We all know that giving birth is exhausting, so I was not surprised that my friend's dog, Mia, was slumped in her bed, shattered. She had popped out six pups three days earlier.
(Photo source)
"Good girl!" I said, when going over to her to give her and her puppies a pat, but when I got closer, I gasped. Mia's legs and chest were red and swollen. When I reached out to touch her, she howled in pain.
A complication from the birth? I thought.
"Lenee!" I called my friend. "Something is wrong with Mia!"
I asked Lenee's sister to hand-feed the pups while we took Mia to the vet. When we arrived, the vet knew the problem straight away.
"It looks like snakebites. We have had three other cases last month", he said.But Mia had only gone for 15 minutes the day before, to stretch her legs.
"Adders hang around in long grass and are very quick", the vet said. Mia had been bitten twice on her legs and chest.
"We are going to keep here here and see what we can do", he assured us.
(Photo source)
I left feeling worried. Mia had just given birth - her body was hardly in the best state to tackle a deadly snakebite.
"Would we lose her?" I thought. And my heart broke when we came back to Lenee's and saw all Mia's puppies in a pile, waiting for their mum. Would she ever come home?
During the next few days, we went to visit Mia at the surgery. She was on a drip and sedated. I stroked her and delivered her favorite treats, milk bones.
(Photo source)
Next day we brought her puppies, so she could be close to them. Back home, me and Lenee had been doing shifts, waking about every two hours to feed them. Now they managed to suckle on her few times, but Mia was barely conscious.
I was heartbroken, thinking those sneaky snakebites spelled the end of brave and adorable Mia. But after four days she turned a croner. "It was touch and go at first but she responded well to the treatment", the vet told us. Even better, we could take our girl home!
Limping she made a beeline for her puppies, lay down and they all came over for a feed. She snuggled them into her, as if she had never left. Mia went from strength to strength and kept looking after her pups until we found happy new homes for them all.
(Photo source)
Now Lenee keeps a close eye on Mia whenever she goes outside, though she can't keep her completely safe. Still, after what she has been through, we think that our mega mum can handle anything!