Those Special Dachshunds: Meet Aika, Poncho, Flash and Diva!

Aika, Poncho, Flash, and Diva

It's hard to be a half-world away from the ones you love.  Thanks so much to Nicole Kohlbacher for writing in:

Dear Joey and Maggie,

I just stumbled across your website, and I have to say I love it, even though I browsed through it crying the whole time. I have 4 Dachshunds at home. The dad (Flash, 10 years old), the mommy (Aika, 5 years old) and their kids (Poncho and Diva, 3 years old). But home is really in Brazil, and I just moved to Germany to go to college and they are still there with my mom. I have to say, I miss them more than I miss my friends.

I wanted to share a story about Flash, the dad with you guys.

Last Christmas, early in the morning I noticed that he was kind of "moaning", so I went to look what that was about. He screamed, really screamed, like a person in really great pain would, and he was in so much pain, that he grabbed my hand in his mouth and wouldn't, couldn't, let it go. My mom literally had to open his mouth for me to remove my hand. (I just had some bruises and a bitten up pinky). After that he didn't get up, didn't move his head, tail, mouth, and he couldn't feel anything. Thank God Sao Paulo is a big city and we could find a vet on the 25th.

The first thing the vet said was that it wasn't good. It could be a herniated disc, and if it was one, he would probably never walk again, or it could be something else which would kill him quick.

I couldn't accept that, and we did a bunch of exams, I spent all my Christmas money on them, and it really turned out to be a herniated disc. Another vet, the surgeon, told me I could let them operate him, he would probably never walk, or put him to sleep? But how could I do that to a dog, who has always been there for me? through my childhood, my teenage years, everything. And has always been, as cliche as it may sound, there for me no matter what. So I put all my savings together and my mom helped me and we paid for the surgery.

The surgery in itself went good, but he had a lung embolism. They prepared me for the worse, but every time I went there to visit him it looked better...He started opening his eyes, and he felt if you pinched him on his tail or paws. Two days later the embolism was gone and the day after that he started eating, but only if I gave it to him :) . Day 7 we got to take him home with us. He wasn't walking or moving. We had to give him tons of medicine in the mouth, food, which he mostly vomited in the beginning, water...We had to make him poo or pee. Everything. We literally took care of him 24/7, because he would wake up at night crying because he was in pain.

But 2 weeks later he started moving around in his bed with the help of his head, then moving or better yet, kicking one paw, just a little. And he stopped waking up at night, nor did he need to take any medicine. We would put him on the floor and he would follow the other dogs, dragging himself by moving his head. He responded if we pinched him, kicked his paws. He had nerves. After one consult the vet was astonished. He said it was a miracle, that he hadn't had thought that the surgery would turn out this well. He made us hire a acupuncture specialist and physical therapist who would come to our house 2 times a week. One month after the surgery he was walking like a newborn, next to the wall, falling, getting up again. In 2 more weeks he was walking, limping a bit, but walking.

I think what motivated him the most, was watching the other dogs hover over him and going walking, specially because he was always the most enthusiastic one to go out for a walk. When he saw the leashes, even while he couldn't walk, he would go crazy.

Now he is walking normally, no limp, the only extra care we have is not to let him jump, or walk on stairs. But he is healthy, walking, happy and being the best dog anyone deserves to have.

Another thing I wanted to share is that these dogs are friends. They really are. You see that in the way they interact.

Well, dogs rock, especially Dachshunds, and I am sorry for the rambling, the bad English, and I don't even know if anyone is EVER going to read this, but after reading your blog I just had to share the story and write/talk about them, because I miss them so much!!!!!

Poncho

Diva

Poncho and Flash

Aika