Pippi

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Pippi

Pippi says thank you, everyone of you!.....for giving her the gift of life.

Pippi has been adopted by her foster parents.

Before After.

Hello all!

Pippi wants to say a big thank-you to Dr Lotsikas, her
surgeon, and Denise Ciolino, her student assistant
(picture attached), and to Dr Crandell, her internist,
and Joanne Bigbee, her student assistant for her first
trip to IA State...AND all the wonderful students and
people who held her and pampered her while she was in
ICU.

She is doing well today...only pawblem we are having
now is that she really wants to scratch at her belly,
and the nice big protective bandage that her dogtor
put on is working its way off. They did say it would
come off on its own, but this is faster than they
thought, I'm sure. Her belly underneath looks like
it's healing up really well, doesn't look irritated or
anything.

And she is still more tired - I am keeping her quiet
for the first couple weeks and so far she is
coopawrating. :) She definitely has her excited and
playful moments tho! She is not ready to play with
anypuppy else here right now, they are too active for
her at this stage, so when the other kids are going
bonkers she and I have some nice lap time. Yeah, it's
a rough life... :)

OK, so here's 3 new pictures above - I've got more on my camera
again already but my computer has been acting up - if
this makes any sense at all, I have to disconnect my
mouse in order to download photos. So it's still
possible, and more will still be coming, it's just a
little more of a production. I think I need a new
mouse!

Hope you're all having a great weekend - Guinevere.

Thank you to: Cindy Childress, Eileen Mattoon, Patricia R. Cumberledge, Lynn Puccio ,Stacie J Harris, James K. Bostick ,Dottie Riverland Paddle Company, BARBARA BUSHNOE, and Rebecca Dezonno. Courtney Maguire, Lori L. Hughes, WENDY PIATEK., Elizabeth Groth, Cindy Cook, Marilyn Crookman, Mary A Horrillo, Linda Landers, Suzanne Grimard, Brandy Trevino,
Kathy L Okonske. Carrie Nemeroff. Jocelyn A. Olson, darlene myers, NORA TOWNER, Pamela Ierubino, Lana McClure, JoAnn Cavanaugh, Thomas E. Flynn, Jackie Pittenger, Patricia Fleming. Richard B Vedas. Gayla Hutton

PDA Surgery

Good news!!! There was a message waiting on my
machine when I got home from my dr appt, from Pippi's
student assistant Denise. She said they had just
finished up about 30 min ago, and she had just settled
Pippi down and was going to try feeding her a little
when she started waking up more.

They were able to find the shunt very quickly, and
sounds like everything was very straight-forward with
that, and they were inside her such a short time that
they were able to go ahead and spay her as well, to
prevent her having to go under anesthesia again in the
near future.

So, she will continue to be in touch, she said they
had another procedure this afternoon so I will try to
call her more in the early evening.

What a relief, so far, so good! It's been scary for
all of us today, I know, and I had a lot of bad-luck
thoughts, but I kept trying to remind myself what a
fighter that precious girl is! She's been through
worse than this already I think. We do have to really
focus our energies on a smooth recovery now - NO
seizures, from what I understand, that is the
immediate concern over the next few days. And no way
to know if one might happen or not, there don't seem
to be indicators or "risk-factors." So hopefully
Pippi will just not have to deal with that, I am
feeling very hopeful on that front.

I'll let you know what I hear tonight, but wanted to
get this to you ASAP! :) Guinnie

Thank you so much already for all your good thoughts for little Pippi. She is there now, they were going to run some more tests, etc, today, and then her surgery will be tomorrow. They will let me know in the morning if she is scheduled for a morning or afternoon operation. I guess it goes without saying that she was feeling shy and kind of down while we were there. I wonder if she remembered it from before, maybe remembered feeling really lousy then, and also that I left her there the other time too. She just normally seems to happy and confident and out-going, that it is strange to see her big eyes looking worried now. She's got her pink woobie blanket from Grammy Betty with Fluffybutts. She wanted to take it with her last time she went to the Intensive Care Unit, but she was feeling so bad then that she accidentally wee-weed on it so I brought it home that time. So I'm glad she was able to keep that, and also a little lavender dinosaur that she likes playing with, and also just enjoys gumming on during quiet times. :) Her doctor and student assistant are both wonderful of course, and can tell that she is the sweetest little Pippi ever. They are going to take the very best of care of her, but her doctor was also very careful to discuss the risks with me as well. In general, being a liver shunt baby, the risk of losing her to the anesthesia is higher. So they hope for it to be a fairly quick and straight-forward operation, so she doesn't have to be under so long. Also, there is a greater risk of seizures in the days after the operation, and he said these seizures can sometimes be bad to the point where they can't control them and then they would lose her. So he is going to want her to be there for at least 72 hours after the surgery so they can be right there in case anything happens. He did say the survival rate is better for these little ones...just about 10% do not make it. That is really scary. I was actually going to write a cute little note from Pippi today, but now I am too worried and scared for her to do that. We are focusing all our energies on her being just fine, but it is an awful feeling to think I might never see her alive again. Sorry to be morbid, but I know that bad things CAN happen, as much as we don't want them to. So we aren't going to be feeling OK here until at least the weekend, I'm pretty sure. But she has had an awesome 4 weeks - she's felt wonderful and happy and loved, she's put on weight - up to 3.8 pounds now!. She got to meet her Ant Carrie and Ant Chris and Ant Michele and have a wonderful time with them, and she's had lots of other 4-legged kids to play with her and cuddle up next to for naps. And she's always had my lap ready for her if she wants a snuggle. So, even before at the puppy mill when things seemed to be so bleak, she still clung to life...now I am hoping that now that she truly knows what a wonderful future she has in store for her, and that her quality and happiness in life will only continue to get better and better...that she will be able to hang in there through this last big procedure. And she'll have presents from Ant Jean waiting for her when she gets home too, I told her about that also! :)So, thank you so much...I will keep you posted tomorrow as I hear news about when her operation will be, and how things are going as I hear from them - hugs - Guinevere

Update May 18th below

Update , see below

We were contacted today by a dear friend of our ours Chris Wells a rescuer in Iowa, she had obtained Pippi from a puppy mill on Saturday......she was curled up in a cage and they asked about her, the miller gave her to them saying she was sickly!.......and he was going to euthanize her .

Chris took her and has had her evaluated, she is showing all the signs of Liver Shunt....dog and needs surgery as soon as possible.

Puppymillrescue has agreed to take her in and provider her with that surgery, which will do done at Iowa State soon we hope, she only weighs 2 pounds!.

Pippi will be placed for adoption on our website if she can make it through surgery......lets all say a little prayer for her.....

This surgery will cost us 2-3 Thousand dollars.... so we are again asking for your help..........this time you do not need a Pay Pal account to make a donation to Pippi, you can use your own credit card on our secure server........Please find it in your heart to help this tiny girl live a full life.....

Update May 18th

Thank you so much!!! Pippi will put it to good use!
:) She is SO ready for some little squeaky toys of
her own, so far she's been playing with little toys
with no squeakers - I can't wait to see how she reacts
to a squeaker!

She is doing great!! Those medicines are nothing
short of a miracle - she has become a happy little
puppy now, and she's eating great, putting on weight,
no pawblems at all. :) Her scabs on her head are
pretty much healed up and hair is growing back in.

She has now mastered up AND down the stairs (down is
SO hard...) :) She really knows her name and comes
RUNNING when you call her! She is so much fun and so
loving. At night, we like to read in bed some before
we go to sleep, and she likes to play, so she'll toss
her little toy around, being really crazy, sometimes
doing somersaults! And she also likes to take a
running charge at us and bonk faces with us. Before,
she used to run into us and other things when she was
walking because she was in a fog, now she likes to do
it on purpose!! So that is a wonderful change.

I'm going to try to get her surgery scheduled for the
2nd week of June. We are anxious about it, but at
least no longer anxious that she is not going to be
strong enough to survive it. So now we just hope that
they don't discover something they didn't see in the
ultrasound, and that this surgery can be successful
for her long-term.

And she is having a great time finally being a puppy -
playing hard and sleeping hard, all in a comfy
environment where she is very loved. :) Thank you so
much for thinking of her and looking out for her -
Guinnie

Her surgery is officially set now...Monday June 6th we > bring her over to IA State. They will just do > preliminary work that day so the big operation will be > Tuesday the 6th. I don't yet know when she'll be able > to come home after that, I guess that pawbably depends > on a few different factors. > > Makes me anxious - but so glad it's an option and she > is going to be in great shape for it!! And like I > said, it's such a nice change to go to IA State for > Pippi knowing that this is something she really has a > chance to survive and be SO much better after... So we are so glad that Pippi > has this chance!!! Thanks so much - Guinnie

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Thursday 5/5/05 Hi all!

Just spoke with JoAnne at IA State again, and she had
a whole bunch of news for me. The good news is it
sounds like Pippi has been feeling pretty perky, to
the point that she DEMANDS not to be in the crate and
settles right down as soon as you hold her. :)

So...the ultrasound did indeed show that there appears
to be a single portosystemic shunt, so I guess that is
good news as far as shunts go. They may of course
discover something else once they are actually inside
her, but that is what it is looking like right now.

They have had her on:
IV fluids (last night including dextrose because she
was hypoglycemic, they have since taken her off the
dextrose)
all oral meds -
clavamox as her white cell count is high
lactulose
mitrondazole (sp?)

She did throw up a couple times there - she had not
thrown up at home before. But JoAnne thinks it is
simply because she ate too much - when Pippi is in the
mood to eat, she is absolutely starving of course, so
she'll eat everything in sight! So most likely just
more careful monitoring of how much she takes in each
time will be fine.

They are going to worm her with panacur just in case -
they said her fecal was negative but that sometimes
with puppy mill dogs they can have neg fecals and
still have worms.

So, pending no concerning developments with the
vomiting, they are actually planning to send her home
tomorrow! So we are looking forward to having our
little girl back here again. I just spoke with our
local vet, Dr Brennan, and he had spoken with Dr
Crandell about 30 minutes before I called him, so he
was already all up to date! But we are hopefully
expecting no more scary episodes like we had a couple
times here at home and when I took her to see Dr
Brennan Monday morning - she should be feeling much
more stable physically and we are going to concentrate
on getting some more weight on her in preparation for
surgery.

Thanks so much for thinking of her!! :) Isn't that
cool that she is complaining about being cooped up? I
wonder if she's actually barking - I've heard her cry
some, but no barks yet. Good for her! Guinnie

Update today.
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 6:07 PM
Hello and update on Pippi!!
Hi all!

My husband and I are fostering Pippi, a 6-month old yorkie girl, here
in Grinnell, IA.

She just came to us on Saturday afternoon, and it's been an emotional
roller-coaster since then...we knew that she was having a hard time,
had been having seizures that lasted for up to 24 hours, and was very
skinny. So I had made an appt with our vet here for first thing in the
morning on Mon. But upon first meeting her, I was so scared for her -
she was just limp, had apparently hardly moved at all during the
transport up to Des Moines, everyone was worried. Then, as soon as I
brought her out, she became much more animated! And had a great first
evening here - she was frighteningly skinny and dehydrated but was
eating and drinking well.

But then after that, it's been back and forth - she had an awful night
Sunday night of drooling and feeling quivery and very vacant, but then
by Monday evening was feeling great again and had a great day Tuesday
until about 3:30 when she started feeling bad again. It was just about
then as well that we got the results back from the testing that had
been done at the vets on Monday, which all strongly indicated liver
shunt, or some kind of serious liver problem. I would love to go over
more details of her good and bad times, but want to quickly let you
know about today and how she is doing now -

Pippi had a great morning, she was the most alert and happy yet! And
while last night was scary - I called the vet on call here at 10:30 to
get advice on getting her to swallow, cuz she was drooling so much
again and I wanted to keep getting fluids into her - she started
feeling better again at 4 am and by 6 am was eating and drinking
happily. I made her go back to bed with me for a while, but then she
was really ready to walk so we let her do that some too. She was
following us all over the place, so alert. My feelings just based on
the last few days are - her bad times are very scary and her good times
are very good, but the bad times get a *little* less scary each time,
and the good times get better.

So...she is going to stay at the ICU in Ames for 3 days, Dr Crandell or
his student assistant JoAnne are going to call me every day with
updates. They are going to have her on IV both for nutrition and for
meds - antibiotics and another med I need to get the name of again.
They are also planning to do an ultrasound, tho he said ultimately when
they are in surgery they will really know the most about what's going
on.

But he said she is very depressed having to deal with all the poisons
in her body, so he wants the 3 days of ICU, and then to have her back
home for 2 to 4 weeks of special care, and THEN it will be time for
surgery. I was hoping we were going into surgery sooner, but I of
course absolutely agree that we want her as healthy as possible before
that happens.

Also, everyone who met her was just crazy about her - the receptionist
wanted to hold her some, the student assistant was so concerned and
loving with her, and Dr Crandell just couldn't get over how cute and
sweet she is. :) Her new thing today is giving kisses, and she even
gave him a couple kisses!! They promised that she will be getting LOTS
of attention at the ICU 24-hours, both medically and just affection
wise.

She was just starting to enter another bad period when they took her
back, which would make today just like yesterday...so I'm feeling very
hopeful that now with the meds and everything they are going to be
breaking this cycle of back and forth.

So glad that she is in good hands, they are certainly providing for her
in ways that we could not here at home. I thought I would feel worse
about leaving her there, but I feel so good about how much they care
about her and everything that they can offer her, and so hopeful that
she will be able to make good strides towards feeling better over the
next 3 days.

Tomorrow I am going to get a photo album together of her, and start
getting a journal with the specifics of her care together. I am SO
glad that she has found her way to PMR and is getting an opportunity to
fight for her life with assistance that she hasn't had before (uh,
*that's* putting it mildly!!)

Oh, and one more thing, I've been researching liver shunts on the web,
but I would of course love any thoughts, advice, web links, etc. Thank
you so much for sending Pippi all the good thoughts and help you
already have, and looking forward to getting to know you all better -
Guinevere