Thursday, November 30, 2006

Just Breathe

I have some retired clients who really love their yorkies. As their old dog was winding down, they got a new puppy. "We forgot how much energy puppies have! He's too much! But we already love him."

When they finally lost their geriatric dog, I know the new puppy was a great comfort to them. He came in last week for booster shots, wriggling with zest for life.

Today they called and said he chewed through a Christmas light cord and was shocked. They rushed him in and did "mouth-to-mouth" in the car. He presented limp, cold, pale, and shocky. I was relieve that he did not have an electrical burn in his mouth. Xrays showed that he did have significant damage to his lungs - the shock causes fluid to fill the alveoli.

The little pup lay on a circulating warm water blanket all day, breathing in O2. All his energies were focused on breathing and healing. We treated him with diuretics and bronchodilators, but mostly he needs time to get better. He has to get better - I don't think these people could take another loss.

When you get the Christmas lights out this season, please watch your small creatures, and be aware of the dangers of electricity.

1 comment:

paula said...

Oh the poor little pup, I hope and pray he gets better. We must seem mighty boring around this time of year to our neighbours as we don't have many xmas lights due to the fact that our 3 cats love playing with the wires and it totally freaks us out.