need some help

Food, Fitness and how to keep them healthy.

Postby Maryellen » March 2nd, 2006, 6:52 pm

a friend of mine in rescue just got in a pit from MD.. the dog threw up at the vets office orange plastic pieces of a toy or something, and still can not keep any food down.. he has lost 3 lbs in a week from throwing up when he eats.. he is also possibly has food allergies too... he came ina total mess, but my friend cant get the throwing up to stop.. she had a fecal done, and its clear.. what could make a dog keep throwing up? i know greyhounds get that mega thing where their esophogas is all screwed up..is it possible this pit has that?? he is young, just neutered, and a great dog
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Postby Jenn » March 2nd, 2006, 6:54 pm

Poor guy, is it possible he can have a blockage from that orange toy?
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Postby Maryellen » March 2nd, 2006, 6:57 pm

nope, the vet got all the orange toy out and there is nothing left
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Postby luvmyangels » March 2nd, 2006, 7:06 pm

Wow. Has she withheld any food or does she keep feeding him?
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Postby Sue » March 2nd, 2006, 7:06 pm

It's possible he has a problem with his esophagus, but wouldn't the vet be able to determine that?
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Postby Malli » March 2nd, 2006, 7:14 pm

I assume they xrayed to make sure there is no more toy or something else?
His GI tract could simply be all irritated from the issue with the toy, I think perhaps he could have issues with his pancreas because of the toy. (do we know how long it was in there before he threw it up??)
Has the Dr. suggested exploratory surgery?
Have they tried switching his food to an easily digestable Gastro diet? what about tests for pancreatitis? Have they checked his hydration? (my dog once got so badly dehydrated (in the course of about 12 hrs, we never found out why) that he started puking until he had nothing left to puke out. (If I had fed him and he had eaten it would have come back up again) I ended up having him in the EC for 1.5 days and on fluids the whole time, they had to wait until his hydration returned to normal in order to start feeding him or he'd just puke it up again.
They could also try giving an electrolite solution in his water, then sugar water, then easy to digest watered down Gasto wet style food.
This could be a whole slew of things wrong with him :(
What does his vomit look like? Is there blood? Is it bile? Does he puke when his stomach is empty? Is there stuff that looks like coffee grounds in the puke?

I know, a ton of questions....

HTH :)

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Postby Miakoda » March 2nd, 2006, 7:16 pm

I would suggest a barium series to begin with. If it comes out all clear, then schedule an edoscopy to check for damage to the esohpagus from the toy being swallowed.
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Postby Maryellen » March 2nd, 2006, 9:16 pm

the barium series was done. at the vet the dog puked up orange hard rubber pieces.. he will puke bile when he runs around . he will puke even if he has no food in his system. he makes a hacking cough that sounds flemy but no flem comes up.. the exploratory surgery estimate is $800-1000 which the rescue cant pay for.. she has him on solid gold wolf king now. the xrays showed nothing in his stomach or anything. the vet ruled out the esophus thing with all the tests they ran.. my friend just cant understand why he is hacking and coughing even when he doesnt eat or drink.. he was checked for every parasite possible, and kennel cough too.
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Postby Malli » March 3rd, 2006, 3:52 am

so is he actually vomiting? Or just sort of, cacking?

maybe he got a sliver of plastic lodged in his throat?

Is he having diarrhea? If he's not accustomed to the rich food, it may not be helping... Do you know if she's asked the vet about the food? Maybe something like rice mixed it would help him digest it if its richer then what he's been eating...

I dunno :| brainstorming here...

Is he vomiting up all his food? Or is it just bile?

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Postby Maryellen » March 3rd, 2006, 7:56 am

he is cacking and throwing up bile.. he got worse onthe vet food. he has gotten better on the solid gold wolf king.. i am getting her to join here so that she can better answer the questions
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Postby babyreba » March 3rd, 2006, 12:11 pm

poor guy, i so wish i had advice to offer. makes me so sad to think such a good dog got out of the shelter, only to turn out to have this kind of problem, whatever it is. i so hope he rallies and starts to heal soon.
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Postby Maryellen » March 3rd, 2006, 12:24 pm

its Louie erin, the dog that anne marie got...
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Postby ccc2006 » March 3rd, 2006, 1:14 pm

Maryellen wrote:its Louie erin, the dog that anne marie got...

Hi Everyone,
I'm going to try and answer all the questions posed on this thread. I hope to get some input on it. I wish I could win the lottery where I could just say to the vets, hey test him for everything under the sun.
I'm afraid that nothing short of exploratory surgery will answer the question as to what is exactly wrong with this dog.
Some facts and answers: He came into rescue like this, puking on transport. I initially thought it was car sickness and/or crappy shelter food, stress, etc. The days ensuing would suggest otherwise. He lost 3 lbs. in 1 week. The fecal is clear, the stool is solid, no problems there. HW negative. When he throws up, it's a variety, and should really be called regurgitation as there are no theatrics with it. Just projectile, and often, increasing in frequency with activity.
They completed a barium test/xrays, and ruled out megaesophagus. The barium slowed up in the stomach area, signalling the problem there. At around the same time, he threw up orange, plastic pieces. They hospitalized him for 2 more days and made the decision to release because he had supposedly calmed down and they thought that the puking of orange pieces was the answer. I picked him up, went home, gave him some water to which he promptly regurgitated. He was miserable from having whatever food they were giving him, itching like mad/red as all heck, mutilated his face with his foot. We gave him a soothing bath and then sprayed him with Dermacool to give some relief. He threw up 2 more times - this time with some food that was given to him at the vets during the day. I called the vet - they said that it was probably due to the excitement of being home.
Flash forward to yesterday: he managed to keep the majority of his food down which in itself was a major improvement. He spit up 3 times, basically as the day wore on, but nothing that was excessive like it was.
He continues to make gastro noises - burping, rumbling in his stomach, acting like he has a hairball at times, hacking with no mucus, puffing his diaphram out, regurgitating stuff into his mouth to which he either swallows back or spits out.
The only thing I can think of doing at this point, is taking it day by day, and try to raise the funds for exploratory surgery. At least he's not wasting away at this point, because he's managing to keep most of his food down. But this can't continue like this, we have to find out what is wrong to bring him to adoptable status.
This dog is really a nice dog - good with men/women/children and other dogs. I really hate to see this happening and am hoping we can fix it.
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Postby pLaurent » March 3rd, 2006, 1:23 pm

Oh poor guy! Without exploratory surgery, it's hard to tell what's going on, since not everything shows up on Xrays.

I know that projectile vomiting can be a sign of a blockage of some sort.

$1000 for the exploratory seems very high to me. I would call around to every vet and ask if one of them can give you a break to help this poor rescued dog. My dog had major surgery and the bill was 500$....

I hope this can be resolved!! :(
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Postby mnp13 » March 3rd, 2006, 1:42 pm

what about trying pepto and see if it will calm the stomach? Maybe the plastic cut his stomach up?
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Postby ccc2006 » March 3rd, 2006, 1:45 pm

pLaurent wrote:Oh poor guy! Without exploratory surgery, it's hard to tell what's going on, since not everything shows up on Xrays.

I know that projectile vomiting can be a sign of a blockage of some sort.

$1000 for the exploratory seems very high to me. I would call around to every vet and ask if one of them can give you a break to help this poor rescued dog. My dog had major surgery and the bill was 500$....

I hope this can be resolved!! :(

Yes, I hope it can be resolved too, as this is just really hard for him. I thought the $1000 was good, considering that my friend who had to have the same thing done, $3000 for her...the $800 - $1000 quoted was rescue rates.
Maybe it's cheaper in your area? Are you from PA too? If so, please let me know the name of your vet as that would be great.
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Postby ccc2006 » March 3rd, 2006, 1:47 pm

mnp13 wrote:what about trying pepto and see if it will calm the stomach? Maybe the plastic cut his stomach up?

He's on Tagamet now - maybe the plastic did do something or maybe there's still some in there. I have no idea, because that did not come from my house. He's definately still trying to clear something...Thanks for the suggestions.
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Postby ccc2006 » March 3rd, 2006, 1:50 pm

ccc2006 wrote:
mnp13 wrote:what about trying pepto and see if it will calm the stomach? Maybe the plastic cut his stomach up?

He's on Tagamet now - maybe the plastic did do something or maybe there's still some in there. I have no idea, because that did not come from my house. He's definately still trying to clear something...Thanks for the suggestions.


Here's a pic of Louie:
Image[/img]
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Postby babyreba » March 3rd, 2006, 2:10 pm

he's such a good-looking dog. so sweet, too.

i wonder if he might do better on an extremely bland diet for a week or so rather than Wolf King.

boiled chicken and pasta, rice, boiled oatmeal, boiled ground beef, that kind of stuff. i know that when i've had dogs with horrid GI infections like ghiardia i fed bland diet so the dog's digestive systems could get a break . . . it might help.
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Postby ccc2006 » March 4th, 2006, 9:05 am

babyreba wrote:he's such a good-looking dog. so sweet, too.

i wonder if he might do better on an extremely bland diet for a week or so rather than Wolf King.

boiled chicken and pasta, rice, boiled oatmeal, boiled ground beef, that kind of stuff. i know that when i've had dogs with horrid GI infections like ghiardia i fed bland diet so the dog's digestive systems could get a break . . . it might help.

Thanks Erin for the info. I'm trying to figure out what bland diet to feed, which won't set his allergies off the hook....well, sort of like they are right now :(
Which ones, beef or chicken, do dogs show the most intolerance for when they have allergies? I guess I should feed brown rice too?
I have no real experience with this food allergy stuff. Guess I've been lucky over the years with all the rescue dogs.
My plan today is to just feed once, in the morning, instead of twice. I want to see what he does then. He was eating 2x per day, but I find around 6 p.m. that we start seeing the regurgitation in full swing. Not that he doesn't make all sorts of gastro noises during the day, but he can usually hang in at this point until the evening.
On another note, I don't think the WolfKing is doing it for him anymore. It was helping for awhile, but now it seems he's intolerant to that too. He licked his paw so much this morning that he has removed the skin from the pad. Dammit this is driving me crazy trying to help him...
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