Meet Keg. In this picture this adorable little dog is only six weeks old. Keg is a pocket beagle. I picked her up from a friend’s parents whom could no longer take care of her.

My boyfriend’s parents agreed to keep her at their house. They had a new puppy that needed a playmate! When we picked her up I instantly fell in love. She was the most adorable thing I had ever seen. I held her and she cuddled up against my shoul-der. She was the sweetest dog, but she also acted very sick. She didn’t want to play like most puppies her age do and she acted depressed. I thought it was anxiety from being separated from her mother, but then she started vomiting and I immedi-ately took her to a vet.

Stand Up for the Voiceless

Meet Keg

The picture above is a picture of Keg the first day we picked her up.

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When I took her to the vet he confirmed three horrific details about Keg that I had no idea about. One: she was not six weeks old and was not weaned yet. Two: She had parvovirus and she was very sick. Three: Her belly was completley eaten up with worms. The previous owners had not de-wormed the puppy when they should have and her stomach was very swollen. She needed treatment right away.

Parvovirus can occur in dogs of all ages, but it most commonly occurs in dogs ag-ing from six to ten weeks old. It is highly contagious and deadly. The main way it is transferred is through the feces of an in-fected dog. Most of the time a dog catches parvovirus becuase they step in the in-fected feces of another dog when they are outside. At some point during the day the dog will lick their paw for some reason and that is how it is transferred.

When we first picked up Keg from the vet she was exhausted. She had went through days of getting pricked and prodded by needles. We knew it was going to take a lot of work to get her back to how a nor-mal puppy should act. We didn’t know how much work it would be.

A Trip to the Vet The Road to Recovery

If a dog contracts parvovirus they are at great risk of dehydration. The tricky part of this situation is that dogs are not sup-posed to eat until vomiting and/or diar-rhea has stopped, but these factors are also symtoms of dehyration. This is why parvovirus takes the lives of 37,000 dogs per year.

Due to the great risk Keg was at the vet decided she needed to stay a couple nights at the Emergency Vet Clinic. She was in-jected with fluids constantly to insure that she would stay hydrated.

The vet put Keg on an antibiotic to ensure that she would not get an infection. We gave this to her twice a day through a plastic sy-ringe. She hated the taste and fought against each dose we gave her. She was very stub-born, but after a few minutes of struggling we always succeeded in getting her to take the medicine.

We bottle fed Keg every hour on the hour. We also had to feed She was still sore and in pain from the needles so she whined constantly. It was heartbreaking to watch. Around bedtime she always wanted to sleep in the bed with people. She would literally not go to sleep unless she was in a big bed snuggled up to a person.

In the matter of a few days I could see a huge improvement in Keg’s condition. Slowly but surely she began to open up and let her personality shine. She started run-ning around as fast as her little puppy legs would let her. She was also quite fond of my boyfriend’s other puppy Claire. We soon learned that Keg wasn’t your typical hyper puppy.

Photo credit: http://images1.citysearch.net/assets/imgdb2/reinvent/pro-

Photo credit- Top: http://www.petmountain.com/pho-tos/product/standard/114420S503704/nursing-puppy-bottles-syringes/just-born-hand-feeding-kit.jpg

Photo credit- Bottom: http://www.pet-informed-vet-erinary-advice-online.com/canine-parvovirus.html

The Bowl-ing Green Vet Clinic.

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After two weeks Keg had asserted her dom-inance over her new home house. When she said it was playtime it was playtime for the entire house and she would bark until EVERYONE in the house came to play with her. She was not satisfied with only one person in the house giving her atten-tion. She wanted all eyes on her. This is why my friend Nick gave her the nickname “Keg, Destroyer of the World”. It is hard to believe that only three weeks ago this little puppy almost died.

How Keg Changed Our Lives

Keg still gets into mischief every now and again. She likes to chew on shoes and bite furniture like most puppies do. She’s also potty trained now... Well, almost.

Keg has touched each life that she has en-countrered. She loves to cuddle and has proven to be a very loyal watch dog. If any alien outsider comes near the house she goes to the door and barks as if this two pound dog could destroy any danger in the world! Keg has been a blessing to anyone she en-counters. We all love her and I am so glad we saved her in the knick of time.

Will Warner playing with Keg!4