting did not stop, he was still fainting 3- times a day and completely stopped drinking water.His urine was thick and dark yellow. When we saw no change in him we took him to the hospital to know about some more medicine as this was not working properly and forced them to take the x ray to know how enlarged his heart is actually. They took it said yes it is really in a bad shape, it has grown too big and said may be he is having 2-3 more months to live or may be if given the best care, 5-6 months more and asked me to continue the medication already prescribed. I started crying and my breath was stuck in my lungs, I was feeling heartbroken and came back holding him tightly into my arms and promising him the best of everything in his last days, I promised him that he will die in my arms only, no matter what it takes and I will never leave him. As soon as I reached home I started to search for all the internet material on CGH and MVD to know in detail about the disease and the treatment. He started to look fat, where as he has given up his food and water from last 3-4 days,he looked swallowen specially from abdomen part and was not able to sit n sleep properly, so sleeping on two three pillows to give his chest support and height from the ground.Slowly he was turning pale and his eyes started being white. On eighth day, when he was sleeping he opened his eyes looked very sad and peed in the cushions and fainted. I was still searching for some alternative medicines or anything which could save him anyhow. I was tired as it was eight days and I have not slept properly while taking care of him since the first day of the problem started and from last three days i was continuously reading each and every material available online on the problem,   its symptoms, treatments, side effects, parallel medication and after 3 days,day and night research I found that I should try furosemide (Lasix) if he is having swallowen abdomen cause it can effectively manage the edema (liquid congestion) in the lungs and abdomen. On the ninth day,morning, I brought lasix and given the half of it to him. After 2 hours I took him outside to pee and to my amazement he peed a lot and the color of the urine was very light, he came inside and drank some water after nine days. I was overjoyed to see that, as it looked like may be it was the thing I needed from the beginning. I took him out every one hour so than he can release the water in the urine form and to my surprise he looked better, behaved a little agile and started drinking water. I knew, that's it now, and continuously three days I gave him lasix and he was back on track, started eating, drinking and looked that everything will be fine.One thing he did during lasix treatment, whenever he used to go out, he was licking dust, n kept licking lots of it, may be it was the bodies need for calcium or something. I gave him the most healthy foods which i used to cook myself for him. Rice with some pulses and soybean and some chicken pieces in to it, milk and eggs, so that his body can regain and fulfill the damage done all these days. I made sure to bring 100% organic grains for him. Later on i read that potassium and Vitamin-B  supplements may be needed with pill. Today Google is perfectly fine and the 2 years have already gone since that nightmare in our lives. He still revive with that thing after few months but i give him 2-3 doses of lasix and he becomes perfect. Now keep check on the color of his pee and the amount of water he is consuming  every day so that i can ascertain that he is again going to fall ill. I read that in pug dog they become sick sometimes because of the hypertension also, if you leave them alone for some time or they get terrified of something they become the edema victim.
So next time if your dog falls very sick like that you may do some medication with the help of reading materials online and do not give up on them and do not put them down so easily as you might come up with a solution yourself. Always look for parallel medications available like Ayurveda, Homeopathy or any other alternative than Allopathy. Food is the very basis of good body and better immune so give the best to him. If you have pugs or any other breeds this article might help you recognizing the symptoms and the treatment.
                                                              Happy Petting.