Zaras List

May 18, 2007

George & Gracie

George & Gracie have come a long way from the time we first took them home with us.

Gracie is still eating out of our hand since she does not seem to want to eat out of a bowl much, she will take a lick or two from the bowl and stop. When the bowl is set in front of her she starts to cover it up by lowering her head down in front of the bowl and pushing with her nose in an upward motion to cover it. She has been eating a/d RX can food, ground hamburger and cottage cheese.

We are still feeding her the baby food by syringe with the vitamin supplement added, and the antibiotic by syringe. Gunny holds her while I feed her and give her meds.

In the last few days she has become more animated, has barked sporadically and jumps around wagging her tail a little when she sees Gunny like she is trying to play and is happy to see him. She had lost a few more ounces when she saw the vet on 5-8-07 and still had some congestion in her lungs, but was told this was normal. Her congestion seems to be much better the last couple of days, rarely any runny nose and the coughing seems to be gone. I believe we will be releasing them from quarantine this weekend from the garage into the house.

Initially we were forcing George to eat by syringe also but George has finally started eating on his own for the last week. He is eating ground hamburger, cottage cheese plus we leave dry food out during the day which he eats at will. Gracie has a hard time eating dry food since she hardly has any teeth. The teeth on the lover jaw have no match with teeth in the upper jaw. She will always have to be fed soft food. George is still on antibiotic and prednisone. His last visit to the vet he gained weight and is now 5 lbs.

Gunny is teaching George table manners, when his food is put down before him he can not start eating until he obeys commands of “sit”, then “stay” then “ok” to start eating. Gracie is still to small and fragile yet to teach but she loves to lie on her back and have you scratch her tummy and loves to cuddle up to you when you hold her.

They both seem like they are over the kennel cough, and are become more animated and friendly.