I Almost Lost Daphne

Saturday morning, Daphne was fine. By that evening she had stopped eating and had a temperature of 106.3, and then 107. I called my vet, Dr Miller, who was out of town. He called in a prescription for me. He suspected mastitis. I wasn’t sure as her teats did seem to be somewhat enlarged, but not that bad. I followed his recommendations of cooling her body with cool water and got her temperature down to 106. But I could not get the antibiotic in her. She was clenching her jaw. She was starting to have neurological signs from the fever, as evidenced by dragging her rear toes. She was wobbly. I took her to the emergency vet and got her fluids and intravenous antibiotics. I thought for sure she would die. Of course she could no longer nurse the puppies.

Sunday was awful. Trying to get the antibiotics in her and watching her teats get worse and worse. One was starting to turn very dark. I got back to Dr. Miller on Monday morning. Due to the rapid progression and high fever and beginning necrosis, he diagnosed her as having been bitten by a brown recluse spider. He added a stronger antibiotic.

The stronger antibiotic plus an anti-inflammatory fever reducing drug seemed to help. She actually ate a little bit. But Tuesday night and all day Wednesday she vomited. She rapidly became severely dehydrated and could not keep water down. I thought again that she would die. Her teats had blackened and started to open up and ooze a horrible fluid from the venom of the spider. Her temperature hovered around 104.

After talking to an ER vet tech on the phone on Wednesday evening, I took her off one of the antibiotics and the anti-inflammatory. I hoped that was what was causing the vomiting. I restricted her water and only gave her a very small amount at a time. This seemed to work and she stopped vomiting. I was able to keep her on one of the antibiotics. Had she not been able to keep that down, I would have had to take her back to the emergency vet.

I took her back in to Dr. Miller on Thursday. By that time she was much better and regained hydration. He examined her and reaffirmed his diagnosis of brown recluse spider bite due to the initial high fever and severity of the wound.

Dr. Miller will have to remove probably two mammary glands completely. Her surgery is scheduled for Thursday. (The surgery has to wait until the necrosis is complete, otherwise the surgery may not be successful due to continued infiltration effects of venom.) He added a different antibiotic that would be less likely to cause vomiting and told me to hold off on the pain/fever reducing drug unless she was symptomatic.

Today she is actually eating some and I’m able to get both antibiotics into her while hidden in bites of food. I am hand feeding her but she is eating! She’s starting to show a little bit of interest in the puppies when she hears them whining.

The puppies are well. I was a bit worried about them at first because at two and a half weeks of age it was very soon to start them on food and formula. They refused the bottle. After having had the real thing, they just could not adapt.

After a few days they have all taken to lapping up the gruel/formula quite well and are gaining weight again and still getting lots of love from their human mommy instead of Daphne. They are fed every 3 hours around the clock. I’ll be able to reduce this to every 4 hours very soon. They were 3 weeks old yesterday.

I’m hopeful that I can put Daphne back in with the puppies after her surgery and she has healed enough. She won’t be able to nurse them anymore but she will be able to teach them some manners. She was such a good mother to them and gave them a great start in life.

I am so, so grateful to Dr. Miller of Crossroads Veterinary Center in Richmond. He and his staff made themselves available to me and were reassuring that this horrible wound was a normal response to a venomous brown recluse spider bite. He is confident that he can remove the affected tissue and close her abdomen cleanly.

I’m also grateful for my friend Stan for helping me. He has been checking on me every morning and helping with the other dogs, and just giving me time to rest and moral support. And I am also grateful for my friend Liz who came twice and stayed, brought supplies, and supported my decisions about what was best for the puppies. And to my friends Vera, Sharon, Charlotte, Lisa, and Ginette, for listening and supporting me, and offering help.

This is one of those life lessons that teach you that your life and the lives you are responsible for are not really under your control.