Kim's Story
Kim was the last born in the litter of four. With an uneventful birth and textbook development, Kim appeared a normal healthy puppy. When we waved Kim off to her new home little did we know she would shortly come close to being taken from us.
Her return home and subsequent nursing was fraught with heartache and worry. This is Kim's story.....
Some weeks after moving to her new home, according to her new owners, suddenly and without warning, Kim began to regurgitate her food, she quickly lost weight and failed to thrive.
With her weight dropping fast Kim was taken to the vets and treated for a stomach upset. A week later, after suddenly collapsing, Kim was rushed back to the vets and put on a drip. Subsequent investigations lead to a diaphragmatic hernia being diagnosed. The cause of this eludes us to this day but my vet suspects that Kim could have been stood on.
Desperately needing major surgery, Kim was now too ill to withstand the operation. Pneumonia had set in and an anxious week passed before she rallied sufficiently for the procedure to be carried out.
At three months old, two days after major surgery, still suffering with pneumonia, with stitches the length of her underside, a tube draining her stomach and weighing just 7 kilos, Kim was returned to my care. Her owners felt unable to carry on with her and nurse her back to health. So, I travelled two hundred miles and met them on the M4 motorway, picked up my bundle of skin and bone and returned their money in full to them.
Kim's medical bills had been met by the insurance I provided with the sale.
They did ask if they could replace Kim with her sister, whom I had kept, but I felt if they couldn't commit to this puppy, they really shouldn't have another of mine.
No more than skin and bone, and barely strong enough to wag her tail, she looked like a pitiful bundle of rags.
My heart broke as I feared our little girl wasn't strong enough for the battle back to health that lay ahead.
That first night I lay with Kim in my arms desperate for her to sleep, terrified every time she started to close her eyes. Fearing the worst, I was incapable of leaving her side. For the first few days she was unable to settle to sleep unless cradled in my arms and in her waking hours cried in bewilderment and pain. During those first anxious hours Kim and I became inseparable as I willed her back to health.
Pepper, knowing another of her puppies was in the house (although too weak to be reunited with her), cried desperately to be allowed to nurse her baby too.
Twenty-four hour care, love and understanding saw Kim grow steadily stronger each day. Dressing changes, medication, nursing and feeding throughout the day and night were borne by Kim with good-natured resignation.
Gradually we moved Kim from watered down prescription food at hourly intervals to a normal diet, desperate that the tell tale retching and sickness wouldn't begin again and desperate for her to at last start gaining some weight.
At first we fed by hand as by now she associated food with pain and coaxing her to eat the unappetizing diet was proving difficult. Then, as she grew stronger, on a little stool we made so she didn't have to bend her head to eat.
Within few weeks we had turned a corner and after the removal of her stitches she was strong enough to be reunited with her anxious mum. A month later she was able to resume her place in the household with her sister.
Our fears of infection and worse were now replaced by an altogether different challenge. Kim's sister Sissy had developed a fascination for the drainage tube that despite our best efforts and a string vest, seemed to dangle continually from our skinny little bundle. Sissy was determined to play with the wiggling tube trailing her sister. With this threat and Kim still far from being fit and well, constant supervision during play was essential.
A few weeks later an operation was carried out to remove the tube and Kim could finally throw off the string vests that had chaffed her front legs so badly. One of our proudest moments was the vet who carried out Kim's surgery telling us he almost didn't recognise her as the same dog, she had come so far.
Now nicknamed Slim Kim, at last the end of the road was in sight for our tough little fighter.
Miraculously, just three months later Kim was back to full strength and trailed her sister in weight by just a few kilos. Today she weighs 21 kilos - a normal weight for a Shar Pei of her age and build.
Kim's road back to health was at times exhausting and frustrating but just one look from those big brown eyes told you every minute was worth it.
Finally settled in her new home, Kim was a much loved and totally spoilt member of Tina and Peter's family. Happy in the home she deserved, loved unconditionally.
Thanks to the skill of the vets, the support, help and understanding of my family, together with the love and care of Tina and Peter, Kim grew into the picture of health - a credit to her owners and the breed.
Sadly Kim passed away in 2009 at the age of 10 but we take comfort from the fact that Kim had ten fabulous years with people who loved the bones of that girl.