antidote to complacency

Truly, I wasn't being intentionally smug.  But a teeny element of complacency must have crept into my tone somewhere along the line because now I'm paying the price.

At about 5 am I was suddenly plucked from the comfortable realm of having nothing to worry about puppy-wise to full-on stress and paranoia.  You see, it was at about 5 am that Neka started vomiting.  And she kept going every 15 minutes or so until she was well and truly empty.  She seems quite happy and well in herself, but she can't keep anything down, including water.

Bouts of vomiting and/or diarrhea are not uncommon in dogs, particularly Lapphunds.  I'm forever dishing out advice to Infindigo dog owners about how to deal with such events without an expensive and usually unnecessary trip to the vet.  Neka, in particular, who is a disgusting scavenger extraordinaire when out on walks, is frequently set upon by tummy bugs that she picks up out and about. 

However, what is humdrum and of little consequence to an otherwise-healthy adult dog could be catastrophic to a young puppy.  The worst possible scenario here is that Neka passes this bug on to Tuuli who then passes it to all the puppies.  It does not bear thinking about, frankly.   A formerly fat and healthy puppy can become dehydrated at an alarming speed.

It's true that Tuuli spends her time upstairs with the puppies and the other dogs stay downstairs.  However, there is always the potential for interaction when she is coming and going for her dozen-times-a-day loo trips.  So we are being hyper-vigilant to keep Neka away from Tuuli and Tuuli away from everything downstairs.  And it really doesn't help that Neka's first prodigious emission was delivered all over the carpet at the top of the stairs.

I now foresee that the upstairs carpet is destined for a very short life.

And, to be honest, the level of fear that has been struck into my heart is nowhere near the magnitude of the time when Keskiyo came down with an untimely bout of kennel cough less than a week after a litter of 4-week-old puppies had moved downstairs.  And we managed to survive that calamity, so hopefully we shall also get past this episode with no casualities who weigh less than a kilo.

*                              *                              *

I am pleased to report that by the time of publication Neka has consumed, retained and digested without further incident.

Phew.

And pretty soon the puppies will be heaving themselves onto unsteady feet and lurching around the box as they start to walk.  Rest assured the camera will be waiting.

I especially love their fat tails at this stage