Mack

About Mack (Treeing walker coonhound) in Pittstown

Mack is waiting for you at S&L Animal Rescue, Inc. in United States. This is the story of Mack. Mack was born on 9/12/13 as part of a litter of 6. His Mom was a Vizsla/Hound mix and we have no idea who Dad was. He was the largest pup of the litter at birth. As the litter grew and was nursing on Mom, we quickly learned that she was giardia positive (an intestinal parasite). It was an unfortunate circumstance since we were certain she was passing it on to the pups. Since they were so young when they started showing signs of suffering from this parasite, there wasn’t much we could do other than wait for them to get to an age when we could treat it. One by one, they fell ill and then re-cooperated once treatment started. Mack on the other hand, did not seem to bounce back like the others. In fact, he fell ill with this parasite more than once in his puppyhood. We treated him each time and suffered with him during his periods of dehydration, not eating, and just feeling yucky. More than once, we had to force feed him for more than a week. He had no energy. We were giving him fluids three times a day just to keep him alive. There was a point where we did not think he would make it for certain. But we weren’t giving up on him. I think he knew that, and this caused him to hang in there with us no matter how bad he felt. At 10wks, he weighed only 4.8lbs when his siblings were in the 10-12lb range. Because the parasite took every bit of nutrition we were force feeding him, he was way behind in growth & development. When he finally turned the corner and started eating on his own, he was unstoppable. He would eat every 2 hrs and simply couldn’t get enough. We were elated! At 15wks, he was only about 2/3rds the size of his siblings, but he’d eat like a horse and we’d pump him up with vitamins every day. As you can see from his pictures, he is certainly 1 happy pup to be alive! UPDATE: We have now found it necessary to list Mack as a "Special Needs" adopt. After an oral exam, th