Hello from paradise.
Did you know that paradise is full of non-paradise things? One is Rat Lung Worm Disease for which I give the dogs special medicine to keep that from happening, and another is feral pigs. Volcanos, lava, etc. can be worrisome sometimes. Mostly it is paradise though.
On March 2nd, Reese, Kathleen's Border Terrier, encountered a feral pig. The pig put some holes in her right arm and I got to sew that up. You already know that if you read the last blog. Yesterday, I took the stitches out and she looks very well. The wounds have closed nicely and no one will ever be able to even see her scar under that lavish coat she carries around. Today there was a pig outside my yard driving my girls bananas, grunting as it went along the fence, ignoring the dogs barking at it and me yelling at it to go away. It couldn't care less about us. Luckily, I have a chain link fence and they can't come into my yard.
On March 3rd, poor Mer/Mermaid and I experienced eclampsia. I had never seen it and hadn't known to look out for it. My super friend, Nancy, told me what it was when I sent her a video of Mer's legs stiff and shaking. I threw some calcium into her and headed for the vet. The vet gave her a regimen to follow and we came home, loaded down with Tums (calcium,) and yogurt, etc. She did OK until the 9th when it happened again. I was told to keep the puppies away from her except that two could nurse once every two hours. That means I feed the other four, every two hours. It is working, they still look fat and healthy and I look tired. Nancy helped my by giving me recipes for making puppy food and she even made me yogurt in her InstaPot. I make up the formula and feed it to the pups. Kathleen and I painted the puppies with fingernail polish (which falls off them fast), but I need to know who is who so that they each get a chance to nurse on mom. I'm not sure, but I think some of them are tired of the formula and want to only suck on mom instead of on a sponge full of formula. I'd vote for that, but I will continue the sponge thing to protect Mer Mom.
Nancy thinks that they will soon be up and around enough that they will start eating off a plate. I am hoping. Since they opened their eyes the day they were thirteen days old, they have been doing better and better about walking on four feet. They have a LONG way to go in that department, but they are getting better at it. I am thinking I will soon be seeing if they will eat off a saucer. Fingers crossed. I'm sure that they will eat it, but figure for awhile that more will be on the whelping pen blankets than in their tummies! This too will pass.
As far as floods, we didn't have one in Hawi. Maui and Kauai were hit the hardest, I think. There were gullies full of water roaring down to the ocean near Hilo, that side of the island, but the Kona side no. Kona side is the dry side and we feel lucky to get rain. Hawi, where the dogs, Kathleen and I live, is kind of on the line between dry and wet. The perfect "side." We are up at the north tip of the Big Island.
So there, all is well, as well as can be expected.
Aloha from Curmudgeonville
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