You have GOT to be kidding me. HELP!

[jmashaney]

Paulie and dad were outside mending the fence when Paul runs inside to tell me that there is a little puppy running around on the other side.

Our dogs were standing by the fence, tails wagging, and the little brown thing was sitting calmly, staring back.

She's a little thing, maybe eight to ten pounds, with a fluffy brown coat. I'll take pictures once Paulie gets back from the store. (I sent him after some wormer.) She's sort of lab shaped.

I have no experience with dog rescue...any puppy I've ever had was healthy and I knew the background.

I've bathed her, she was covered in fleas, and there is a puncture wound on her lower jaw, in addition she has hair loss on the ridge of her tail. Her belly is swollen and squishy, but there is very little meat on her bones.

She is sitting here wrapper in a towel, half asleep. Her eyes were so dull while I was bathing her. She didn't even fight me.

Guys, I don't even know where to start...are my pups in danger of catching anything from her? They've had their first two round of shots, and I'm keeping them separated.

[SisMorphine]

Not knowing what she has I would definitely keep your pups seperated for now. I would also walk her outside to potty in a place where your pups don't go.

I would feed her a bland diet, and if she is skinny then I would feed her a small amount every couple of hours so it's not a huge blow to her system. Definitely get a dewormer in her. Her lethargy could be from anemia from being covered in fleas. How do her gums look? Are they pink or white?

[jmashaney]

They are pink. I'm a little teary eyed right now. She's so beautiful in the sunlight now that she's clean. How on earth could she be running loose?

[pmashaney81]

[Wyldmoonwoman]

does the dog have a tail? I can't tell in the picture...

Are you going to put up found puppy fliers or contact your local pound?

[airwalk]

I was going to say..contact your local shelter and let them know you found her. Also local vets and vet clinics, emergency vet clinics so if she has an owner they can find you.

I would let your local ACO know the condition you found her in so that if an owner pops up the ACO knows about her condition and they may be interested in following up.

Definitely keep her separated from your dogs for now.

[pmashaney81]

LOL, yeah, she has a long tail. It's tucked under!

We are going to post on our local website in the lost and found, and put up fliers at the grocery store in town. I hadn't thought of calling the pound, but we will do that in a sec.

Thanks!

[SisMorphine]

Also call/poster vet's offices.

On the posters you make do NOT put a picture or description of her. Just say "Puppy found in blah area." This way you can have people give YOU a description, which helps weed out some undesirables.

[Marinepits]

Also call/poster vet's offices.

On the posters you make do NOT put a picture or description of her. Just say "Puppy found in blah area." This way you can have people give YOU a description, which helps weed out some undesirables.

Excellent point!

Thanks for taking the pup in -- sounds like you have everything well under control!

[jmashaney]

Dewormed...check!

Vet's office/ACO called...check!

No printer here at home right now, so I'll have to get some paper and sharpies here in a minute. Definitely NOT going to put her picture on it.

I made an appointment with our vet when I called. She said...Name? And I said...uh, do have to name it? Cause if I do, it'll stay! So we made the appointment in the name of "Puppy."

Fed her two tablespoons of wet dog food, which she inhaled. Not really interested in water at this time. Got her kenneled, which ticked her off.

She seems to have thrown off the lethargy in favor of a bark/growl/yap thing right now.

What should I be watching for, feces wise?

[Marinepits]

What should I be watching for, feces wise?

Any poo that is extremely runny, bloody/mucousy, or REALLY stinks worse than usual.

You may see some runny poo from the wormer, but that should go away within a few days. Same from the food change. You can try giving boiled boneless chicken or beef with plain rice to help any tummy issues.

[jmashaney]

Thanks! Glad I'm on vacation, so I can keep an eye on her.

Any guess on what mix she might be?

[Malli]

I guess Dobie chocolate lab X

What kind of wormer did you use? Some of them don't cover enough parisites....
If she does have a bad case of worms, you may end up with her having large amounts of wormy diarrhea and even vomiting them up; in this case, she would need help from IV fluids and perhaps some additives to make up for what she is not able to eat while she clears them out.

I would go with boiled chicken and plain cooked white rice 1/2 and 1/2, Ideally if she's been eating that for a couple of days, I'd add in a diet such as Hills AD (its a wet food, high calorie and nutrition) or a recovery diet, you should be able to buy it at your vets - I would mix that in maybe 1/3 prepared wet diet to the chicken and rice. Then asap (within a week or 2 ideally) start her on a regular developemental or puppy diet, and you'd want to switch gradually and mix the 2.

Ideally it would be best if everything for the puppies was kept seperate : food bowls, leashes, bedding, laundry loads(was all on hot and hot dry, ideally with bleach), even wash your hands between handling them, etc etc.

vomiting, diarrhea, and lethargy are signs of canine parvovirus, so keep an eye out for these! Oh, and keep her warm, like really warm (70-72 degrees)

HTH

Malli

[amazincc]

Awww... she is a CUTE little thing!!!

[jmashaney]

The wormer was pyrantel pamoate. (Walmart, what we could afford until payday!)

My aunt is sending funds over to help out, which is great!

No lethargy now! She's loud and throwing herself around in the kennel.

Still waiting for poop..., I've never been so anxious to see what's coming out of a dog's rear end before.

[amazincc]

And I haven't been this anxious to hear about it in a while...

Btw... I agree w/Malli... definitely some chocolate lab in there...

[gayrghts]

you're so great to take her in and fix her up....

hang in there.... you'll do fine

[jmashaney]

BLECH!

Ok, we have poop. It was about half a cup of runny dark greenish brown..and it had THREE four-inch long worms in it. They were dead. (At least I think so, I didn't check for vitals, but they weren't moving!)

I poured a bunch of bleach on it, I don't know why, it seemed like the sanitary thing to do.

She's back in her crate now, and howling to beat the band. I mean she is AWAKE. (She slept solid for two hours. Didn't even change positions.)

Also, there is a yellow green discharge running out of her eyes.

I spoke to my renters next door and they said the guy two houses over had picked up two lab puppies off the side of the road and was asking if anyone wanted them. She said he was keeping them in the shed out back. I'm thinking that she's probably one of them...the guy isn't home right now.

I guess I need to give her back to him, huh? To give him the benefit of the doubt, the neglect may not be his fault, but it didn't look like he was doing anything for her.

Crap. What have I gotten myself into?

[Marinepits]

Yellow-green discharge isn't good. Probably an eye infection or possibly an upper-respitory infection.

Are you going to visit the neighbor when he gets home to check on the safety of the other puppy? Does the neighbor know when he picked them up?

[jmashaney]

I had thought about it, but not sure how to go about this is at all.

My renter said it was a couple of days ago...