Big or Small – Labradors EAT it ALL….
Written by Pam on November 22, 2014
I am writing to all my KokoBo families this rather bittersweet blog which happened to us over the last couple of days. I am sharing this with you because we love our Kokobo puppies and the only way I know how to show each family that we are genuine – honest – loving people, is to share the triumphs and the tribulations that we go through as responsible breeders of this magnificent breed. What I am about to tell you should be shared with your children, grandchildren, husbands and wives – everyone that owns a puppy! Once you own a Labrador – all things change! The change happens at all levels – if you can think it – it will have a change! The type of change that I want to talk about in this blog – is to remove anything small and/or questionable from your living areas – An idea came to me when I was searching for a lost Kong was to crawl around the floors (at the same height as that of the dog/puppy and see what he sees at that level.) Look for the dangling wires, legs of tables, ornaments or tchotchkes (as my husband calls them) – Especially around the holidays – all ‘baby-proofing’ needs to happen again and anything questionable needs to be removed until your lab puppy understands the limits. Now try and make the rooms where he/she will frequent a clean pallet because nothing is off limits for your lab pup – nothing!
Why -oh -why is Pam telling us all this….For the last couple of days, I have spent much of my time at my veterinarian’s office and then off to Cornell University Specialty Center. My vets and those at Cornell – are truly amazing! In previous blogs I must have told you that I wait for no one, I do what I need to do to help anyone or anything in need – well this was a test of endurance. One of our puppies, dark blue was not feeling well – vomiting, happy – wagging his tail when he sees me – but not quite right. With no hesitation our vet took him in and immediately assessed the situation. After an x-ray and ultrasound, she knew that there was something in his intestine but wanted an expert ultra-sound specialist – to look at the ultrasound just to make sure we have not missed anything before we turn the next corner – surgery. At Cornell we were given the same direction that surgery was the only alternative to removing the ‘object’ from Dark Blue’s intestine. But the concern was …is the object, newspaper bedding, a toy, or parasites and now that we know something is there – how do we go about removing the object. The good news (if there was any good news) was that an incision of the intestine is very different from intussusception of the intestine whereby a portion of the intestine did not need to be removed that is telescoping the bowel and causing the blockage. In Blue’s case, two incisions were necessary to remove the object. – not the intussusception!
If you are reading this to your children – please stress the fact that the puppy is young and is learning the world around him – the world that the kids will create for this puppy – the pup does not know what happens if they decide to bite a live wire, or eat a lego or chew on Barbie’s arm (I think this might date myself here)– or eat their collar! Yes, eat their collar – that is what Dark Blue had in his intestine – his own dark blue fleece collar that we just made for him – Please note that an object does not need to be tasty for a lab to eat it – If I can save one of my families the tears that I shed yesterday, I will feel that I did something good here. Dark Blue is recuperating now from the surgery and we are hopeful that he will make a full recovery but only time will tell.
Please take the time and talk with the kids about how a treasured toy to them can be a hazard to a young puppy. I want all my KokoBo families to love and protect our puppies as we do raising them. Thanks, Pam