Carly

Dog’s Best Friend

/ jessdemers / Leave a comment

Can you tell what’s going on here?

Our Pomeranian puppy, Carly, has given us a bit of….stress….since she came to live with us in October.

First, a week after we got here, we learned that small breed puppies are susceptible to hypoglycemia.  Several hundred dollars later and a night at the doggie hospital and we will NOT be forgetting that any time soon.

A week later, while we were still on pins and needles about making sure she was eating enough & feeding her Karo syrup just in case, Carly completely stopped eating.  She didn’t just eat less or suddenly get a little picky.  She STOPPED eating.  Luckily, the vet had already turned me on to Nutri-Cal to keep her blood sugar up, but it was still an insanely stressful and mentally exhausting week.  Carly went from 1lb 3 oz to 8oz.  Yes, seriously.  She was sleeping all the time and getting smaller and smaller under her fluff of fur.  The vet diagnosed an upper respiratory infection and gave us meds.  Three days later nothing had improved.  Jason & I had just had the “we’re not spending more money, we’ll just have to get Amelia a new puppy” conversation when Carly magically started eating again.  We were sitting on the couch and Carly suddenly crawled up and sniffed at Jason’s face.  Then she licked it.  We put her down and she immediately ran over to her bowl and started eating.  Just like that.  After hundreds of dollars in antibiotics and decongestant eyedrops, a drop of Vick’s Vaporub on the nose (suggested on the down-low by the receptionist at the vet) did the trick. 

So, everything was great, Carly was eating and running around and heathy, until Friday night.  We were all goofing around when Amelia came in holding a lifeless Carly whimpering “I’m sorry…I dropped her”.  Apparently she’d fallen on her head.  I’m not sure what exactly happened.  Concussion?  Dazed a little?  Something with the spinal cord?  Her eyes were rolled back, her tongue was out and she didn’t seem to be breathing or have a heartbeat.  All I know is that Jason told me to take the kids out of the room and he did, I kid you not, puppy CPR.   Because Carly is apparently indestructible, she came out of this too.  An hour later she was literally as good as new.

So, we’ve learned a couple things from this.  Little dogs are a pain in the ass.  And Jason is Carly’s guardian angel.  Although she’s officially Amelia’s puppy, and she’s playful and affectionate with everyone, she obviously has a soft spot for Jason.  And he has a soft spot for her.  It’s right on the back of his knee……