Life After Parvo: The road to recovery

I write this for those who have a dog that has parvo, or that recovers parvo. There are very few pieces of material floating around on the web that describe in detail what recovery is like. I have spent many hours trying to find blogs and articles, to little avail. Scouring Youtube won't help you either, as videos that come up when you search after parvo, parvo recovery, etc are mostly puppies bouncing around and being, well, puppies.

This caused me to despair. My pup, Mochi, wasn't acting young and playful at all. So I present to you my case study.

We had Mochi for a day before we took him to the vet and discovered he had parvo. He had a 50/50 chance of living. Parvo treatment is expensive, and we used crowdfunding to help us gain the funds to see him through to recovery. If you are reading this and don't think you will be able to afford the full vet price, refer to a blog post I wrote here. http://wtstephens.blogspot.com/2012/01/online-toolbox-that-saved-our-parvo.html

Mochi was in "puppy ICU" for a full week. My fiance would become quite upset when day 2, 3 and 4 would roll around and he would show no real sign of improvement. Sure enough, he regained his appetite slowly. Then we took him home.

The first couple nights I slept downstairs with him. He would only wake up when he had to use the bathroom. On the way back. The first couple days he only had a little bit to eat and drink. I had to put wet food down for him, which tended to spark a bit of an appetite and then he would eat a couple pieces of dry food. Many times we would have to coax him to eat by hand feeding him. He began having one large meal a day and nibbling through the rest. At first he did not have a bowel movement until day 3 home. I was worrying about that, but when he was finally able to pass one we were all happy. Now, 8 days later, he has about two bowel movements a day and is much more regular.

For the first few days he was probably only awake for about an hour out of the day, if that. They sleep non-stop for the first few days, as they are rebuilding their immune system and regenerating their damaged gastro system. Mochi's immune system was especially shot, as he was (and still is) battling a nasty case of the kennel cough. The first couple days every waking moment would be accompanied by coughing. We went out and bought him a humidifier, which works wonders - especially at nighttime when the coughing fits are more frequent. Every day there is a slight recovery from his kennel cough, I am happy to say.

Eight days later and he still sleeps a lot. I would say he is probably only awake for about 3-4 hours out of the day. His favorite spots are his dog bed that a friend got him, as well as the couch. He was not able to climb (not jump) on the couch until day 4 or 5.

On the first few days, I really expected to see major, dramatic changes. I learned that the minor changes that come day by day are worth celebrating in itself. One of my largest concerns was, and still is, his interest level in the outside world. I am happy to see that every day he explores a little bit more. It started with just walking around the side of the house. This moved to him exploring the house, to him walking all the way to the back alley yesterday (he walked about 75 yards, the most he's done so far). Then there are the little things. When he goes out, he will roll in the hay. Not for too long, though, as this wears him out fairly quickly. He doesn't really exhibit this energy inside the house, yet at least. On day 6 I got him to run toward me, though he could only do about 4 feet worth of running. Yesterday we ran along the side of the house for about 30 feet. Then he went back to sleep :)

He didn't really act like a puppy until day 6 or 7, and when he did it would only be in extremely small, few minute intervals. Then his tail would go back between his legs and he would slunk in the house before resting up for his next big adventure, usually hours later.

As for socializing, he takes minimal interest in other people and animals. On day 2 he started becoming interested in the cats, but he would only watch them from afar. When he would sleep, the cats would approach him and sniff him out - sometimes waking him up and putting him in a coughing fit that would scare the cats away. By about day 5 he began trying to walk up to the cats. Him and Luna (my black cat) touched noses once, totally cute.

He is interested in people, but only to a small degree. When I take him out, he usually follows me. I like this because it means I don't need to put him on a leash until he gets to the point where he wants to wonder off.

Last night he was in puppy heaven. I had a birthday get-together at my house and when people started arriving he loved the attention. He licked one of my friends on the beard, and nuzzled another. He has only licked my arm once, so I'm a bit jealous (just kidding).

We learned he can sleep through just about anything, as he never woke up once during a very loud game of Apples to Apples. Everyone wanted to hold him on their lap has he slept. And you know what?

He was ok with that.

The First Step in Motivation

One of the things good account planners and critical thinkers do is point out the obvious. Ah, yes - the "duh!" moment! I take pride in my analytic thinking, though sometimes the best analysis comes from taking a step back and reiterating basic human patterns. Well, here is one of those *duh* moments.

In a world dominated by variables, people like to form black-and-white ideologies and hopes. Of course, people may or may not understand outcomes could have a variety of twists and turns - but it is funny how often realizations and aspirations can end up on the polar opposite sides.

Religion. Politics. Finances. Dating. Health. We often approach situations thinking 'if I do this, then this will happen' or 'if I go this route, I will be safe from that.'

We build causal relationships to the point that we end up expecting a norm for almost any outcome. For things we are unsure of, we seek advice from others and try to get a grasp on similar case studies.

Whether we like it or not, we are creatures of habit. No, I am not saying that we are like a pigeons, raising our foot to a behaviorist doctor in order to get a treat. Instead, we settle in with the familiar and with what works. We piece aspects of our lives into patterns and follow these patterns because they have worked for us in the past.

Absolute black and white thinking is theologically conservative. We tend to stay in this realm, not leaving our box because it is comfortable. We may know what we want, but it is too darned comfortable being in this situation where we know exactly what to expect.

I challenge you to leave your box, at least once a week. Make a cognitive effort to do so. Pull out of the habit of remaining complacent and take a risk. Apply for that better job. Go back to school. Ask that person you see every day out.

More importantly, stop wasting time and take a step. Separate your current self from your future self. Do you want to let your future self down? Didn't think so.

We enjoy black and white redundancy, but without adding a bit of color  your world will remain pretty gray. 

Benefits of Opinionated Blogging?

I've been missing something in my life.

What may this be? Blogging for the hell of it.

Since 2004 I have had blogging outlets for my highly opinionated, personal ideas and venting needs. Way back when I totally ran with the Xanga crowd. I owe Xanga a lot, as it is what inspired me to learn a bit of HTML... or at least the structure of how it works. At the time it helped me with a better understanding in my computer science courses (yeah... I totally changed my major after that). Once the Xanga fad wore off, I transitioned into Myspace's blog.

Myspace had the best blog system I have seen, by far. You selected the category of the individual blog you made and it was a competitive game to get on that category's top 10 of the day. I won't lie, I totally took part in the mayhem. If you could get enough comments in your category to make the top 10, you in turn scored tons of hits.

Back then blogging was something different than it is now - or at least for me. It was an outlet. It was a tool to provide me a means to just write, whatever I felt the need to say. Readers or no readers, I had a message to get across.

Contrary to popular belief, I am more multi-faceted than my business-focused ponderings, found on my main blog here. I am a graduate student. I am a geek. I enjoy horrible movies and tacky cute animal pictures (don't worry, I won't bombard you with those... yet).

There is something else that blogging free-handed taught me: how to talk to people in the first person. Here I need not worry about SEO best practices, formal writing, etc. As long as I can write to secure interest and fulfill my own needs the world is mine for the taking. For years, as I was finding my grip in this world of late-night blogging I began to get a feel for what works and what doesn't. An experimenter's playground, per-se. I believe having a definitive voice in your writing is single-handedly one of the most important aspects, carrying over to all platforms.

In 2009 the J School presented me with an award for copywriting. At the time I couldn't understand why, as I didn't (and still don't) care to be a copywriter. I have even turned down an interview for a copywriting position in Pittsburgh because it does not match my professional interests. So why the hell would I randomly win an award for copywriting?

Now I understand.

I can attribute it to my many years blogging. No, it is not a special talent that I have... one that I can turn on and crank out the most creative copy you have ever seen. Instead, it is rather my succinct, yet absolute voice.

Graduate school has pushed many students to lose their voice; I fear the same could happen to me. This semester I am taking courses in research, journalism history and a combined law and ethics seminar class. A recipe for writing disaster? Well, hopefully this blog will help provide an antidote.