I broke the baby
Turbo Charged Pickle
Well, it’s been a fun week. Someone at work gave me two bags of a new brand of raw dog food, and I stupidly decided to feed it to the babies. The result? Food poisoning, in all seven puppies who ate it. Bad food poisoning, no less – the kind that’s like a scene from the Exorcist, complete with projectile vomiting and diahrrea.
Fun.
A very expensive vet visit later, and a battery of fecal testing testing confirms only that it’s some kind of bacteria, probably campylobacter or clostridium, but likely not salmonella. We’ll have lab results in a few days. All the babies had to go on antibiotics, but thank goodness they’ve all recovered in near record time. Just 48 hours later, and it’s like it never happened at all.
As much as I am a proponent of raw feeding, the problem is that if it’s not made using the very best ingredients and with rigorous testing, there will always be a risk of incidents like this. In commercial raw especially it’s essential to know not just the ingredients, but how they’re made, how they’re testing for contaminants, and if the company follows proper food handling protocols. Sadly, I’ve learned that an awful lot of companies are somewhat lax about cleanliness and quality of processing and ingredients. Too risky for me, thanks.
Topping it all off, Leah got a quick and painful lesson in why we don’t go near the sensitive parts of boys. After she bit Elliott on the winkie (while he was peeing, no less) he retaliated by chomping her on her tender little face. Poor Leah – she probably won’t have a scar, but it definitely left a mark, and scared both her and I half to death. Nothing says “please make it stop” like a tiny baby puppy who’s screeching in pain.
Super Sad Leah
The trauma was all too much for Leah – the food poisoning on top of the face bite combined to make her ear drop back down again, a not untypical Frenchie puppy reaction to stress. Think of it as a Frenchie mood barometer – it will come back up when she’s back to feeling 100% again. In the meantime, Sean has been asking her if the other puppies are calling her “baby” and making fun of her flopsy ear. I’ve been telling it just makes her look even more adorable than she already is.
New photos of the rugrats after the cut.
I like the droopy ear. its too cute. Sorry about the bad food. I can’t even imagine.
Poor Leah, hope she feels better soon….and poor puppies getting food poisoning. I have fed raw frozen food for about 1.5 yrs and (touch wood) have never had issues.
Hope everyone feels better soon.
OK you’re winning me over. I no longer reach out to the monitor to try to pull their noses out to the size of real dog noses. Here’s to fast healing of Leah’s face and Elliott’s winkie.-
.-= Jan´s last blog ..She’d rather go naked than wear fur (unless the price is right) =-.
Ken zones out completely when he reads. Early in our marriage, I trained our kitten to pounce unexpectedly on Ken’s winkie. I found it incredibly amusing. Ken didn’t.
Trust me, it was very funny.
I would like to thank you for your post, and for your story on your web site about Teardrop. I also feed a raw diet and dog forbid if your dog gets sick from it or doesn’t tolerate fat well or needs to be transitioned onto it slowly or whatever. If you are honest about it the raw diet hardliners will lynch you.
Aw, poor ickle liddle cootums! Hope all tummies and bruised feelings are better ASAP.
I just weaned my 51/2 week olds. 48 hours later, giardia. We have it here, no avoiding it and the stress of weaning and losing mommies anti-bodies (momma was d-o-n-e) seems to spark it. So now it’s just a part of life. We’ve tried treating mom to try to prevent her passing cysts ( if ever affected, dogs will carry dormant cysts for life, in case anyone reading has not danced with giardia) etc… no such luck
Puppy rearing can be sooooo much fun. A picture of there pen this AM would put most people off ever breeding. Baths and flagyl for everyone and money to the vet!