[cheetobandita34]

Hi Guys,
I have not been on here in forever. Some of you might remember me from the Baby Doll Yorkie situation back in summer of last year. I had another signinficant event that I thought I should def post as a warning to others, as I came very close to losing my baby!

Sophie tends to vacuum up everything (she does not discriminate) I have pulled rocks, sticks, glass, everything out of her mouth. One week I noticed she was throwing up every 3 days. It was not her dog food or some object but just orange or green stomach bile. I first thought she ate something icky and she would get over it, not so.

During that first week I awoke one morning to discover she was eerily quiet in her crate. I pushed that thought to the back of my mind and went on about my day. I did put her outside in her playpen for a few hours while I cleaned. I went to grab her to give her a bath, and when I picked her up I felt something was wrong. She just felt "tired" to me, so much so that I stopped on my way to the bathroom and just sat down with her holding her. I gave her a bath in which she really seemed tired. I put her outside after her bath to go potty which is protocol for her. The next event terrified me. She urinated dark red blood. I swooped her up and ran her to emergency to which they did a urinalysis and told me it looked like she had a bladder infection. The vet on call looked at her gums and said they looked a little pale but that "could" be typical for her breed. They prescribed her antibiotics and I took her home.

She proceeded to get worse over the remaining weekend. She was so lethargic she couldnt even walk, was collapsing on her face and stumbling and sleeping all day. She would eat a tiny bit of dog treat and would drink out of her water bottle if I brought it to her. I was also told to bring her to me reg vet to check for Diabetes. She managed to make it until Monday when I brought her into the vet. My vet looked at her gums which were now totally gray and said she has rat poisioning. She ended up having two blood transfusions. They also did an xray because she was still throwing up and they discovered she had a round object in her stomach with a hole in it. They said rat bait tray, that seemed to explain everything. Only prob was her blood was not clotting even after 2 blood transfusions and they had to get the "object" out of her stomach. The vet said she prob wouldnt make it through surgery. I went into a job interview after that information thinking I had lost my little girl, but I held it together. As soon as I came out of the interview I had a message on my cell that they did a last miniute x-ray and discovered the "object" had moved from her stomach to her rear end. they were able to reach in and pull it out. To teh vet and my amazement it was only a penny. she had Zinc Toxicosis. She had prob swallowed a penny a week earlier and her stomach acid had burnt a hole through the penny, which I still have!


I dont even let Sophie on my bedroom floor anymore. In total my vet bill ran 1000.00 I am getting health insurance for her. Evidentally pennies are made out of Zinc now instead of copper. So keep your babies away from change if they happen to like to eat anything! Sophie is fully recovered (and even more hyper-new red blood cells) I hope no one else has to go through what we went through!

BTW pale gums generally indicate rat poisoning. It makes them anemic.

Collette & Soph