Our family suffered a terrible tragedy a little over a month ago. The dog of some dear friends died while in our care. A bulldog named Gus. And just so you understand the significance of this, these friends will never have children, their two dogs are their children. And Gus is the son of their older female dog Wheezy. They have raised him since birth.
Gus died of heatstroke. After doing much research and talking with veterinarians I have found out after the fact that Gus had many things stacked against him. Bulldogs are the most fragile and intolerant breed to heat. The environment we provided him just happen to be the worst possible scenario for his survival. This knowledge does no good to us now but in case you have a bulldog and are reading this, a few things to note:
1. NEVER allow your dog free access to the outdoors when temperatures are above 68 degrees.
2. Never allow you dog free access to play with other dogs no matter what the temperature( they can go into heat stoke just from the body heat generated during play in the winter months).
3. Always keep you dog indoors and sedentary during the hours of 9am to 9pm in summer months.
4. Always have lemon juice and Benadryl on hand as it can make the difference between life and death.
In case you know nothing about our set up here for the dogs, we did the opposite of all of these things. We have a dog door, many other dogs, and the place is far from sedentary. We also had no idea about the Benadryl and lemon juice!
It has taken over a month for me to be able to talk about this with anyone other than my closest friends and David. And still am only barley brushing the surface of the effect it has had. It has created a snowball of loss in my life. The most recent of which is milk supply.
Kate is such a great nurser. She is my last baby and with her nursing is everything I thought it would be. With Leah we had mastitis, thrush, reflux, clogged ducts, tongue tie and terrible digestive issues. With Kate, everything just works the way it should, I am enjoying it so much.
In the last month, Kate has lost weight. I am not sure exactly how much yet, I will find out at her appointment on Thursday. I know at least a few ounces and that is a lot when she should be gaining. I keep thinking things will get better with time but they are not. It may be time to…..supplement. So for all of you out there reading this please wish me mental and emotional peace for the sake of milk.