that thing that kiku ate

With two happy, healthy, holistic pomeranians, I never expected an unforeseen disaster to strike my puppy Kiku.

Kiku is an almost two year old pure bred pomeranian. She is a robust, healthy little jock. She is normally smart, and knows many words, as well as tricks and games with toys. Suddenly one night last week she vomited. The usual remedies for the sensitive tummies of poms just weren’t doing much for her. I could see lip smacking and her tongue, which was always hung out in a big smile, wasn’t out at all. She couldn’t stand to pick up toys in her mouth, I knew that it was nausea. We were beside ourselves with worry.

Kiku Day After Surgery
Small dog breeds are special and need understanding and a vet who is willing to tailor their care to their individual needs. When we brought her into MASH, she was treated with a combination of conventional and holistic modes. She got acupuncture, homeopathy and ozone, and even a dollop of vaseline. Then the nasty brown vomit came up. She needed to get that stuff out of her. When Dr. Roman examined her, she could feel a lump in Kiku’s intestines. I was pretty sure that Kiku had eaten something wrong, and that there was a blockage or obstruction. Sure enough, a chain of events was revealed by surgery.

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When the really gross mess of stuff was removed it all became clear what had happened. Our big Maine Coon cat had eaten some thread, and hacked up a big long hairball, which Kiku then ate. Not one of her smarter moments… When it was taken out, the smelly mass was the size of a brillo pad. And that part of her intestine was blackened and necrotic. If Dr. Roman hadn’t stepped in proactively, I am sure that we would have lost Kiku. I was impressed by how the staff of women at MASH all worked on Kiku. They were like a musical quartet, moving in unison. Anticipating what was needed, going from one treatment to the next, they handled Kiku with love and expertise which I could tell came from long practice together.

Dr. Roman included us in the whole process. It is such a refreshing change from bad experiences we have had in the past with other vets who are abrupt and dismissive of the input of pet parents. The treatments that we chose together were perfect for her. We were not isolated from her for even a minute. I feel that is so important for small dogs. They are so tiny and sensitive, that they can become severely depressed when away from their people. Many poms won’t eat unless their parents are home.
The surgery went amazingly well. My partner was allowed to be in the room to observe. He said that he was fascinated watching Dr. Margo’s hands as she did the surgery. The cutting and sewing that she did was to ensure that the sutures would stay in place and heal well. Seven inches of intestines had to come out! She had what is called an intestinal anastomosis.

Since I am squeamish, I spent the surgery time meditating on the Reiki symbols of Hon Sha Se Zonen, and the Daikomio. I pulled in the healing energy of the universe, and communicated with her cells on a quantum level. I brought in white and pink light, and suffused the entree property at MASH in a pink glow to heal, energize and protect everyone, and Kiku. As I sat in the waiting area, a white cloud appeared up above in the skylight of the open and airy space. It looked to me like Kiku, curled up in a ball smiling. I finished up the distance Reiki, and then did more hands on Reiki with the Master symbols on her during recovery.

We took her home shortly after surgery, and Kiku did not appear to be in any pain. The ozone and other integrative remedies and homeopathic medicines did all the pain management without using harsh narcotic drugs.

Instead of drugging her into somnolence, the pain was taken care of and she is conscious enough to show us just how she is doing. The cycle of drugging and doing repeated unnecessary tests is forestalled by using integrative medicine. Why aren’t more vets aren’t doing healthier natural remedies?

They used the ozone treatments to help reduce pain and to lavage her mouth and intestines. The ozonated saline was given as a gastric lavage as well. She was given the ozonated saline subcutaneously. She was also given rectal ozone gas which was absorbed immediately into the blood vessels of her colon and into her liver helping to detoxify her. The ozone helped reduce the swelling of the gut and brought down the inflammation therefore reducing pain and allowing O2 to return to the tissue. This sped up the healing process.

I have used homeopathy too in my own life and experiences, and we use many of them for ourselves and our dogs. Nux Vomica is a real goto helper for vomiting. Arnica and Bellis peranis reduce pain. Kiku had her operation at 4:30 PM and at 10:00 PM she was home, and able to run down the hallway faster than I can. We are firm believers in home care when ever possible. We are giving Kiku her conventional antibiotics as well as her homeopathy, and Reiki. She has her big sister Saki to help her feel normal. Home care is so much better than leaving a dog behind in a cage. For poms who can become heartbroken with separation anxiety, home care is ideal. She would have still been in the hospital on pain meds for probably 2-3 days.

Here in her own environment she immediately went back to her usual routines. Fourteen hours after her surgery we were shocked to see her get up at her usual time the next morning, grab a ball, and throw it at us to play her usual game before work.

She did have one more hurdle to overcome during her recovery. Some pomeranians can be very sensitive to anesthesia. She became stiffened up during her sleep and nap times which caused her to have subluxating patella in her knees which she never had before. She had a hard time with shaking and getting back on her feet until we began giving her homeopathic Phosphorus. After that she was up and around the next day. 
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For her personality it was important to notice that just lying around in her bed wasn’t working for her. She wanted her Ball. She has about a dozen of the mini size Kong Air Dog tennis balls that she loves. So even though she could not stand up on her own, if I placed her on all four feet she would catch the ball. I began with ten minute sessions three times a day. Then four times and then she increased it to an hour three times a day. Her play became her physical therapy. After that she was awake and napping at her normal times like her big sister. Each day she added more and more of her normal behaviors. There were a few nights where I had to stay up and watch over her when she had trouble getting up and getting to a newspaper to pee. I could not imagine leaving her alone all night. I kept an old rubber hot water bottle with her at all times and we kept monitoring her temperature until it was normal. She never ran a fever throughout the whole process, her temp tended to go low.

To help her intestines come back online after so long without solid food I gave her one teaspoon of chicken baby food mixed with one teaspoon of plain organic yogurt with one Nutrigest, one eighth teaspoon of vitamin C and one eighth teaspoon of hip and joint supplement. I gave her half a teaspoon of that at a time from a food syringe, each one separated by fifteen minutes. She could have six or eight teaspoons of that a day to start with. She began to eat finely chopped boiled chicken, mixed with soft boiled egg yolk, with yogurt and her supplements as a wet meal in addition to the baby food paste. I gave her these meals when everyone else was eating to keep her in the rhythm of the pack.
After two or three days she was eating the the soft chopped meals on her own. I switched to one teaspoon of cooked pumpkin, one teaspoon of cooked apple and one teaspoon of the yogurt and added the Nutrigest and supplements to keep her regular. I gave her this pumpkin apple yogurt in the food syringe. She and her sister both liked it so much I will make it for them often.

Pomeranians are so tiny that when they get sick it can be really difficult for them. Luckily for Kiku everyone did everything they could, and we used remedies and modalities from all around the world, to help her back up and running again, and so her story has a happy ending.

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