I rushed him to the ER, praying the whole way he wouldn’t die on me.  Thus began almost a month of critical care: two separate stays at the ER (the first for a blood transfusion and monitoring, the second visit for high fever and pneumonia), and 12 days of IV fluids at my homeopathic vet’s office (sometimes going straight from the ER to the vet). When he wasn’t at the ER, I’d pick him up from my vet at night and limp him through until the next morning (up every hour to coax and coerce and bribe him to eat or drink, sometimes syringing fluids down his throat, dealing with his continually upset stomach and intestinal tract, holding him while he coughed and gasped for air during his pneumonia, etc.).  Then back to the vet for daily fluids and monitoring until I picked him up again after work. I was exhausted all the time, and running on adrenaline myself.  It took everything I had to deal with his illness, which meant putting my life on hold for about five months.  I don’t regret it, but there were moments I thought I couldn’t put one foot in front of the other any more.  I was frustrated that I couldn’t help him heal more quickly, and that even though I was doing all I could (with the help of vets, friends, and my Weim  chatlists), it just didn’t seem enough some days.

It was scary, and heartbreaking, to watch Barney struggle to heal, first from the damage caused by the hookworms (he was so anemic he required a blood transfusion the first ER stay), then with severe pneumonia (no doubt triggered by the worms, as they travel from the blood into the lungs, get coughed up and travel to the intestines).  Seven vets treated him over the course of his illness, including a homeopathic vet in Spain who determined the remedy which helped him turn the corner and begin recovering in an obvious way.  He struggled with the pneumonia for quite a while, and the amount of medications and special supplements he was on during the course of his illness was astounding.  He did not do well with kibble and Science Diet canned food, so at the height of his illness I crossed my fingers and slowly converted him to a raw food diet, which he flourished on. He was so severely infected with the hookworms that it took three rounds of wormer to get them under control (but they were not gone; more on that later). Then he was found to have tapeworms in early March – a result of the fleas he had been playing host to.  He had a reaction to the wormer, and we spent two weeks dealing with that.   

When Barney started feeling better, around mid-January 2002, he became a holy terror (!).  He was very active, energetic, a counter- and fridge-top surfer extraordinaire (if it smelled of food, it was his -- including salt and pepper, and healthy supplements).  He got into everything -- that’s what young Weims typically do.  While it was extremely frustrating and (very!) exasperating at times, it was definitely a welcome change: at the height of his illness, he could barely totter outside to do his business, and had to be lifted up and down from the couch and bed. To help him stay safe, I began crating him when I left the house. He was not a happy camper about it, but has gotten to where he tolerates it as long as he has a stuffed Kong to work on (www.kongcompany.com). He now crates up on his own as soon as he sees the Kong come out of the freezer.

For a continuation of Barney's story and his "job" as a search and rescue canine in training (now retired), click on "Next Page" button below.