Fading

Last Sunday, March 15, around 2:30 in the afternoon I had to bring one of my month old shih tzu puppies (my favorite among the four) to the vet because of her continuous shrieks and cries about 10 minutes after bottle feeding her.

Her tummy was bloated and she had difficulty breathing as evidenced by the change of her tongue color from pink to pale white. I rubbed her belly with a warm cotton balls to stimulate her to pass gas, stools and urine but after a couple of tries, her belly was still hard upon palpation.

As observed, this needed emergency attention. I therefore rushed her to the vet in a pet shop called The Barking Zoo located in Robinson's Otis Manila.

They immediately assessed her and administered oxygen therapy to atleast support her breathing. For four hours I seated just beside the vet's table while from time to time he explained to me what happened to my puppy.

The case that my puppy Agnes had is called gastric volvolus and it's 50 to 70 percent fatal for dogs at this age. The bloated stomach was a result of her digestive tract twisting inside. This usually happens to dogs or puppies who moves a lot and rolls to their back right after feeding. That's the same observation I had before hearing the puppy cried. Her rolled to her back and started crying. This case requires surgery but due to her young age we have 0 to 50 percent chance of survival. So I just told the doctor that if my pup would die soon I just want to give her a peaceful death and atleast lessen the pain. Her cries really broke my heart everytime I hear it that time while she was at the table and her head was covered with a brown plastic bag while the oxygen tube was inside it to make sure she'll be able to breath in the oxygen being administered to her.

It was already 6:30pm when I decided to go back home to eat my dinner and check for my daughter. I promised that I'll be back before they close their store so that they can still observe if there's any improvement.

Around 9pm I went back and unfortunately I was advised that there's no change in her condition and the oxygen was not already useful as she breaths faintly. I told them that I'll bring home the puppy to atleast have her last time with me.

At 2 am the next day, March 16, we bid goodbye to Agnes. I cried a lot for like I had said, it was favorite pup due to it's brown colored coat.

Here's the poem I had written during the 4-hour stay in the veterinary hospital.

It was a sad story of a fading puppy but atleast I know I had never given up on her. I'll surely miss her.