JESSIE NEEDS PRAYERS AGAIN...

***UPDATE 2/05/12**** At 10:51 pm, I received the GREATEST PHONE CALL! Doc called just to tell me that JESSIE ATE 1/2 CAN OF FOOD...ON HER OWN!!! OMG...this is AMAZING NEWS! She has not eaten anything on her own since she was hospitalized on January 25th!!! I know this may be premature, but I truly believe this girl is going to thrive. She has so many people concerned about her and praying for her! Doc was laughing when she told me that Jessie threw up on her husband who was nice enough to go with her to the clinic...this was BEFORE she ate. Apparently she injected the antibiotic too quickly in the IV bag and it didn't agree with Jessie (so sorry Steve). Anyway, we don't want to sound like a broken record, but please keep Jessie in your prayers. She is not out-of-the-woods yet, but this is a wonderful step in the right direction!

UPDATE 2/05/12: You may have read the title yesterday "Prayers Seem To Be Working for Jessie". Well..Doc called with the latest blood test results. Jessie is just not responding to the antibiotics. Doc is going to put her on a 4th antibiotic and is going to the Emergency Center to get the injectable version as well. She is not positive, but feels she may be getting septic. Jessie's red blood cell count is close to normal now and her platelet count has improved as well, however, Doc said that is likely due to the blood transfusion (rather than her body doing it on its own basically). The biggest concern is her white blood cell count continues to rise. It is near 60,000 and should be close to 20,000. So the news is not good. It does not help that she isn't eating still. Doc says Jessie is a very complicated case since her previous antibiotics should have taken care of any possible sepsis. Please please pray for this girl. Her spirits are better (wags her tail, more alert, etc.), but her bloodwork says otherwise.

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It has been so difficult to keep up with the Blog lately (especially when Facebook is much faster and easier to access!) so please forgive us. Kevin and I have been very busy the last few weekends. We went to Kentucky the week before last to take a bunch of lucky doggies and then to Wisconsin last weekend to take even more!

Prior to leaving for Wisconsin, we received a call from a lady who lives in Lakeshore Trailer Park about a sweet girl (now named Jessie) who had been dumped. She kept looking at every car going by hoping it was her owner coming back... Anyway, I called our friend Becky, who helps feed the strays and lets us know what is going on regarding the strays near her, to see if she would mind if we kept Jessie in her pen in the backyard until we can find rescue for her. Of course, Becky was so wonderful and said yes! Kevin and I stopped by on January 19th to take a few pictures of this cutie (see below).

Jessie pictured with Princess, another Lakeshore Trailer Park doggy in need.

Sweet girls

The hubs, Kevin (aka KC) with Jessie! She is quite a chunk here!

Well...after about 6 days, Becky called to tell me that Jessie was not feeling well. She began to vomit and have diarrhea...the dreaded signs of possible parvo. We were worried that she would get worse while we were out of town so we dropped her off at the vet before we left. On January 25th, we dropped that sweet girl off at the vet. Test results confirmed parvo...URGH! We gave the ok to begin IV fluids. Long story short..Jessie has been in the hospital ever since then.

I was able to visit her when we got back. The pictures below are from January 30th. Jessie definitely was starting to feel a lot worse, but had been on continuous IV fluids for 5 days at that point.

Sweet girl...all she wanted was a soft place to snooze on and some love. Thanks to her "owner" for dumping her (likely unvaccinated) in a trailer park with exposure to who knows what illnesses, Jessie is fighting for her life.

Such a sad and depressing time for Jessie

What started out as parvo, turned into even more problems for Jessie. Jessie became pretty lethargic and jaundice starting this past Monday. She had still not eaten and was getting sicker...On February 3rd, Doc told us that Jessie would need a blood transfusion or she would likely not make it. Her blood work came back pretty bad (platelet count extremely low; white blood cell count extremely high; liver enzymes so high they were unreadable; etc.). Jessie was having an "immune response overload" to something...

Doc took her off the antibiotics she was on and started a new one along with a steroid just in case she was having a rare reaction to them. I picked up liver supporting meds from a vet near me; drove to another vet to pick up more dextrose (actually 2 more vet clinics...I mistakenly got the wrong type of dextrose from the first vet and had to go to another vet for the correct one); and then off to the Emergency Clinic to pick up the blood (she needed a universal blood to lessen the chance of a reaction). On Friday night, Jessie began receiving the blood transfusion.

In this picture, Jessie is mad at me because she was so thirsty, but I would let her drink the dirty mop water (lol). At least she is drinking and keeping it down!

Kevin and I were able to visit her again today and she looked much better.

We took her outside since it was in the 60's today so that she could get some fresh air and a change of scenery. She really seemed to enjoy it. She had to have a new IV put in her rear leg because her IV fell out on a potty break and she no longer had a viable vein in her front legs(poor baby). Anyway, we really enjoy spending time with this sweet girl. We are so grateful to Doc and the staff as well as all the doggy angels out there who have been praying for her and offering support (emotionally and financially) We sincerely appreciate everyone so very much. Doc will re-run her bloodwork tomorrow to see how she is doing. She is hopeful that Jessie will be able to come home on Monday!

She looks like such a puppy in this one (Sue you were right about that)!

Pretty girl enjoying the fresh air!

Jessie is definitely weak, but at least she can go out on potty breaks now.

Jessie was pretty happy to see Kevin too- he was finally able to come visit her! Kevin is in love with her too!

Waiting to be poked on again :( Jessie's IV came out when she went for a potty break so they had to put one in her back leg this time.

Taken before we left- no one likes E-collars. Don't worry sweetie, we will visit you again soon and can't wait to take you home!!

Jessie's bill will be extremely high (last estimate was $1600, but we have received donations for some of it thankfully). We realize that this is only 1 dog, but we truly feel that all doggies in our care are special. How could we give up on her when she has been fighting so hard??? The blood transfusion itself was only a few hundred more, so why stop now. We appreciate any help that we can get and if you cannot help financially, please share her story. You never know who may be feeling generous and who may be fortunate enough to be able to help. We could really use some more prayers too!