01/05/2024
Lakota checks in! He was Spiderman from our Avengers litter!
It can be scary to share hard stories on social media as a breeder, as we often face scrutiny even when things go well.
When Spiderman was 7 weeks old, he developed what looked like an eye stye. We used warm compresses and monitored. Within two days he had several more, so we went straight to our vet on a Sunday night to make sure he was ok.
He was diagnosed with puppy strangles which is a somewhat rare condition puppies can develop between 3 weeks and 6 months of age. For unknown reasons, a puppy's immune response sometimes overreacts to normal bacteria found on mammal skin.
We started him on steroids and antibiotics right away, which is standard treatment, but he continued to worsen for a couple of days. His poor face got quite swollen and more and more bumps broke out around his eyes and muzzle. Back to the vet for stronger treatment, but very slowly and surely, we saw improvement.
Little Spidey was such a trooper throughout the entire ordeal.
His new family was wonderful to work with as we shared all of the info we could gather on strangles. They were very understanding as we kept pushing his go-home day back, in order to make sure he was completely better before letting him leave. He still had residual hair loss around his eyes and muzzle by the time he left, but was completely healthy, and they were ready to finally be able to bring their sweet puppy home at 12 weeks of age.
His new family has continued to send the sweetest updates, he's thriving and doing very well. Puppy strangles poses no lasting side effects when caught early, and it's doubtful we'll see it in one of our puppies again.
A huge thank you to our vet, all the breeders on Facebook who shared their stories so we could get the best possible treatment, and a massive thank you to his family who were so understanding and wonderful to work with!
