Posted: March 25, 2009, 5 a.m. EDT
Oprah Winfrey says her Cocker Spaniel puppy Sadie “has been through a lot” but is “hanging in there” after being stricken with parvovirus.
“We had some … nights where we thought she might not make it,” Winfrey said on her show March 13th show. “She was on plasma replacements and four antibiotics,” adding that Sadie still didn’t “have her little puppy personality back yet.”
Sadie appeared on the show via a videoconference link with veterinarian Alexis Newman, DVM, of the Arboretum Animal Hospital in Downers Grove, Ill. Newman said Sadie was about 80 percent recovered after being close to death a week prior.
Sadie’s littermate Ivan died of parvo on March 19, about a week after being adopted by Winfrey.
Winfrey said she had flown the pups to her Montecito, Calif., home before they got sick.
“Ivan had really one great day playing with the big dogs and playing with Sadie and then he got sick,” Winfrey said. She added that her other dogs were “fine” because they had been vaccinated against the disease, which attacks the gastrointestinal tract.
Newman expects Sadie to return to Winfrey’s home in a few days.