I contacted my vet last night. Little Hope is holding her own, but I wish she was “thriving”. She’s slowly gaining weight, and since we started the antibiotics she seems stronger (she’s fighting me at feeding time) and her breathing seems not quite so labored. But she still seems kind of congested. Not really congested like in her lungs, but more like nose, sinus area. She’s producing a lot of saliva. Probably because I’m tube feeding her and the tube irritates her throat. I know a lot of you will suggest I bottle feed her, but that’s just not an option at this time. It don’t know that she is strong enough at this time for that or if she would even be able to. And sucking on a bottle would burn up more of her calories and energy.

So I sent a message to my vet to see if there was anything else we could do to make her more comfortable and help here breathe easier. She did some research and found a children’s OTC medicine that might help.

My plan was to feed her, and then try to get to church this morning. But when I got the message about the medicine, I decided I’d make a quick trip to town so I could pick up the medicine and get her started to hopefully make her more comfortable.

Haha…”quick” trip, yeah, right Jen. 😉

I drove to the local pharmacy (about a 30 minute drive away) thinking I could grab it, turn around and get back home. Well, they had all versions of the medication, but not the one the vet recommended with just one ingredient! Every bottle had an additional (or two) other unneeded ingredients. *sigh

So off I went to the next town (another 15 minute drive further) and stopped at our local Wally World. Same thing…

Next stop, Safeway. Same issue…Goodness people, do we have to add all those extra ingredients?!

Last stop, Super One, another grocery store with a pharmacy. BINGO! Except it was “mini melts”; little granule packets. Just “sprinkle entire contents onto tongue, and swallow.” Yeah, right. Here, puppy let me sprinkle some medicine on your tongue and you just swallow it 😜 I need the liquid not granule packets..but I’ll take it!

So two hours late and seventy miles on some rough, icy roads; I’m home with my little packets of medicine.

Another message to the vet to explain that I didn’t get the liquid, but granules. “Could I reconstitute it and how much do I give her?” was my next question.

Now, you have to understand my vet and I have a really good relationship and we joke around a lot. She answers back with “divide the powder out into ten portions and give her 1/10 in her formula and no snorting it“. bhahahaha! She’s such a kidder!

Unfortunately, I tried mixing it in her formula and it clogged up her feeding tube. *sigh

So our next meal we’ll try mixing it with hot water first to make sure it’s dissolved then add it to the formula.

And if you come to my house and see a pile of white powder on a plate, it’s only Mucinex; promise!!

* Not to make light of the serious drug epidemic in our country. Just sharing a light moment in a stressful time. 😊