s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

As in that is where we are. Not out of them yet, and alll that.

Floppy II (aka Flopette) is doing better now. She is about back to where she was at birth, not really standing but with a suck reflex. That is critical.

I took her into Lakeside Vets this morning and spent 2 hours carefully supporting her head while IV fluids were pumped in. This gave some energy and nutriets, but also helped to resotre blood volume and hydration after the bleeding. Over the two hours she perked up considerably. We gave her a bottle of goats milk at the clinic, and she devoured it. I just gave her another bottle here at home, and she devoured it too (well, as much as I wanted to feed her- many small feeds are now the order of the day).

I leanred something from Jeanette, too (who called before I went to the vet). The power of the Humm. She told me of an amazing case she had with a clinets very premature (6 week) cria that kept dying. They had CPRed it back to life 3 times, and had decided to let it go. It had stopped breathing, was blue, and the heart had nearly stopped. The mother sniffed it, and hummed. Suddenly the cria took a gasping breathe, and came back to life, and went on to survive.
So on the drive over, I was humming at little Floppete. After some time she stirred (she was basically flat and nonresponsive at this point), and hummed back once or twice. I hummed all while the IV was in (well, when I was not talking to Julia). On the drive home I was humming, and she started humming back occasionally. Eventually she wriggled around in her towel-filled basket until I could not see her (she had curled up to sleep), but every time I hummed I could hear a little humm in return.

So as Stephen says, she was very limp and weak this morning. When she was limp overnight, we were hoping that she was just very very sleepy/exhausted (I’m exhausted after yesterday, and I’m an adult with all my blood), but she was still so scarily… well, floppy this morning… Anyway, I’ve just had a phone call from Stephen at the vet. She’s been on an IV for the last hour or so, to get fluids back into her, and Stephen tells me they’ve given her a feed of goat’s milk, and that her suck reflex is back to as strong as it was before she lost all the blood. He actually had to hang up because she was “getting stroppy”. So. Not out of the woods by any means, but things are looking a bit better.

Well, she made it though another night. Got up and fed her twice during the night. She spent the night in the shower, on a thick layer of towels and pads, as she managed to climb/tumble out of the box about 8PM. I don’t think she hurt herself. She has been flat since.
She lost her suck reflex yesterday afternoon. Not good. She has had only had sugar water since. She has passed poo, which is good. She passed it all over herself as she has not stood in 12 hours. She is quite weak and floppy.

In an hour when the vet opens I am taking her in. I think her only chance now is a feeding tube. We will see what the vet thinks.