Sick little baby girl...Help please?
 

Hi all!
I am brand new to the forum and to Yorkies. To make a long story short, I now have a 11-week-old female yorkie pup (Zoe). She's had a terrible time since we "saved" her from her previous owner (18-year-old girl in a college dorm, who carried her around campus in a book bag...and worse):eek:. Came to us at 2 1/4 lbs, not able to eat dry food, very lethargic, tape worms. Since then she's been de-wormed, has regular nutri-cal or karo syrup, and we have to force feed her dog or baby food in a syringe. She frequently gets bad, unable to hold her head up, shaky and can't support her weight on her feet. :( She's been to vet and emergency vet multiple times--hypoglycemia issues for sure and??? As of now she's to be fed once an hour, was put on mitronidazole today, and her blood work is concerning to the vet. She said her protein levels and the blood-sugar tests she's run (60 and 38 on two different occasions about one hour after a meal including karo and nutri-cal) lead her to believe there is a greater than 50% chance she has liver shunt. Her weight is down to 1.5 lbs, in spite of syringe feeding for 5 days. She is very sleepy and we are sooooo worried. Any thoughts or ideas for us?
By the way...this is an ADORABLE little baby and so smart! :love:

Bumping this one up. Thank you for saving her.

Hi and Welcome to YT!

Do you have her on any probiotics?

Have you tried this: http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/bre...er-remedy.html

Did the vets rule out intussuception, and PLE?

Unfortunately, I have no answers, but I'm sending my best. You're that poor sweet girl's best chance of a happy life. Good luck!

Thank goodness, I'm so glad you were able to get her seen... is she feeling any better yet?

Sorry... wrong thread.... and no sleep! :D

Zoe
 

Thank you, KJC for the beef liver broth info. I will make some up this morning for her. I will have to look up the other two ailments listed, as I'm not familiar with them, but thank you so much for the reply!

sending best wishes for this sick baby & you

Zoe?
 

Thanks, Betty! (Goodness Micah is beautiful!)

I am confused about liver shunt.:confused: I think I understood the vet to imply that it would be an untreatable condition unless we went with very invasive and uncomfortable procedures, making Zoe's quality of life questionable (and life itself, for that matter). But in researching a bit on these boards, it looks like so many live a perfectly normal life with it? I would love some input on this. Thanks so much!

Bump?
 

Still hoping for help here.

Some dogs with LS need surgery & some do not, diet is the key. Hang in there & more will post soon. While you wait, look around here more & get familiar with YT as it's deff where you need to be with a sick pup. Again thank you for saving her & WELCOME to YT :)

I know there are specialists in your area that you probably need to see I'm just not sure where they are. Is this a vet that you have used before ? I'm disappointed in what you say here as this vet should have been more helpful and explained the situation better. Yes a dog with LS can and most often do live long happy lives so don't give up on her. It's still early so hang in there as there are very knowledgeable people on YT & many who have LS pups as well.;)

I am not all that familiar with vets in the Dallas area. I will ask around.

If this were my pup, I would be asking for a referral to a board certified specialist. If your vet is being that negative, my suggestion is to move on!

Yes, these pups can be saved!

Bumping. Where is everyone ? I see there are 18 people viewing sick & injured & only 1 person besides myself responded to this thread this A.M.

Bottle?
 

Thank you Lillymae and ladyjane!
Today I got a tiny little bottle, puppy formula and baby rice cereal in the hope that she might be willing to try that. I feel like I'm stressing her out so much when I force feed her with the syringe every hour. (And she did try to nurse on my 8-year-old female cavalier a couple of days ago!)
I think shes's a bit better after her two doses of mitronidazole?