Happy New Year?

Joel and I are relaxing in the living room, when all of a sudden Molson vomits on the floor. Great we think, he has eaten some food that fell on the ground from our New Year's Eve dinner party the night before! This happens a couple of more times, with Guinness following suit a few hours later. After several bouts of vomiting we decide we need to take them in to a clinic. They are refusing to eat or drink anything by the afternoon. It figures this had to happen on the holiday when everything is closed down!
One of my sisters(Cristina), Joel and I rush them down to one of the few emergency clinics open at Yonge and Sheppard. We are told over the phone that it will be $140 per puppy just to get in the door! Ouch.....but little did we know that would be just the beginning.
The vet believes that they could have ingested something from the party the night before. He gives us two options. The first, to do subcutaneous fluid replacement, and take them home to monitor. Secondly, to admit them overnight for iv fluids and observation. Blood work is also done to rule out other causes such as parvovirus. They don't have any diarrhea at this point. Since the vet seems to think it is more likely food ingestion, we do the fluid replacement and bring them home.
I spend the night on the couch feeding them pedialyte mixed with water to increase their hydration every hour. Then the diarrhea hits.....Oh god, I am thinking. Now it is getting more serious. The worry is creeping up on me, but I think "I am a nurse, I can care for them through the night and they'll be fine." They have a few episodes of that, so I decide to leave a message at our vet office to bring them the next morning. The sickness was in waves of slight improvement, and then very serious lethargy. Molson's lethargy has improved a bit by morning, while Guinness' condition is beginning to weaken more and more.

The saddest part about it all was watching their sorry looking faces. That was the hardest part, to know they were suffering. They looked so weak and tired. Guinness was taking the pedialyte mixes a little better, but Molson was hard to nurse. I had to hold up his little head and force him to take the pedialyte. I was getting worried that maybe something was neurologically wrong with him at times, since he almost seemed to be having trouble swallowing. I felt really evil force feeding, but I knew it was vital to their well being. A puppies blood sugar could drop to dangerous lows without any nutrition. The pedialyte would give then both the hydration and boost their blood sugar to an acceptable level.

Every time the heaving would come up, I felt a tinge of desperation. How do I make it stop? These poor little six pound puppies were suffering, and it just wasn't fair.