When it rains, it pours - Tale of a New Puppy

It has been a long week.

Sunday, July 22 2007, Ann and I went to PetSmart to take a look at the doggies up for adoption. PawMatch, an Austin rescue organization, was there offering a handful of dogs and cats to loving homes. We had no intention of adopting another one -- we already have 2 dogs at home -- but we still like to look and give them a little love. Yada yada yada... we adopted a 2 1/2 month old golden/lab mix puppy. Her name at the time was Hermione, apparently named by a Happy Potter fan. We decided to name her Maddie, somewhat due to the fact we also just bought a Madeleine tray for Ann's bakery trials. Adoption Fee: $150.


We could see Maddie was in bad shape -- really skinny, lethargic, sleepy, but Kelly, the PawMatch rep, assured us she was playing with the other puppies earlier in the day. She still needed to be spayed, though, so we couldn't take her home with us.

Fast forward to Monday, July 23. We get a call that Maddie was spayed by a PawMatch vet, and we could meet her to pick her up on Tuesday. We agreed to meet up with Kelly at the PawMatch location in the boonies (Del Valle, TX). We unpacked, cleaned, and assembled the crates left over from Summer's and Candy's puppy days.

Tuesday evening, we made the trek to Del Valle to pick up our new puppy. Kelly calls right before 7pm, our meet up time, saying she couldn't make it but we can take the puppy home anyway by talking to whoever was there at the time. The "headquarters" could best be described as "typical" for low-budget (no-budget) shelters/rescues that make a point to describe themselves as no-kill shelters. The conditions were cramped, muddy, dirty, full of Texas-sized insects, and in the middle of nowhere. We find someone, find Maddie (lying in the corner of a crowded puppy kennel), and take her home. She is a bit dirty, so we give her a bath.

Wednesday, July 25 was the beginning of what would turn out to be daily vet visits. We are given a free vet checkup as part of the adoption. We go to the nice people at Oak Hill Vet Clinic pretty close to our house. We are given a free exam, free bag of puppy food, and a free Advantage Multi application. We are thinking... this is great! But then things became more realistic. She had peed blood -- the vets associated this with leftover from the spay. They gave us Clavinox in the event that it was a urinary infection. Their total findings: she was underweight, she had a painful bladder, evidence of fleas, and painful lymph nodes. She not only had evidence of fleas but of tape worm, too. She was given deworming pills and wolfed it down with some soft food. She was also given a shot to increase her appetite. Total vet bill: $46.04.


Thursday, July 26. Things get worse. She throws up twice--everything she ingested in the past few days. She gets another deworming pill, in case she didn't digest the one from yesterday. Her stool revealed a massive amount of hook worm larvae, and a parvo test came back positive. So lets get the checklist out for our poor Maddie:
- Fleas
- Tape Worm
- Hook Work
- Parvo
- Possible Urinary Infection

She is immediately put on fluids to rehydrate her. One of the big causes of death in puppies with parvo is the dehydration. She is loaded up with fluids, given penicillin, and sent home with us to return in the morning for more fluids. We are told some dogs take only a few days of treatment before they start to bounce back. Total vet bill: $200.39.

Friday, July 27. The vet gives her more fluids, and we pick her up at 4pm. They tell us we can feed her a few tablespoons of I/D bland food. They also say that if she holds down the food, it is a good sign. If she vomits it up, we need to take her to the emergency clinic (since they are not open on weekends) for more fluid treatment. She wolfs down the food. She is happy to see us, playful, and hungry. We construct a fort in our kitchen, covering the floor in newspaper, blocking her in with the crate, pegboard, and a baby gate. She pees on her training pad. Things look good. Total vet bill: $52.48.

Saturday, July 28. Morning comes and she pees and poops on the newspapers. Twice. No vomit, still playful, wagging her little tail. Around noon, things change. She doesn't want to play, doesn't want to eat, dry heaves, and withdraws herself into her crate. We don't want to keep pumping fluids into her if she doesn't need it, so we wait for a little bit to see if she returns to her chipper puppy self. At 2:30, we decide to take her into AM/PM Animal Hospital. Things get expensive. With the "emergency" (i.e., no appointment) office visit at 3 in the afternoon, fecal float and test, CBC, IV Therapy, Reglan Syrup, Penicillin, and Metronidazole Suspension, we leave two hours and $265.57 deeper in debt. They tell us not only does she have the list mentioned above, but we can add Giardia to the list. This fun parasite causes diarrhea in puppies and -- get this -- humans, too. Yep, this is contagious (akin to "Drinking the water in Mexico" as the vet tech told us). We already bleached the entire kitchen and living room floors. We bleaches all her towel bedding. Now we pretty much have to bleach ourselves every time we touch her.

She is home now, in her crate, still lethargic, still sleepy, and creating a lot of stress for us. She needs IV treatment every 12 hours for the next few days. If she doesn't improve, she will need to be hospitalized for a more aggressive treatment. Neither Ann nor I can bear sticking a needle in her -- so we will go to the emergency clinic tomorrow morning and evening so they can administer the IV treatment.

We are growing attached to Maddie. She is very cute, and when she is in her normal puppy behavior, it melts my heart to see Ann play with her and want to bond. But it has been 4 vet visits, $724.48 in vet fees, $89.80 in pet necessaries (puppy pads, soft food, stain remover, flea spray, shampoo, baby gate, and one dog toy) and counting. And we've only spent 4 days with her. We hope she gets better soon.

Sunday, July 29. We administer Metronidazole and Reglan in the morning, and take her in for her 8am appointment for fluids treatment. She is getting worse. They decide to run another CBC blood test on her, and her white blood cell count is extremely low -- lower than yesterday. She is on the verge of becoming septic. They advise that she be hospitalized for no less than three days, estimated to be $983.93. A candid conversation with the nurses/techs indicate it will probably be longer, still no more than a 50/50 shot of rebounding, and quite expensive. We took her back home.

Sunday afternoon, we called PawMatch and asked for their help. Maddie went on a ride back to their rescue center, where she is now, getting her fluid treatments by PawMatch's staff in hopes of bringing her back to normal puppyhood. We will see if she makes it through.

Baseball ballpark #35: RFK Stadium in Washington DC

Those that know me know about my 60-day trip to all 30 baseball stadiums in 2001. Prior to that trip, I had been to the old Tiger Stadium in Detroit, the old ballpark in Arlington, TX, and the old Comiskey Park in Chicago. Since that trip, of course I have been to Petco Park in San Diego, but that's it -- the new stadiums in St Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and the relocated Washington Nationals were on my "to-visit" list.

So anyway, I visited ballpark #35 this past week -- RFK Stadium in Washington DC. I wont do a full review with photos (though I have them) like in my book about the trip, but I so want to ramble about the more noticeable aspects of the experience.

First off, if you are going to a game at RFK, take the Metro. I really don't know how big their parking lot is, or if they even have a dedicated one for the public. Everyone I saw took the Metro, the subway system in DC, which drops you off a block from the stadium.

Second, don't go alone. Holy hell, what a crappy area the stadium is in. As soon as you walk off the Metro, you will need to dodge panhandlers, "entrepreneurs" selling everything from "official" MLB clothing to peanuts, hot dogs, and water. That with a few religious nutcases passing out Jews for Jesus brochures and the scary housing on the other side of the street mean go to the ballgame in groups.

OK -- the stadium. Anyone who has seen a baseball game here would agree on one point -- this is not a ballpark. This is a typical 1970s concrete behemoth of a structure. It may look good from those blimp shots, but man what a hole from the ground level. Funny thing is that is has a lot in common with its predecessor, Montreal's Olympic Stadium. But in their defense, this was never supposed to be a long term home for the new ball club. Washington is actively building a new baseball ballpark for the Nationals, one that will look a lot like all the other new ballparks in recent years with seats "from $5 to $300". RFK smells like a men's restroom, has beer-stained cement hallways, and lazy vendors that scrape their beer carts along the railings enough to wear out the paint the entire perimeter of the stadium. The field looked decent for being a soccer field as well (soccer lines evidently removed just before the home stand).

The stadium was no frills. Long alternating ramps led to the top level; the food offering was limited to dogs and peanuts (though more food may have been offered near the expensive seats). In-between inning entertainment was really nothing too exciting, though the president races was a bit entertaining.

Im sure the experience would have been different if we had bought the expensive field level seats -- but that is as expected. We bought the upper level $16 dollar seats. Despite all the negative things I just said, I could easily see myself coming here all the time. It reminds me a lot of Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego -- a football stadium turned into a multi-purpose venue. Lots of concrete. And beer smell. But lots of memories. And you can't beat the $1.35 fare from Crystal City to the Stadium on the Metro (the long way ... on the blue line!).

Someday I hope to make it to the new ballparks in Cincinnati and St Louis (and Washington next year). Cincinnati isn't on the way to anything from here, though, so that one may be a while.