Jill has been released from the hospital!!! 

We are so happy that Jill is doing much better today (2/22/2014) and has come home! Her heart is beating normally and her heart rate has slowed down to a more normal range. She is on some heart medication to help keep it this way. We hope she will only have to take that medication for a week.

She was very scared at the vet hospital; it is loud and unfamiliar. That is not a good situation for a dog with her background. Our goal was to get her home so she could relax, rest, and get better. As I am writing this, she is sleeping soundly snoring away!

One of her other goals was to eat better so she could take the oral medication. She was not meeting that goal, but I felt if she was at home, she would do better at eating. When we got home, I made her some boiled hamburger and rice. As she started to smell the meat cooking, she perked up her head and gave me a big smile! She has eaten that with no troubles and is taking her medications wrapped up in some lunch meat. She was acting hungry and was excited for her second meal. She is also taking treats from me! I think it is safe to say this goal has been met.

Jill will need to have her heart checked out later this week to make sure things are still improving. She is on restricted activity for the next two weeks, and then we will check her a second time and she will also get her staples removed at that time.

This has been a very scary week for Jill and Foster Mom! We would like to thank everyone for all the kind words and the valentines that are decorating her page. As you can imagine, her medical bills are high and we are so grateful to everyone that donated to help her out.

A special thank-you to Jessica and Adam Erickson for sponsoring Jill!

Jill went to the vet for her spay surgery yesterday. When I went to pick her up after her spay surgery, she seemed fine. She got into the car with no troubles and we headed home. When we got home, she climbed out of the car and walked into the house. As soon as we got in the house, blood started to drip through her spay incision.

The vet was closed so I took her to the emergency vet. They checked her out and said they thought a suture slipped off one of the ovarian pedicles, and so she was bleeding internally--an arterial bleed. A surgeon was called and she went back into surgery and they were able to stop the bleeding!

She lost a lot of blood, though they were able to clean and transfuse some of the blood they collected from her abdomen. It will take a few weeks for her body to replace her lost blood volume.

She will be very tired and need to be kept calm for the next few weeks. She is doing much better this morning and I think she will be able to come home later today, Thursday, 2/20/2014!  It was a very scary situation and I was very concerned for her; however, it looks like she is out of the woods and will just need some time to heal!

Jill is a fighter and has a strong will to survive! As many of you pet owners know, this kind of special veterinarian care is very expensive. Jill could use some prayers for her healing and donations to help cover her large emergency vet bill. If you would like to help Jill, please make a RAGOM Donation today!  You can donate at www.ragom.org/shop/donat.html

Jill is doing very well! The last puppy has gone to its forever home and Jill is adjusting to the change. We have put away the puppy pen and the extra large crate. Jill has a much smaller crate now and we are starting to leave the door shut some of the time so she is not hiding out in there all day. We have also started using a trailing leash on her in the house so we can keep her closer to us. That is working very well. She is laying by my feet and looks very comfortable. She had a very big day on Saturday. I was taking one of my other fosters to meet a family, and Jill and her son Jake got to spend the morning with another foster. They got to play outside and run around with a lot of dogs. Jill did great; it turns out she loves to run and play while outside. Here is a video of her! http://youtu.be/-7FMuB4e5nA Jill is the dog with a green collar and a red collar on, bringing up the rear as the dogs run around the shed. Her tail is up high and she is running around with confidence. This is the first time I have seen Jill behave this way! I have great hopes that this will be her normal behavior one day in her future. Jill will be getting her spay surgery in about two weeks and will be ready for her forever home. Jill will need a confident younger dog that likes to play. Young in years or young at heart. She likes to play and would love a playmate! She will need a fenced-in yard and no young children. Jill is a very sweet girl. If you would like to meet her, please contact your placement advisor.

Jill is doing well! She is such a good mother, taking such good care of her family! The puppies are 5 1/2 weeks old now and are growing like crazy! They are still nursing from mom, but are also eating softened kibble so mom does not have to produce so much milk. Jill is very thin and we feed her a lot to try and get some weight on her, but I think she will have to give up nursing before that happens. She has about three more weeks of mama duties and she will never have to go through this again.

Jill is very shy of people, but is becoming more friendly to me. She is food motivated, so that is what I am using to get her to come to me. She will eat from my hand, so I am having her come to me and take a treat from my hand. Jill is going outside nicely and comes right back to the door when she is ready to come in. She does not want to be away from her babies for too long. She has not started to play with the resident dogs yet; I think that will happen when the puppies have been adopted.

Jill would like to thank Danielle and Woody for decorating her page with winter icons!

Jill has been very busy this past week! She is taking care of her new family. She gave birth to 11 puppies!!! She has 6 girls and 5 boys; they are all doing well and gaining weight every day. This is a large litter, so I have been helping her by supplementing the puppies with some formula. Jill is nursing around the clock; she is a great mama! We had to make her a new box for her family. We started with a swimming pool and the puppies are such good climbers that they would crawl up on mom and would be above the top of the pool. I didn't want anyone to fall over the side. The new box is a rectangle and much more comfortable for mom; she can really stretch out!

Jill will be nursing for a few more weeks and then will need to get her milk dried up before she can be spayed. She is looking for her forever home, and if you would like to meet her, she is ready to meet families, but will not be able to go to her forever home until February. Jill came from a retiring breeder, so she will need a well-adjusted dog in her forever home, no small children, and for now, I think she will need a fenced-in yard, but that may change as I get to know her.