Are there any Vetrinarians here?

[fuzzybear]

  We have no vet around here and I need some advice as to how to treat a puppy that is very sick.  I tried those Ask A Vet sites. : And the nearest vets are 6 hours away and will not give me any advice or help.  >:(  There is no way he will make that long of a trip and I am desperate to save his life.
  This is my kids dog and they already lost one dog due to poisoning this week.
   He stopped eating 3 days ago. I thought it was because his teeth were falling out and his gums were sore. But he stopped drinking and has extreme diahrea. He was on the verge of dehydration, but his skin still has elasticity, I have been forcing water and salmon stock into him every 45 min. His strength is down but not gone. He has been laying here watching movies with us and is alert. His breathing is raspy, and he has thick discolored drool.
  We lost the other pup due to antifreeze poisoning so I started with this pup by getting him drunk with rum just in case. He was not running free like the other dog and wasn't into the antifreeze. But the first puppy was intentionally piosoned by a neighbor, and I couldn't save him, so I wasn't taking any chances.
    I started giving him Amoxicillin 500mg. but I have only about 4 days worth of this antibiotic.
   Any help/advice is greatly appreciated. I am desperate to try and save his life. My daughter is already heartbroken over her other puppy dieing. and I can't stand to see her so sad.
Thank you in advance for any help
Donovan

[Reddog]

Sounds like Parvo to me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canine_parvovirus

Not much for home cures out there on this one. Hope I am wrong. :'(

[fuzzybear]

that's what I was thinking. But no other dogs have symptoms of it. And this dog has not had contact with any other dogs outside the pack. I never keep a dog where another dog has bedded. They each get their own new patch of ground.
  It very well could be parvo. I'm just trying to find out what to do. I have always done my own work on my dogs because of the lack of a vet here. What really gets me is none of the vets I called will even give me any help. I know I have to get food and water in him if I'm going to save him.
  The old vet we had would have been on the phone every hour looking for updates. But he was a REAL vet as far as I'm concerned. He saved many dogs without taking so much as a penny. He loved animals not money, we need more like him. God rest his soul.
Donovan

[scsmith42]

Donovan, my wife is a vet - I've sent her this link and she will log in as me in a few minutes and see what advice that she can share.

Scott

[fuzzybear]

Thank you Scott

[scsmith42]

Hello - I am Scott Smith's wife.  I will try to offer some advice, but I am afraid I don't have much to offer that is positive.  It is virtually impossible to tell what is wrong with the pup without a good physical exam and basic lab work.  But, I'll give it a shot. 

Given that you know the other pup was poisoned, I would guess that this one is suffering from the same fate.  Antifreeze poisoning only takes one lick for a dog to be fatal.  The signs that you describe are consistant with that.  Antifreeze toxicity causes irreversible kidney failure.  A dog will not eat because the toxins build up in their system and they are nauseus.  The kidneys don't work, so the dog dehydrates.  Lab work would tell you if this was the case.

It could be parvovirus or another infectious disease as well.  You don't say how old your pup is or what vaccines he received, but puppies do not build a proper immune response to parvo until 20 weeks (5 months) of age.  As such, they should receive a vaccine every 3-4 weeks, beginning at 6 weeks of age, until they are 20 weeks of age.  Parvo has similar signs to what you describe, but the stool will be bloody as well.

Even though you feel the pup's skin still has some "elasticity", I would imagine that he is very dehydrated.  He really needs IV or subcutaneous fluids ASAP in order to hydrate.  But, again, if the kidneys are damaged, it may not help.  Please do not give rum to a dog.  You will only cause further dehydration.  While the "old wive's tale" would have us believe that this is a treatment for antifreeze toxicity, it actually makes the matter worse.

The signs that you describe do not give me much hope.  Antifreeze toxicity is fatal in even the best of circumstances.  This pup needs emergency care right now and I know that such care is not available where you are.   I know that you are giving amoxicillin, but you don't know what you are treating, and therefore we do not know if it will even address the problem.  Antibiotics are aimed at bacterial infections.  They will not address virus'.

I am sorry that you have not gotten much help from veterinarians that you have called, but it is unethical to give medical advice over the phone without having a prior doctor-patient relationship.  To guess and to be wrong puts a veterinarian's license at jeopardy.  That is not the vet's fault, but the fault of today's litigious society.  That is likely what you are running into more than a monetary issue.   

Best of luck with your dog.  We'll be thinking of you.

[fuzzybear]

Mrs. Smith,
  Thank you for your advice. It is more than I have gotten so far.  At this point I am desperate to try anything. I know he is probably not going to make it. But I figured I have to try something. I havn't given him any rum for 2 days and it was only about 2oz mixed with 1gal of water that I fed him over 24 hrs.
   The pup is 5 months old and has had all the shots that they give at 2 months. With the lack of a Vet here there is little we as a community can do. We try to take care of our dogs when we can. We really need a Vet here. There are about 3000people and about 6,000 dogs. The nearest Vet is 350 miles away and 6 hours on a good day. But this time of year it would take at least 10 hours to reach them.
  I have to accept the fact that he is going to die. I am not happy about it.
  How another person could willingly poison a puppy is beyond me. But this is the same person that ran over a dog and then backed over it again. The RCMP have their hands tied because there is not hard proof he did it.
  Thank you again for your help.
   I am so proud to be part of this community of careing people. FF is the best family any person could be part of.  The people here are real human beings. Thank you everyone.
FB

[jim king]

You are in the Northen jungle and I am in the Southern jungle.  Mix a kilo of sugar to one half gallon of water and give it in a syringe into the mouth side ways as not to do damage falsly drowning into thier lungs..  MORE than you think the pup needs and he will have a good chance.  My wife has saved from horses to dogs poisened with bad stuff.  I have given gallons of sugar water to horses and dogs of my wife that were poisened by Narcos.  It works.  NOW

[Ernie]

this is the same person that ran over a dog and then backed over it again

That guy should be singing soprano.  When our dog ate a poisoned rat, we were told to give him charcoal.  The dog lived if that's any help.  Good luck FB.

[mrcaptainbob]

My cousin fed her two year old dog some chicken nuggets from a fast food place. Diarrhea with some blood mixed in and very 'mucousy', vomiting with some blood mixed in. Turned out to be pancreatitis. Dangerous almost always fatal if not caught in time. Her dog's issue was. A strict regimen of VERY little amounts of food, little amounts of water. The food that was allowed was a high nutrition product for dogs. Check out internet info on canine pancreatitis for info....Either way... I hope Pooch makes it.....

[fuzzybear]

   Sorry for the delay.  Eagle didn't make it. He got to the point he was in to much pain to go on.  So my daughter had to say good bye to yet another puppy in just over a week.
   My wife and I moved out of the bush to this commutity so our children would be safer and have better access to friends and such. My daughter wants to return to the bush now.
Part of me just want's to walk over and destroy everything that miserable excuse for a human owns. I know I can't.
   It is beyond me how a person could be so cruel. There have been over 20 dogs poisoned and killed here over the last 3 years. No one has been able to prove it is him. He is a squater that managed to get title to the land he is on for free. He moved into a community where there are over 100 dogs. All the dogs here with a few exceptions, are working dogs. people for the most part keep them chained up or kenneled. My pups never left our property, but they ran our trails all over our property. He placed a fresh jug of antifreeze on the trail opened, I found meat that I believe was soaked in anti freeze last night.
   I have to tell myself he will get his in the end. There are enough people around here that have had enough.  This is not how a person is supposed to act in a civilized society. We may be bush people but we are civilized. Although that is becoming harder to manage in this situation.
  I placed a game cam on the only trail that connects to his property.  The only thing I can do now is try to catch him on film. Then ALL bets are off.
   Thank you every one for your help. River (my daughter) also says thank you to everyone for trying to help daddy fix Eagle.
Donovan
   

[Patty]

Gosh I am real sorry to read that the pup didn't live. So sad.  :'(     

The man doing the poisoning for whatever reason will get his in the end. I truly believe that what goes around comes around, he is bad karma with a dark soul.

[sandhills]

I can't agree more with Patty on this one!  If you're "bush people" than you can call me a "hillbilly" anytime you want, I'm pretty sure we're one in the same, just in different regions.  I'm very sorry to hear about the pup, that man will get his just rewards in the end.

[Norm]

I'm sorry the pup didn't make it, hope the guy that did it gets his just reward. Karma's a female dog.

[Dan_Shade]

You found a pan of antifreeze on your property?

[isawlogs]

  That peice of dirt needs to be tied to a limbed spruce tree during deer fly season and left there for them to enjoy.

[mrcaptainbob]

That guy needs a night time visit. From several neighbor 'friends'....How tragic.
Sympathies and condolences on the loss of your and your daughter's friend.