Angelika the Miracle Pup

by Sherry
(Eclectic, AL)

Hello All My Rottweiler Loving Friends! Sorry I haven't sent an update on little Angelika lately...life has been busy and she has been a handful. Thank God! and all of you for your prayers!

She is now going to be 15 weeks tomorrow (Saturday 2/19/2011) and back to being a very nosey, playful, bouncing, biting, joyfully entertaining pup again. We have finally gotten her back on her standard food with just treats of the meat that she was getting to help her recover. All is well.

We waited until the second week after getting her home before taking her back into the vet for her next shot. She really did need that extra week in my book...thanks for the tidbit of advice Sue. At the vet, she was given a clean bill of health and started back on the normal routine of shots and care. The vet even said she was really surprised at how well she was doing.

Angelika is now in process of learning tricks and obedience with a vengeance. I say it like that, because this little pup is so smart...we simply start a trick and within a couple of tries, she gets it. At first I thought we would have to keep working at it through each session...no, this pup learns them quickly...the next session, she knows exactly what you want from the word and hand signals I give her.

She has already learned: sit, speak, shake and other paw. She understands and responds very well to her name, come, no bite and no and I am glad to say she is almost completely housebroken. Still a little rowdy sometimes, so I have not started with stay too much yet...though she does seem to understand when I go out the door and tell her to stay that she is not allowed to go with me. She is such a joy!

Angelika's bout with Parvo is definitely over! Yipee!!! I am so very thankful for the knowledge that I already had of this awful virus that made me act quickly when the first signs started. Also, it helped that my son let me know she had been exposed as soon as he knew...he was so apologetic about it. During her hospital stay, he was constantly checking with me on her progress. She never would have made it as sick as she had gotten during those 10 days in the hospital without the aggressive care of a great vet and the wonderful prayers of all you guys. I believe in prayers!

Please be aware that even though Diarrhea is usually the first sign, in Angelika, throwing up was the first sign. She threw up...I watched on guard...she drank some water a few minutes later and then immediately threw up again...that is when I knew it had started. When this started, I started administering kaopectate (about 1/4 teaspoon) when she threw up and I used an injector syringe that comes with some of the turkey injector marinades and would give her about 1/2 a syringe (about 1 ounce) at a time...little by little so as not to overdo it. We spent that night doing this about every 30 minutes and only giving kaopectate when she threw up.

I would recommend to new puppy parents that you might consider purchasing some things like pedialyte and kaopectate or pepto bismol to keep on hand just in case. Then, off to the vet first thing the next morning...we would have taken her that night except that we had an ice storm that night and couldn't drive on our roads until later the next morning.

I am posting some new pictures so you can see that she is really on the mend. You can see that her weight is back...we will find out at the first of the month whether she is back on track with her weight. My opinion is that she is there from her looks. What do you guys think? Also, you can see in the background of the pics that she has a very large backyard to play in...and she loves it!

Angelika is definitely a little Miracle Puppy! She has been one heck of a fighter through all of this and is proving to be the best little pup we have ever had in our home!




I'm SO happy to see these photos, and hear about how well Angelika is doing... I've been thinking of her often as I compiled Parvo In Dogs - Angelika's Story and within the next day or two I will add this update to that page.

Sherry - thanks so much for sharing this experience with us, I can't tell you how big my smile was when I saw this and I am certain Angelika's story will help other puppies stricken with this horrible virus. Enjoy that little girl :o) - sue from a-love-of-rottweilers.com