OK, she's not really a puppy as she's almost two, but she's definitely poorly.
I've been trying to move Kita to a raw diet with a thought to maybe going to BARF or prey model in due course. Introducing the new diet slowly, I tried her with rabbit first. She adored it! Great start - this was a couple of weeks ago.
I'll fill in my other experiences with this new diet another day.
She had rabbit again on Sunday.
A couple of days later, she started suffering from diarrhoea. (That word is so hard to spell - I have to Google it each time to get the British English spelling.)
Oh no! Had I caused it by feeding her raw food? I didn't think so, dogs have a different digestive system from us. But still...
She went very reluctantly on her walks and seemed to be constipated too; she was straining a lot. I kept a close eye on her but she was fine at home. Lively and eating as normal.
But then she kept Rhiannon up all night by whining to get out. I let her into the garden at midnight whereupon she did the unthinkable and pooed there. Why is it unthinkable? Well, Shibas tend to 'do their business' well away from their 'den' or home. We were told it's because they are a primitive species and they don't want to advertise their presence to potential enemies. Usually, we have to walk some considerable distance before she 'goes'. In Tokyo, she got it up to two miles!
Anyway, I slept on the sofa with her, sort of, as she needed to go out ever couple of hours. I have to admit it was really lovely having a real teddy-bear dog to cuddle, and she was very cuddly. But poor, poorly puppy <sad face>.
As I mentioned here, I wasn't too keen on the vet we'd found. So first thing yesterday morning I emailed the hostess from the 'do' the other night for advice. She was fabulous and telephoned me straight away as well as emailing the address and phone number over. She even offered to come over and drive us there. What a truly kind and lovely lady.
I couldn't get an appointment until 5pm and told Tim to get home early as there was no way I could deal with a sick dog and a potentially over-dramatic child.
Poor Kita went downhill quite quickly. She refused to drink anything and slept so deeply I felt the need to poke her regularly to wake her up. On the occasions she went outside I could see she was in pain too. I Googled and panicked myself by thinking she may have an obstruction.
I spent the day getting fluids into her, but it was not easy. She'd lick drops from my fingers but would have nothing from the bowl. I improvised a syringe with a straw and managed to keep her going to the extent she was much perkier by the time we had to go to the vets.
Oh they were wonderful! It was a proper surgery rather than a slightly grubby front room and all the staff made a huge fuss of Kita. And they spoke English. And the vet knew about the Shiba Inu species, which is very useful.
The vet immediately attached her to a drip, took her temperature - which made her very cross - well it would, wouldn't it? No raised temperature, thank goodness. He gave her painkillers and antibiotics and said she'd probably picked up a virus by inhalation, something similar to Rotavirus - they'd had a lot of cases recently.
I've got antibiotic tablets to give her and she's been better today. Still not particularly keen on drinking, so I've had to continue that palaver, but she kept following me out to the kitchen for food. So I mixed some up with a lot of water and she wolfed it down.
This evening, she wanted to go for a walk, so she's obviously on the mend. Thank goodness!
What a worry.