One Sick Puppy

Emme has been sick and although she is well now, the experience has been disconcerting. A little over a week ago, she just stopped eating. She spent almost all her time napping. She wanted to be held or to lie on our legs. She was not herself.

When meal time came, she stayed in the living room rather than running into the kitchen to watch meal preparation. She refused tastes of Rudy's cheese and she wouldn't touch her kibble. Finally, we got scared that she was eating nothing and both Ken and I took turns sitting on the floor, feeding her one kibble at a time. With that, she ate some, but not all of her food. Her behavior was so unusual, no playing, no chewing, no "blitzing." We knew something was going on, but could not put our finger on what it was. She smelled "sour," not at all like a normal Emme smell. Ken would look at her big black eyes and declare that Emme had "sad eyes."

On the third day, we took her to the vet who examined her all over and could find nothing wrong. Her mouth had no sores; her teeth were fine; her lymph nodes were good; her temperature was normal. We decided to just "watch and wait." Well, we watched her getting sicker. We added a quarter of a Pepcid tablet twice a day in case it was an acid stomach. We mixed a tiny amount of tuna with her kibble to make it more attractive. She began throwing up each afternoon and then she turned a corner. She started to eat again. She began to play and she seemed more normal. Now ten days later, she is well. She is eating and playing as if nothing was ever wrong.

So we don't know what was the matter. She was one sick puppy for a while and now she is well. I don't want to repeat this again.