The Curious Case of Cooper

Seems like sometimes no matter how hard you try, things go wrong. That was the case with Cooper. Cooper is one of 8 puppies we took in last week from a veteran whose two young service dogs had an accidental litter. Pregnancy took place while he was in the hospital and the pet sitter was not watching too closely. He reached out for help and CPR was able to take in the pups.

Our veteran had been trying but living on a limited disability income leaves few funds for puppy needs. The pups (and the adults) were flea infested. Born May 1, 2017 the family had never been dewormed and never had vaccines. We took care of all of that as well as ridding them of fleas and tapeworms but it was a lot of medicine for tiny youngsters that were malnourished from both parasites and not enough good food (money is very tight) but they appeared to be doing well so Friday night, just 3 short days after coming to CPR, the first pup, Cooper, found a home. We thought we were doing a good thing for everybody – our veteran, the pups and our adopter.

Saturday morning, Cooper crashed. He was lethargic and unwilling to eat, a far cry from the playful pup of the evening before. The adopter took him to her local vet clinic. A Parvo test, the first thing a vet thinks of with a rescue pup in the summer was negative. Cooper had a slight fever but perked up with some fluids and an antiobiotic. The new owners kept me informed. We hoped all was well, it had been a momentary thing, perhaps stress from all the moves and all the deworming and defleaing, and he was taken back home. A few hours later I was receiving more phone calls. Cooper was again lethargic and had a seizure. He was lifeless. His eyes were rolling back in his head. He was rushed to emergency. Once again he was hooked up to lifesaving fluids and this time a full blood panel was performed.

The results were curious – Cooper’s blood values were all perfectly normal. He was slightly anemic, but nothing surprising considering his recent flea infestation. X-rays showed perfectly normal. He was responding to the fluids and the vets also started anti convulsant medication. He bounced back quickly but our adoptive family did not. It was too much and Sunday morning, they texted me that they preferred that I pick Cooper up. They were not willing to go further with a dog they had just met. In cooperation with one of our volunteers, I returned Cooper to his litter mates and foster family Sunday afternoon.

Cooper has remained happy, bouncy and playful since coming home. He is gaining weight daily. On the advice of our vet, we stopped all medications and there has been no sign whatsoever of whatever happened Saturday – except for a vet bill totally just over $ 950.

Can you help us pay off Cooper’s bill? We’re keeping Cooper for a week just in case and then he’ll be in to our vet for a followup blood panel. If all looks well, Cooper and his siblings will be up for adoption. Aussie doodle anyone?