Not eating - help!!

[CarrieAnn]

For those of you who read my thread from yesterday about rescuing my puppy from the pound, I need some advice tonight. I have no idea what kind of care he was getting from the couple who took him from us in the first place. I also suspect that he was not being fed or watered at the kill only pound that they brought him to. It is now going on 11:00 at night and he has not eaten in days and he is weak as hell.

I have an appointment for him to see my vet Monday, but I am going to be calling them first thing tomorrow morning for an emergency visit. My problem at this point is how do I get him through the night? I am terrified that he is going to die in the next 10 hours. If I could just get him through until 9:00 tomorrow morning I have every faith that my vet will be able to take of whatever is wrong with him.

Symptoms are that he hasn't eaten anything at all in days, possibly a week. He was trapped in a kill only facility for at least a few days, so I'm sure they weren't taking care of him. He is very weak and periodically spits up foamy water. Suggestions to get him (and me) through the night are welcome.

[jimbrown]

Sorry to say but those are the signs of distemper.

[CarrieAnn]

I was worried about that myself, but it turned out to be parvo. The vet has given him a 30% chance of survival. It doesn't look good, but we're going to try anyway. The little buddy has been surviving on a wing and a prayer since day one. I just hope he has one more miracle left.

[babygirl]

That is just so sad. I hope he pulls through it the poor little guy. My sister and I once rescued a stray we found eating out of the dumpster at a local restaurant. He had gotten into some rat poison unfortunately and even after a blood transfusion from the vet we lost him. I hope you don't have to go through that!

[CarrieAnn]

I'm so sorry to hear you lost the little fella you were trying to help, babygirl.

Well, I just talked to the vet and he said he is amazed at the progress the puppy has made in the past 24 hours. He is stronger today and even ate a little food on his own. His chances of survival have increased to about 60%. He said yesterday, he didn't expect to him to live let alone make this kind of improvement in just a day. We're not out of the woods yet, but he said if he keeps improving at this rate he'll be able to come home by Monday. Truly amazing. I am so happy we took a chance and tried to save him. Now I just need to figure out how to pay for it, lol. No wonder most people put down dogs with parvo. At $100 a day for treatment, this is going to break the bank. But if he pulls through it will be worth it

[babygirl]

I am so happy to hear that he is improving! That is great news. I am always saddened by stories about animals, dogs in particular, who aren't cared for and die from neglect.