Heidie

HEIDIE
Heidie flew down from Johannesburg at the age of 6 weeks, She was a very lovely puppy, and once we had got her home she was soon accepted by all our other Chows, especially Tammy who had just had a puppy herself only one out of a litter of 4 survived, our dear little Amour who sadly was born with congenital cateracts on both of her eyes, and although she can see a little it will take a lot of treatment until the cataracts clear, this we now realize she inherited from her father Archie who on looking closely you can see the blue film over his eyes, But this is Heidies story. Heidie was a very very lovely golden red chow, a very quite puppy and loved to sit in her water bowl for hours on end, she was forever wet front and back, and as soon as I dried her off she would be back into the water, so I built her and Amour a puppy pen where they could play together safely with a small flat bowl of water the could play in, they were allowed certain play time out of their puppy pen and this was when my heartbreak started.On the 30th Dec l998 while playing with Amour ,.how this happened, I don't know. I was busy painting the Kitchen, and noticed Heidie limping. I took her inside to examine her and felt her Hip did not feel right, it felt out of joint, so I kept her inside and settled her down in the bedroom with some warm milk soon after drinking her milk she started to Vomit, I gave her gastrospect but it did not help, our vet only opened his surgery at 4.30, So as soon as Rick came home I rushed her up to see him, He confirmed that her hip was dislocated and said she had enteritis as well, He said that I should leave her in
hospital for that night so he could put her on a drip to control the vomiting and that he would x-ray her hip the next day, and put it right. I could fetch her in the evening. When I got to my Vets on the 31st Dec l998 Heidie had stopped vomiting, Her leg was strapped to her body with thick plaster and she was allowed to come home, She refused to eat and lay with her little face in her water bowl taking small laps of it now and again, I was still very worried about her but she eventually seemed to settle down, and went to sleep, I sat with her until 2am, then went to bed, When I woke up at 6am she was crying a bit, and I thought her leg was sore, so I gave her an antibiotic and a little milk. But she continued to cry and was very restless, I phoned my Vet but he was not there and as Rick had to work that day I could not get her to the emergency clinic in Durban. She got weaker and weaker, And I tried everything in my Power to help her. My lovely baby died at 10am on New Years Day l999, and I cried and cried. I could only get hold of our Vet on the Saturday morning, and I took her body back to ask him to do and autopsy. As I wanted to know why a perfectly healthy puppy 3 days ago was now dead. She had only been with us a few weeks. He did the autopsy and the cause of death was "Enterotoxaemia, resulting from Acute enteritis, complicated by intersusception of the small intestine, (i.e. The bowel had telescoped in on itself and had been unable to free itself) She also had some arrears of hemorrhage of the lungs. When I spoke to him on the phone he said he had also examined her hip and although not qualified to say so he said it looked suspicious and that if she had lived
she would have had to undergo further X-rays at 12 months and possible hip replacement to correct the defect. I have cried and cried over the loss of this little Angel, but God wanted her so he took her. Was it shock that caused the enteritis, How did she dislocate her hip at such a young age did she have congenital Hip Dysplasia, These are questions that will never be answered, All I know is I miss her so much and Tammy and Amour miss her as well, she was part of our hearts, and our life, for such a short period, but we will never forget her she grew into my heart and there she will stay forever.