Adopting a Puppy from the SPCA - Tony finds a home.

We were on our third trip to the SPCA shelter looking for a companion for ten year old Cookie, a street-smart former stray that had been abandoned in our neighborhood. Cookie was the lone survivor of four dogs who once shared our home. Slick, Dolly and Buddy made the trip to Heaven after spending more than a dozen years each with us. We decided our house had been quiet for way too long.

Traveling down the hallway where the mature dogs were housed, we tried to avoid their pleading eyes and wagging tails. Behind plexiglas doors, a wide variety of abandoned dogs chewed their Kong toys and slept in clean quarters. Cookie had a history of aggressive behavior toward our chow dog who had come from the Humane Society. Their love-hate relationship took a long while to mature into compatibility. We knew it would take just the right match in a youngster for Cookie to accept him.

In the puppy section, we noticed two puppies on a pile of shredded newspaper, one nestled on top of his litter mate. Both were sound asleep despite the volume of barking erupting around them.

We asked one of the workers to bring the male puppy, Curtis, to the get-acquainted room to meet us. As Curtis lay asleep in my arms there was no doubt in my mind; he was definitely a keeper.

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I held the warm little puppy while the staff person filled out adoption forms on her computer. I tried to keep my mind off the other dogs up for adoption, not so lucky as this guy who would be going home to a family tonight. Undaunted by the prospect of leaving his litter mate and sleeping buddy, he offered a generous kiss to my chin.

While we answered routine questions a small family arrived for a first-hand look at a Scottish Terrier featured on that day's news segment of Adopt a Pet. By noon, their two kids were already romping playfully with him in the Get Acquainted room.

I turned my attention back to the process which seemed to be taking forever, even as I held this little bundle of joy in my arms, I ached to take him home. At long last we were given a folder of papers with care instructions and canine coupons, along with a bag of Science Diet Puppy Food. Flourishing our bright, purple leash we were out the door.

Little did we know that within a few weeks, Tony would suffer from a rare but serious disorder known as Intussusception. You can imagine our concern when this always hungry, happy and active pup began to refuse food, vomit a bile-like mucus, and lie around with no interest in his surroundings. It represented a dramatic change in his behavior from the curious, inquisitive, bundle of energy that we had become used to. We scheduled a same-day appointment to see our veterinarian.

Our family veterinarian who has cared for our pets over the past fifteen years struggled to find anything specifically wrong; no fever, no pesticides, no worms. Tony's symptoms fit a number of possible diagnoses. Tony was a Lab mix and everything seems to go in their mouth, so Doctor Hempel wanted to rule out a foreign object. A lateral x-ray revealed only a gas pattern, no swallowed object. Tony got an anti-nausea injection and we went home.

We left the Veterinarian's office on Monday hoping to see some immediate improvement in Tony. Though it was nice not to be chewed by his little square teeth, it was disturbing to see how lethargic and disinterested Tony was acting.

Tuesday night I slept downstairs near the back door. Nearly every hour I awakened to find him at the door waiting to go outside. In spite of eating absolutely nothing for a couple of days Tony continued to have diarrhea. He would run out, take care of business, then run back inside and go directly to his bed.

Early Wednesday morning I called the Vet's office to get some anti-diarrhea medicine. I'd seen this condition develop recently with fourteen year old Dolly. This was not good.

By Wednesday afternoon I made up my mind to check Tony into the hospital rather than pick up more medicine. I hated leaving him overnight, but that's where he needed to be now. He looked up at me with pitiful eyes when I handed him to the vet tech; I cried all the way home.

Thursday morning as soon as the phones were being answered, I called the hospital. They said Tony was acting like a puppy and seemed back to normal. According to them he had eaten last night and this morning. Tony could go home shortly.

While we were out taking care of human ailments, I missed the first two calls from the vet who left messages on the home answering machine. By the time we left our Doctor's appointment I had a new voice mail on my cell phone. I called the vet to tell them we were headed over to pick up Tony when Doctor Hempel got on the line.

"Tony's not coming home." She said. My heart stopped for a second then I felt the impact of her next statement. "We're taking him in for emergency surgery."

Tony was taken in for exploratory abdominal surgery that afternoon. The vet had done her research and believed Tony had intussusception. She felt that surgery would stabilize his irregular intestinal spasms. We were stunned that our four-month old puppy was having such a struggle.

The house was once again way too quiet without Tony's antics, playing and jumping and trying to stuff toys into the back of Cookie's head. We paced the floor and tried to remain positive. I called the clinic a few times after hours to check up and no one answered the phone. Soon I stopped calling, fearing the worst. It was a long night.

Intussusception is the most common cause for bowel obstruction in children and is often seen in puppies too. Our vet explained that the intestine telescopes back in itself, causing an area of tubing to overlap. If left untreated, this can lead to cellular death of the overlapped section, the onset of infection and eventually death. Most cases have no known cause.

Given prompt attention, this disorder can be repaired. The first course of action often taken is an air or barium enema which reveals the condition and sometimes actually fixes the damage and no further treatment is needed. The barium series did not fix Tony so they began exploratory surgery on his abdomen.

Tony's surgery was successful in restoring the intestine to the proper position and he came through it just fine. He returned immediately to playful puppy behavior prompting the vet to release him from the hospital on Friday evening rather than Saturday. He has a two weeks recovery period where he's on restricted outdoor activities and must be taken out on a leash. But he seems to like having someone close beside him as he makes his rounds.

Tony eats a home made diet of chicken and rice to help his intestines return to their normal rhythm. He's not complaining about it. At the end of two weeks his stitches were taken out. To our amazement he didn't mess with them at all. One of my other dogs was famous for removing all her own stitches.

We're extremely grateful to our beloved veterinarians Dr. Pirkey and Dr. Hempel who've come to our aid many times over 15 years. Thanks to their quick diagnosis and surgery, Tony is back to normal, enjoying his life as a happy go lucky puppy.