Sometimes, We Can Hold On

        

Jared, now with muscles, not just fur

  A few posts ago, I mentioned Jared, our beloved red and white Siberian Husky with blue eyes.   As of January of this year, Jared is now fourteen years of age.  He was doing well until about late November, when he stopped eating almost entirely.  Complex testing revealed a positive test for Erlichia, and he was treated with an antibiotic, and became even sicker.  We decided that even if Jared didn't survive this, that we were committed to trying to get him through what seemed to us to be an acute illness.

               With the veterinarians approval we did the following:

    Doxycycline every twelve hours.

    Lactobacillus (human dose) twice a day  (three hours before the antibiotic doses)
     (To help replace and maintain the positive bacteria in the gut which can be destroyed by
       antibiotics.)

    Ranitidine twice daily.   (To keep stomach acid down and diminish the chance of stress ulcers.)

    Metronidazole every twelve hours.  (To decrease colon inflammation and to treat any amount of shigella   ( which is ever present here in the surface water of the farm.)

**    (His glucosamine and chondroitin will have to continue when he is well, and when his stomach is less of a consideration.)


   Then, we offered everything from chicken, chicken dog food, chicken and sweet potatoes, turkey, etc.  We eventually found a few things he would eat for a few days, and then his appetite would change, and we would have to locate something else.  Sometimes, we would make him a hamburger.

    Eventually, the antibiotic was completed, but the diarrhea continued.    Since his labwork showed a low sodium, we salted his food.  We continued the ranitidine and the lactobacillus acidophilus and added acidophilus bifidus also.   Later, we also tried some other preparations of lactobacillus, including lactinex granules which have to be stored in the refrigerator.

      The vet was careful to explain that even though Jared was still alive, that he remained thin, and at fourteen, was very likely to pass from this illness.   Some days we had to give Jared his medication through a plastic feeding syringe (without a needle) I was careful to keep fluids out of his lungs.   Even though we realized that Jared was gravely ill, he remained cooperative.  We covered our laundry room floor in chux every night and would bring him in from the kennel to sleep each night, mostly because colon repair takes place during sleep, and we thought that he would probably sleep more deeply inside, especially in the cold.

      It took seven weeks of fairly intensive effort and expense, but Jared appears well.  There is no more diarrhea.  He is eating a moderate amount of the appropriate dog food twice daily.  He is gradually putting on weight.  His muscles are returning and as I let him out of the laundry room each morning and run him to the kennel, he drags me, and I have to work hard not to have an injured shoulder.

      We can't always save every elderly beloved dog who finds his way into our hearts, but sometimes we can.  I realize that Jared is on borrowed time, but, aren't we all ?  Daniel would be so pleased that Jared will have some extra time on Earth.  He will have him soon enough.    I am going to make these remaining days of his, memorable and special for Jared, and for the rest of us.


Prior posts concerning Jared:

http://lifeaftertherescues.blogspot.com/2013/12/updates-on-jared.html



http://lifeaftertherescues.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-story-of-jared.html