The Grim Came for Cocoa

Mr. Cocoa Bean had a little health incident in November. We weren’t sure he was going to make it. He may have had parvo virus, or it could have been a number of other issues.

If it was the parvo virus, it may have come with this stray in La Yacata that we dubbed “Grim” after the black dog shaped omen in the Harry Potter series. He took up residence at the opposite corner from the house a few weeks before Cocoa got sick, skeletal but exceedingly friendly, not that Cocoa wanted to be friends. If Grim brought the sickness into the area and Cocoa managed to sniff or eat or roll around in something that had the virus, well, that would be how he got it. Whatever it was, he was skin and bones in short order, unable to keep any food down.

We took him to the vet who gave him a fever, diarrhea, and nausea shot. That helped for a day. But then he was back to puking all over the place. The anti-nausea pills didn’t stay down long enough to be effective. He seemed so ashamed about his involuntary spewing even though I didn’t scold him. He’d take me to each place he’d upchucked and stand there with his head lowered until I cleaned it up. He was alert the entire time he was ill, looking at me with soulful eyes, but so physically weak. 

We took him to the vet in town every day for a week for a nausea shot in the hopes we could coax him to eat something. Finally, after 4 days of him not eating, we decided to force feed him some baby food (chicken and rice). He wasn’t happy about that at all, but it seemed to do the trick. He kept the food down, ate a little more the next day, and by the third day he was eating on his own.

It was an exhausting week. I was up everytime he was sick. I fretted when he wasn’t being sick. I did online research to see what else I could do. But he pulled through, which doesn’t usually happen with our pets. We put the rest of the dogs into doggy quarantine in case it was Grim that brought the illness. They weren’t too pleased with that.

I have to say, that even as sick as he was, Cocoa LOVED the trip on the motorcycle to the vet’s. My son held him firmly wrapped up, but his little face was uncovered so he could see everything. He even barked at a lady who screeched and jumped. I suppose she thought Cocoa was a baby. 

He’s starting to plump up again and is back to his full energy puppy level. He’ll go back to the vet’s in a week or so to see about getting a vaccine against the parvo virus, just in case that’s what it was. Meanwhile, Grim has apparently left the area, his work here done.

Fuzz, our cat, took advantage of Cocoa’s illness to claim his bowl of food as his own. He’d eat Cocoa’s food, then jump up to eat his own. I swear he gained 2-3 pounds in the week Cocoa was sick. We knew Cocoa was better when he tackled Fuzz at his food dish and reclaimed his dinner. 

Funny enough, although Cocoa managed to make it to the pee pad every single time he had to pee while he was ill, that abruptly stopped once he recovered. It’s pee here, pee there again. We are still working on housebreaking I guess.

He also decided that the bed I bought him was super comfy, but not as comfy as sleeping on the people bed seems to be. As soon as he had enough strength to hop back up on the bed for naps, that is what he did. Well, we’re just happy he’s so much better even if he hogs all the covers.

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