Dogster

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My life so far

Gone but not forgotten

I am sorry to say Raven passed away this afternoon (2-04-2006). She fought long and hard, but in the end she was too weak to keep fighting. She will be missed but never forgotten.

The fight to survive

On Dec 11, 2005 Bailey gave birth to 6 adora-bull puppies. There were 3 males and 3 females. She was a little unsure about what to do when the first puppy was born, so she tried to bury it in the blankets and then lay on it. She soon caught on to the whole cleaning idea. Things seemed to be going good. Everyone was being fed and getting cleaned. Every so often Bailey would push us all into a pile and try to lay on us. Then she got to where she would let us all start nursing and then she would roll onto her back and then back into a nursing position, and as a result she would lay on all of our heads. Bailey ended up laying on one of us girls and killing us. My soon to be new mom cried a lot. She spent the next day making sure Bailey was feeding us every couple hours and she wasn't trying to lay on us. Bailey soon decided she didn't want to take care of us anymore. So, that is how we became bottle fed babies.

At 3 weeks of age, we got colds and had to go the vet to get some medicine. That is when I found out I had a hernia. My new mom was a little upset, but she said it didn't matter because she would take care of me. We all got over our colds.

At 6 weeks of age we went back to this vet to get our shot and to be wormed. Those shots were not at all fun. Mom said we must be pigs because we had put on an average of 1 lb a week since the last visit. Then there was the bad news. Out of the 5 of us, 3 had hernias. And I have a heart murmur. My mom was a little upset at first, but then she calmed down because she knew the hernias could be fixed and we could work on the heat murmur.

A few days after our trip to the vet, we started having dirreaha. Mom didn't think much about it because we were just wormed. She was told there was nothing to worry about as long as we were still eatting and drinking.

8 days after our vet visit for shots, some of us stopped eatting. Mom took us back to the vet and we were given some antibiotics. Mom asked what was wrong with us and the vet said it was really hard to pinpoint exactly but the antibiotics would take care of it. A few hours after our trip to the vet, my sister passed away. Early the next morning one of my brothers passed away. Mom took us to an emergency vet, but they were not any help. They didn't give much hope for survival and were concearned with doing anything to me because of my heart murmur. Mom decided to take us home and let us be comfortable for the time we had left. My brother died shortly after we arrived home. Mom still feels she did the right thing. I am still alive.

According to a vet, we all have/had corona virus. Mom did a lot of reading about it. Mom called our regular vet to get info and the vet said we were not vaccinated against it because it was not a very common illness. Mom understands not being vaccinated against it, but doesn't understand why the vet didn't do more tests when we came in sick. Mom feels a little guilty about what happened to us. She asks herself if she would have not gotten us our shots, would we still be alive? That is the only place we had ever been so it has to be where we picked up the virus.

Today is Jan 31, 2006. My sister died on Jan 27 and my last brother died on Jan 29. I am still surviving. No one is sure how, but mom is not giving up on me. She said she will fight for me as long as I fight for myself. I am not eatting or drinking on my own, but mom usese a syringe to give me water and a liquid diet. I am starting to gain some of the weight back that I lost from being sick. My dirreaha is getting better. I am more active. I run all over the house looking for mom. I even try to get on the bed and couch to be with mom. I just want to make sure I am not alone. Even though mom lost all my brothers and my sister, she still feels she did the right thing by not leaving us in a strange place (the vet). It would have only added stress and probably would have cost me my life as well.

Mom will keep my diary updated on how I am doing. She hopes there will be many more entries to come.