Santa Cruz, Galapagos
Tigre came into the clinic one evening reportedly having not eaten for two weeks. The owners told the clinic that Tigre had not only not been eating, but had since started trying to vomit but had seemed unable to. The family had been to another vet the day before and Tigre was given some milk with medication. After having still not improved, the family were concerned and brought Tigre into the Darwin Animal Doctors clinic.
Tigre was in terrible condition. He was very pale and totally emaciated, looking as if he was wasting away in front of the Doctors’ eyes. The Doctors took some blood to run a test, and put Tigre on an IV line to give him some fluids and sugars. With the test returning positive for Ehrlichia (a type of tick borne disease), Dr Daphne decided to keep Tigre in the clinic to give him the close care and attention he would need.
Dr Daphne and the team spent a lot of time with poor Tigre, trying to encourage him to eat. The skinny puppy continued refusing to eat for the first days, laying in the corner, lethargic and weak. His urine was very orange and the poor pup could hardly make it outside to pee. The Doctors continued treating Tigre, giving him all the care and attention possible to encourage the sickly pup to eat. Alongside the Doctors love, Tigre had a very caring family, who came every day to visit him, willing the pup to get better.
Tigre remained on the IV line, and was given a nausea feeding tube so that Tigre would have at least some food in his stomach.
About four days after his arrival to the clinic, Tigre finally had the desire to eat a small amount of soaked puppy food, hand fed to him on a spoon. The Doctors and Tigre’s family were elated! After that, Tigre slowly began to eat more and more food until finally, a week after coming to the clinic, Tigre was happily eating from a bowl.
That day, Tigre’s loving family were finally able to bring him back home. Tigre is now well on the way to recovery, but will continue to return to the clinic for check-ups so that he can be regularly monitored by the Darwin Animal Doctors team.