HUA Saves Six Sick Puppies

A call came in from Nyla, a good friend of Hearts United for Animals, and volunteer for Nebraska Dachshund Rescue.  She was very upset because she had encountered a family selling very sick puppies in the parking lot of a store in Omaha.  She begged them to turn the puppies over to her so she could get them help, but they would not.  She got their information and called HUA to see what could be done.  After a couple of days passed the people agreed to give up two of the puppies.  They came to HUA and Justin, a cute little red fellow, fell very ill with parvo.  He was rushed to the Animal Emergency Clinic in Omaha on a Friday night.  Soon after his arrival a call came in that a little pup who looked just like Justin had arrived at the Emergency Clinic with instructions to euthanize.  The clinic called us and asked if we would take over her care as they felt she could be saved.  We said yes, absolutely.  We then found out that she was rescued by a local group who could not afford her care and that she was in fact Justin’s sister.  They had one more boy who was also falling ill with parvo.  We agreed to take over his care and they brought him to the Emergency Clinic immediately.  While Justin, Selena and Jonah were being cared for Nyla and the other group were working to save two more.  The same family had been keeping a total of six puppies in their bathtub.  We had all but two of them, chocolate labs from another litter.  We convinced the family that since the others were ill the labs would soon be ill as well.  They agreed to give them up and met an HUA volunteer to hand them over.  They were lethargic and bleeding and were rushed right to the Emergency Clinic to be with the others.  As Sheldon and Spencer were arriving, Justin’s brother Jordan who had been at HUA for a few days fell ill and was rushed in as well.  That made a total of six sick puppies receiving emergency care in Omaha.  The entire isolation ward at the clinic was full with HUA pups.  They all received round the clock care with intravenous fluids and antibiotics.

On Monday morning they were all still quite ill.  It was touch and go as to whether they would survive.  Justin would rally and then fall again.  We were so frightened that he may succumb.  Jordan had a secondary infection causing an extremely high fever.  They were all transferred to Mobile Animal Clinic in Omaha where they would receive care for the entire week.  One by one each of them perked up and became healthy.  Expenses for this rescue were huge.  It was something most groups would not be able to handle, but we knew our supporters would rally and help to pay the nearly $5,000 that it cost for the week of care to save their lives.  Each of them are so very precious and we could not let them go without a fight.  Many pups don’t survive parvo and with the extreme lack of care they had in their 8 weeks of life so far it was truly a miracle that each and every one of the six survived.

We would like to extend our thanks to Nyla, the Animal Emergency Clinic and Mobile Animal Clinic for their tireless efforts to save them and also to our wonderful supporters.  Because of you these pups will have happy, healthy lives and be adopted to wonderful homes where they will be cherished and loved forever.