Over the weekend Oscar's condition improved by leaps and bounds! He was eating on his own, albeit very little, so he's still weak. He was not vomiting already and he was just recovering.
Yesterday the hubs and I went down to visit him. He still seemed very lethargic. On Saturday, the vet told us that his glucose level was low, at about 3.8. Normal puppies' glucose levels are usually above 8? On Sunday, his glucose level was at 2.8. The vet told us they would put glucose into his drip.
So we visited him on Sunday, the vet informed us that his poop has started to take shape. He is no longer having diarrhea although he did vomit but probably because the force feeding took a toll on him. He is eating on his own but still too little. However, the vet was optimistic that if they could raise his glucose level then he would be on the road to recovery.
The vet told us that the hospital has been opened since 1989 and Oscar is the first 2-mth old puppy to have survived Parvo. They've had dogs survived Parvo before, but none at such a young age. :)
The vet called me just now (Monday morning) and told me that Oscar's glucose has climbed up to 14. :)))
Looking forward to discharging him later this week...but he will be very weak and tired for a while to come so we will hopefully be able to nurse him back to the playful boy he was. :)
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Oscar's Fight against Parvovirus Part 3
Yesterday the vet gave Oscar a jab to boost his red blood count. They've also started nebulizing him once every 2 hours.
Yesterday evening I spoke to the vet on the phone. According to him Oscar is periodically up and down. At 4.30pm in the afternoon, the vet went in to take a look at him and he said Oscar actually stood up and wagged his tail. But when he went in again at 6pm Oscar was quite flat again.
The vet also did a blood test that showed that his white blood cells were really high, which signified that he's fighting against a really huge infection. His red blood count was really low even after the jab he received so it is a big concern. He's still vomitting and having bloody diarrhea. Temperature is normal.
I'm not sure what to make of the news. Everytime we received seemingly good news the next moment our hopes would be dashed. I just hope my little fighter will continue fighting. We are all rooting for you Oscar.
Yesterday evening I spoke to the vet on the phone. According to him Oscar is periodically up and down. At 4.30pm in the afternoon, the vet went in to take a look at him and he said Oscar actually stood up and wagged his tail. But when he went in again at 6pm Oscar was quite flat again.
The vet also did a blood test that showed that his white blood cells were really high, which signified that he's fighting against a really huge infection. His red blood count was really low even after the jab he received so it is a big concern. He's still vomitting and having bloody diarrhea. Temperature is normal.
I'm not sure what to make of the news. Everytime we received seemingly good news the next moment our hopes would be dashed. I just hope my little fighter will continue fighting. We are all rooting for you Oscar.
*updated at 11.18am*
Called up the hospital and the vet told me that Oscar seems brighter and perkier, his stools have hardened ever so slightly and he hasn't vomitted since yesterday. Of course the low red blood cells are still a concern. However, we are just thankful for these nuggets of good news. They give us slivers of hope and we are holding onto them ever so tightly at such a time.
Oscar is still not interested in food though and if you are a dog owner you know dogs can NEVER resist food. Well unless (1) you're either offering them things they dislike or (2) they're sick. C'mon Oscar! Fighting! :)
Oscar's Fight against Parvovirus Part 2
So he survived another day. As of last night, the vet told us he was able to sit up a little and seemed to be a little perkier, which brought our hopes up.
Unfortunately today he has gone back to being quite down. The vet updated me in the afternoon saying that he has lung infection or in other words, flu. Which really confused me as flu sounded ok but lung infection sounded so serious so I also have no idea how bad it actually is.
They are going to do a blood test again later this evening and compare it with the one he had yesterday. They are concerned for his red blood count. Vet said he seems to be swallowing better though still has to be force fed as he continues to show zero interest in his food. He's still having the bloody diarrhea but I have no idea how bad it is.
I was still so hopeful this morning as I felt that God would definitely bring him back to us. But after the vet's update it is hard to keep the hubs' or my spirits up. We are so sad, so affected and we are just praying for God to give little Oscar strength to get through this.
Unfortunately today he has gone back to being quite down. The vet updated me in the afternoon saying that he has lung infection or in other words, flu. Which really confused me as flu sounded ok but lung infection sounded so serious so I also have no idea how bad it actually is.
They are going to do a blood test again later this evening and compare it with the one he had yesterday. They are concerned for his red blood count. Vet said he seems to be swallowing better though still has to be force fed as he continues to show zero interest in his food. He's still having the bloody diarrhea but I have no idea how bad it is.
I was still so hopeful this morning as I felt that God would definitely bring him back to us. But after the vet's update it is hard to keep the hubs' or my spirits up. We are so sad, so affected and we are just praying for God to give little Oscar strength to get through this.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Oscar's Fight against Parvovirus
My 2 months old Japanese Spitz puppy that I bought a week ago is now in hospital fighting for his life. He is fighting against a deadly virus known as Parvovirus and it is up to the little guy now to fight this battle and hopefully win it.
We brought him back last Tuesday, Oscar was active, exploring the house everywhere, playing with us, biting everything etc. We were delighted with him even though he peed and pooed all over the place. Oscar breathed really heavily, like 100+ breaths per minute. I googled online and this seemed normal for puppies so I didn't think too much of it.
On Friday, we fed him his dinner at 7pm. According to my mum-in-law who fed him, he stopped eating rather abruptly and refused to go near his food.
On Saturday, we observed Oscar and he continued to refuse to eat. We were very concerned as the pet shop owner who sold him to us did mention that you know a dog is unwell when (1) they stopped eating and (2) they have diarrhea. Oscar had diarrhea so we brought him to the vet on Saturday afternoon. The vet did a blood test and the results were very alarming. His white blood count was way too high, red blood count was way too low, the vet also mentioned his ALT was very high, so the vet suspected something was wrong with his liver. The vet gave Oscar 6 different kinds of medicine and instructed us to force feed him. By evening he had no energy left and was just lying down and not moving much. I force fed him some food and the medicine but he threw everything up. By midnight we were really scared and decided to hospitalise him.
The vet saw the blood test results and voiced out a few of his suspicions. He told us they would do an ultrasound for Oscar when the radiographer comes in in the morning and inform us of the results. At about 9.30am on Sunday, I received a phonecall. The joy that it was not a liver shunt and was just a viral infection turned to dread when we found out how bad this virus was. It can be quite fatal for puppies as young as Oscar, because he hasn't been protected against it yet (he only had his 2nd jab, parvo vaccine is in the 3rd jab).
Parvovirus is a virus that attacks a puppy's intestines, effectively killing the intestinal cells. Eventually the puppy may die from dehydration as this virus causes vomiting and diarrhea in them. There doesn't seem to be any cure, treatment is merely supportive (hydrating the puppy, anti-diarrhea meds and anti-vomiting meds etc)
We bought Tamiflu for Oscar and brought it to the hospital as what they instructed. They informed us that Oscar was still having diarrhea and it is bloody diarrhea. We went back to the pet shop owner and she advised us to bring Oscar back to her, as we did mention to her we couldn't really afford the expensive hospitalisation fees (we hospitalised him for one day and it cost us $843). She refunded us the money and brought Oscar into her shop.
We asked her to update us on Oscar's status and she told us he didn't seem to be getting any better or worse. On Tuesday, she told us Oscar hasn't had diarrhea on both Monday & Tuesday, hasn't eaten at all and is generally just lying there. We were surprised and hopeful to learn that after the 4th day of his Parvo attack that Oscar is still alive. We decided to re-hospitalise Oscar despite the fees. We wanted to give it one last shot and save him if possible.
Today is Wednesday, I called up the hospital earlier, the vet said Oscar doesn't seem to be getting any better. In fact, his temperature is on the low side of normal. His electrolytes are really really low and he's not moving around, the phrase that the vet used was "He's really flat." His diarrhea came back although it's not as bloody as before but it's still watery. They force fed him but he seemed to have trouble swallowing. We asked the vet whether he thinks Oscar can survive today and the vet replied,"I really don't know", a far cry from when he told us that time that he felt Oscar had no problem surviving the first day.
We are praying for a miracle. The poor boy hasn't eaten much for the past 4 days, we just hope he can find it within him to beat the virus. I've prayed quite a bit for God to be merciful to us and to him, we really hope to bring him back with us and love him for the rest of his life. If you're reading this, I hope you can pray for him too. Thank you.
We brought him back last Tuesday, Oscar was active, exploring the house everywhere, playing with us, biting everything etc. We were delighted with him even though he peed and pooed all over the place. Oscar breathed really heavily, like 100+ breaths per minute. I googled online and this seemed normal for puppies so I didn't think too much of it.
On Friday, we fed him his dinner at 7pm. According to my mum-in-law who fed him, he stopped eating rather abruptly and refused to go near his food.
On Saturday, we observed Oscar and he continued to refuse to eat. We were very concerned as the pet shop owner who sold him to us did mention that you know a dog is unwell when (1) they stopped eating and (2) they have diarrhea. Oscar had diarrhea so we brought him to the vet on Saturday afternoon. The vet did a blood test and the results were very alarming. His white blood count was way too high, red blood count was way too low, the vet also mentioned his ALT was very high, so the vet suspected something was wrong with his liver. The vet gave Oscar 6 different kinds of medicine and instructed us to force feed him. By evening he had no energy left and was just lying down and not moving much. I force fed him some food and the medicine but he threw everything up. By midnight we were really scared and decided to hospitalise him.
The vet saw the blood test results and voiced out a few of his suspicions. He told us they would do an ultrasound for Oscar when the radiographer comes in in the morning and inform us of the results. At about 9.30am on Sunday, I received a phonecall. The joy that it was not a liver shunt and was just a viral infection turned to dread when we found out how bad this virus was. It can be quite fatal for puppies as young as Oscar, because he hasn't been protected against it yet (he only had his 2nd jab, parvo vaccine is in the 3rd jab).
Parvovirus is a virus that attacks a puppy's intestines, effectively killing the intestinal cells. Eventually the puppy may die from dehydration as this virus causes vomiting and diarrhea in them. There doesn't seem to be any cure, treatment is merely supportive (hydrating the puppy, anti-diarrhea meds and anti-vomiting meds etc)
We bought Tamiflu for Oscar and brought it to the hospital as what they instructed. They informed us that Oscar was still having diarrhea and it is bloody diarrhea. We went back to the pet shop owner and she advised us to bring Oscar back to her, as we did mention to her we couldn't really afford the expensive hospitalisation fees (we hospitalised him for one day and it cost us $843). She refunded us the money and brought Oscar into her shop.
We asked her to update us on Oscar's status and she told us he didn't seem to be getting any better or worse. On Tuesday, she told us Oscar hasn't had diarrhea on both Monday & Tuesday, hasn't eaten at all and is generally just lying there. We were surprised and hopeful to learn that after the 4th day of his Parvo attack that Oscar is still alive. We decided to re-hospitalise Oscar despite the fees. We wanted to give it one last shot and save him if possible.
Today is Wednesday, I called up the hospital earlier, the vet said Oscar doesn't seem to be getting any better. In fact, his temperature is on the low side of normal. His electrolytes are really really low and he's not moving around, the phrase that the vet used was "He's really flat." His diarrhea came back although it's not as bloody as before but it's still watery. They force fed him but he seemed to have trouble swallowing. We asked the vet whether he thinks Oscar can survive today and the vet replied,"I really don't know", a far cry from when he told us that time that he felt Oscar had no problem surviving the first day.
We are praying for a miracle. The poor boy hasn't eaten much for the past 4 days, we just hope he can find it within him to beat the virus. I've prayed quite a bit for God to be merciful to us and to him, we really hope to bring him back with us and love him for the rest of his life. If you're reading this, I hope you can pray for him too. Thank you.
Friday, May 2, 2014
Food Review #15 - Epicurious Cafe
I've been wanting to head over to Epicurious Cafe the first time I read about it on food bloggers' blogs. Maybe it was their photography skills or the presentation of the food or both. Anyways it always looked so tempting so I wanted to go try it.
The hubs and I headed over to Epicurious one Sunday morning and managed to get a table without having to wait. Epicurious is not a big cafe and business was brisk. By about 12pm the place was filled, mostly with foreigners.
We ordered their french toast as it came highly recommended but unfortunately we both didn't like it. We prefer our french toast to be savoury, rather than sweet. Though picture-wise it looked really good but unfortunately it completely ruined our expectations of french toast. Give me back my soaked-in-egg french toast anytime! And remove those breadcrumbs please. We didn't finish this. :(
The hubs as usual, went for burger and their burger was really good. It was a big portion, the patty was juicy and everything - the egg, bacon, patty - came together really well.
I went for their Eggs Benedict and ordered it with salmon instead of ham. Their eggs benedict were supposed to be quite good but I didn't like this much too. Only one of the eggs was still runny when I cut it open. Anyway perhaps I am just not a big fan of eggs benedict. If ever I go back I shall try their full breakfast instead.
Apple crumble was quite an epic fail, in my opinion. There were so much more apples than crumble and we had a hard time finishing those apples. This dessert didn't blow me away and the hubs and I left the apples unfinished and we agreed we probably would never order this again.
Service was decent though I personally felt that the restaurant showed more favourable service to the foreigners than to locals? It seemed like they were more patient when explaining to the foreigners what each of those dishes were etc. Personal opinion so don't take my word for it. Anyways, Epicurious is one of those places that I wouldn't go back to, even if I wanted all day breakfast/brunch, as there are so many others out there that could either serve me better food or better service or maybe both.
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