“Ruff” Week for Chloe and Pippa

It’s been a “ruff” week for our two special needs girls, Chloe and Pippa. We know some of you have been wondering about them, so here’s the latest …

Chloe

Chloe has been eating and showing some typical JRT feistiness the past week, but she hasn’t been gaining weight like we had hoped, so we took her back to the vet yesterday.

Another fecal exam was done and showed negative for parasites. The doctor thinks perhaps her pancreatic enzymes may be off or possibly her liver is not functioning properly. Either issue could cause her not to absorb the nutrients from food and, basically, just pass it through her system. They are running blood tests to look at both areas and will also run a general blood chemistry panel and a heartworm test. We will know more in a few days.

As reported before, her teeth are beyond terrible. The vet literally pulled one of her teeth with her fingers. Yikes! She tried to scrape a bit of the tartar off her teeth and had a little success with that. She is in no condition for a dental, so she gets the pleasure of having ointment applied to her gums twice a day. Believe it or not, she’s being a very good girl about it, even though they are obviously hurting her. No one has lost a finger yet! 😉

Pippa

Pippa has been spending the week at the vet after an alarming white blood cell count during some routine tests. Our vet said she has the worst case of heartworm he has ever seen and, without treatment, she will not be with us much longer. 🙁 Slow-kill is not an option at this advanced state and the regular option is tough on even young, healthy dogs. That said, x-rays showed that there is no damage to her lungs, which is wonderful news.

It was a hard decision, but with the good news about her healthy lungs and Pippa’s incredible will to overcome anything (i.e., she has no idea she’s sick), we opted to move forward with the heartworm treatment. This, however, is on hold because of the bloodwork findings.

So, for now, our little trooper is hanging out at the clinic, getting some high-dose antibiotics and lots of TLC. The clinic staff has fallen in love with her. They say she runs around the office, brightening their day and wondering why everyone is so concerned about her. 😉 We are taking things day by day. Whatever happens, we will make sure this girl gets a ton of love and knows what a wonderful dog she is.

Want to help?

As you have probably assumed, the vet bills are wracking up. Thanks to your donations, we have been able to cover some of the care for these little girls, but we are definitely in the red. That, of course, won’t stop us from doing everything possible to save and heal these sweethearts. If you would like to to help, you can donate to the girls using the Paypal button below. Thank you to everyone for your questions and concern over these two, as well as your prayers, thoughts, etc. That means so much to us. We will continue to keep you posted on their progress.