Sick Puppies

I know this looks really disturbing, but well, it is! Our little puppies got sick with parvo, which is a life-threatening illness. It attackes the immune system and destroys the gastrointestinal system from the inside-out, so the puppy throws up and has bloody diahrea. Most dogs don't die from parvo, but from dehydration or pneumonia. Well, since parvo is one of the most indestructable viruses out there (can last in a stable environmental for up to two years), both of our puppies got it at the same time. Meeka was the first, so we put her in the hospital for observation and IV's full of antibiotics and what-not. The day we got Meeka back, LiLu got sick, so we ended up having to do in-home care (cheaper than in-hospital care). The picture above is part of her fluid treatment. We put the IV in the scruff of her neck and squeezed a bag of fluid under her skin so she basically had a camel hump that her body would eventually absorb. Freaky, huh!?!?!?!?