Update from Pippa’s Parents

What a weekend we had! Lots of visitors to the ranch on Saturday and, of course, the wonderful volunteer transport of Gracie and Katie from Atlanta to their new home in Michigan. If you are part of our Facebook family, then you will also remember that we announced Pippa has officially been adopted by her foster family. We did not want to overshadow her story with the others, so we waited until today.

As many of you know, Pippa has had various health challenges because of her previous neglect and major heartworm infestation. We know many of you have been wanting to know how she’s doing after her treatments, so here is an official update from her family after a follow-up appointment on Friday. Unfortunately, it’s not great news, but we cannot thank her parents enough. They knew her possible condition and they didn’t hesitate to fall in love with her and take her home. (Then again, it’s hard not to fall in love with this little girl and her amazing spirit.)

We have no doubt she will have the absolute best life ever. In fact, we know she already is; just check out the silly pic of her going to the vet with Mom …

“We always say that you are a member of our house when we give you many nicknames. She’s known as Pippa, Pippa Pants, Pippalicious, and Pipster. 🙂

She went for her EKG, and I wish it was all good news, but I wasn’t shocked at what it showed either. She has right-sided heart failure solely from the heartworms. It’s insanely crazy that this is 100% preventable. The doctor could see heartworms still in there because her body is still trying to break the big ones down. Her right ventricle is enlarged, and her valves show a lot of inflammation, as well as a heart murmur can be heard. Her heart is just weak and, of course, has permanent damage.

She’s going to stay on Lasix, start Prednisone for the inflammation, and start heart meds. We’re going to watch her until around May to give her body about 6 months to rid the worms. We’ll probably have to repeat the EKG at that time and assess if her meds need to be tweaked or changed.

With all that said, the doctor called her spunky. I asked how she could be so happy and be so sick and she said, ‘Well, she doesn’t know anything else. It’s her norm. She doesn’t know she can feel any different;. I thought that was about the most heart-breaking thing I’ve ever heard but its true. She’s just happy to have people that kiss her, even if she has rank breath and food when she’s hungry and dog beds in just about every room in the house. I guess it’s all we all need to be happy really.

She’s precious and we love her. :)”