George, a Rescue Dog: Day Nine
George is a 10 year old toy poodle mix, who was dumped by his owners at the Baytown Animal Shelter. He was found there by Lou Sisk, and Holly Dool found him rescue with the Blind Dog Rescue Alliance. I’m fostering George and updating his story to show that rescue dogs straight from the shelter make wonderful pets.
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George had a great day yesterday, but a really rough time last night. The two medicines for cough, overall, have really stopped him from having that continuous, wheezy cough that dogs get with kennel cough. But he’s still getting coughing jags here and there. Last night, though, they were more frequent, and lasted for long periods of time. He had a coughing jag around 9:00 p.m. that lasted almost 40 minutes. He had another one at 11ish lasting about half an hour, and another around 1ish for 40 minutes.
Each time, I woke up, got up, checked on him, but couldn’t do much. The vaporizer was full and running on high. He’d taken his meds. I’d try to soothe him by rubbing his little back and he’d just keep coughing and wheezing. It was a terribly dry, unproductive cough.
Then I’d get back into med and listen to him whimper a bit from the pain. And I’d toss and turn and think. Is there something more that I can do? Maybe I’ll call a more experienced rescuer in the morning. Maybe I’ll call the vet in the morning and see what else can be done. I wonder if this is normal and I just have to wait it out? After speaking with George’s rescue the day before, we’d decided to postpone his transport a week. Maybe I should have let George travel this week so he can be cared for by someone with more experience? And then I’d finally notice that George had stopped coughing, and I’d fall back asleep.
Around 3:00 a.m. it started again and this time I didn’t wait for it continue. I got out of bed and went into the kitchen. I got two bowls. In one, I mixed George’s cough pill with chicken. In the second, I mixed a teaspoon of honey in water. George ate the chicken and drank ALL of the water, the whole bowl. I was hoping that the honey would soothe his throat. He coughed a little more, and then fell asleep in his bed.
Today, so far, so good. He’s just coughing a little bit.
Hopefully, tonight will be better. Poor little George.
