[txshopper73]

A couple of days ago, I noticed while taking Gracie out to potty, that one of her back legs, she kinda hobbled on. I checked out the leg, knee for some type of injury and she was fine, so I dismissed it thinking it was because she had been laying on her side too long...I should have taken it as a sign.

This morning, at 5:00 a.m., my husband comes into the bedroom. "SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH GRACIE!" He was holding her. I immediately jumped up to hearing her panting excessively. "WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HER?", I asked. "I DON'T KNOW, I WALKED INTO THE KITCHEN AND SHE WAS JUST LAYING THERE. SHE CAN'T GET UP AND SHE'S SHAKING!", he replied.

I jumped out of bad and grabbed her. I called a very dear friend of mine who has dealt with eclampsia. It was my fear and that is what she said. "SHE'S GOT ECLAMPSIA, GET HER TO A VET, NOW!" Hung up with her and immediately went to the kitchen to get the phone book and phone.

I called Dr. Barrett...one of my 3 vets. Bless Dr. Barrett. He's 90 years old and still practicing. I told Dr. Barrett my suspicions. He replied, "WELL, SHE NEEDS CALCIUM!" He met me there out of the goodness of his heart.

Gracie was panting, tremoring all over her body, drooling excessively. It's something that I'll never forget. He gave her a mega dose, in the form of a shot, of calcium. It took less than a minute. The tremors stopped, the drooling stopped and she stopped panting. I'm suppose to keep her away from the puppies for 3-4 hours and he gave me Calsorb in case anything happens again and also some puppy formula.

I put her on the floor to walk and that little hobble was there. Could that have been the first sign? Brought her home and she's walking fine, but her walk is something that I'll be watching for.

What I don't understand is, I've been feeding her dry food, canned puppy food mixed with cottage cheese, chicken soup with rice. I hadn't been doing the calcium supplements because of the warnings against her body becoming dependent on them. Forget that, I'm going back to the calcium supplements. That same breeder friend and I had spoken about it before. Some dogs get it, some dogs never get it but once you've experienced it, you'll never forget it.

I've gotta go feed the puppies but I wanted to share this with you. I was so scared I was going to loose my girl and couldn't stop crying. But for now, looks like my girl's gonna make it.