Saru is really sick
This is a re-post from the shiba side but i'm pretty worried and could use all the advice I can get.
Hey all, recently Saru has been getting sick; diarrhea/vomiting. took him to the vet first time and they said it was Giardia- got dewormer and antibiotics and a few days later he was fine. (did both dogs as a precaution) well this week he's showing the same symptoms, vet said no Giardia and gave me dewormers for both regular suspect worms and Giardia. This time he seems a lot worse so I'm really worried. He ate this morning but after first bathroom break he got really depressed and lethargic right now he's camped out in my closet and just keeps staring at me. Vet first thing in the morning...again but any advice would be extremely useful. Thanks much.
Hey all, recently Saru has been getting sick; diarrhea/vomiting. took him to the vet first time and they said it was Giardia- got dewormer and antibiotics and a few days later he was fine. (did both dogs as a precaution) well this week he's showing the same symptoms, vet said no Giardia and gave me dewormers for both regular suspect worms and Giardia. This time he seems a lot worse so I'm really worried. He ate this morning but after first bathroom break he got really depressed and lethargic right now he's camped out in my closet and just keeps staring at me. Vet first thing in the morning...again but any advice would be extremely useful. Thanks much.
Comments
What antibiotic did they give you? If it was just something like Metronidazole I would request something more wide-spectrum... like Amoxacilin (but without the dewormer).
Sometimes you gotta push vets, otherwise they will just run test after test, meanwhile your dog get sicker and sicker while they search for what the cause is. Test bring in lost of $$$, but diagnosis usually doesn't.
Might want to ask about getting him on some fluids and anti diarrhea/vomiting meds too.
I hope he gets better.
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@brada1878 - yup I have Metronidazole and cefpodoxime. as well as panacur. that's exactly why I'm not rushing to see them- and they are one of the less greedy ones in town
but didn't work out well anyways. took him 2 weeks to get better. but after that happen he lost his interest about food and I'm having trouble feeding him well.
he is getting better everyday but still not 100 percent condition.
Has he been drinking/urinating profusely? That combined with the lethargy could be renal (kidney) issues or diabetes (the more serious of the digestive afflictions).
I know of a raw feeder who's min pin got into the trash and ate a bunch of skin of cooked thanksgiving turkey. The outcome wasn't good, but I hope Saru pulls through fine.
The min pin came from a bad breeder so she was already not well health wise..
She ate raw and did fine with the fat and skin, but amount of cooked turkey fat plus any seasonings on it was too much for the little dog to handle.
I'll keep checking here hope he recovers.
We caught it very early (says the vet) the test came back as a faint but definitive positive. I do know that pancreatitis can sometimes just emerge- I think that's the case here. What concerns me is he doesn't want to drink any water. He finally ate a significant amount today and I got him to drink about 40ml of water plus about 1 cup I slipped in his prescription food (which is 77% "moisture" itself).
@Nicole, I do remember that story, now, about the min-pin who got it over Thanksgiving!
It gave Finn (the cat) a chance to rehydrate while his kidney & thyroid meds took effect. Cats dont drink tons- but get a lot of their moisture from prey. Dry food is rather unnatural for them and if I ever have cats again, Id go raw all the way with them, knowing what I know now.
http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/dog-pancreatitis-symptoms-and-treatment
Hope he starts drinking some what kind food he eating if it's dry add warm water and let it soak it up.
Maybe add bit of chicken broth in a bowl of water to get him to eat? I'm not really sure and don't know much on pancreatitis and what type food he can eat or what type caned food etc..
As for the fluids at home, you'd get sent home with a bag of lactated ringers (modified saline solution in the bags you see on TV medical dramas when someone has an IV) and a bunch of needles, it's just a quick pull up of the scruff so it forms a "tent" then needle in through the tent and under the skin, let fluids drip for x amount of time/cc's. Simple really, and dog's are pretty resilient, it's the owner's that feel more pain through their imagination lol. Have your vet show it to you and do it at home, will save a bunch of money.
Have you tried mixing in a little chicken broth in with the water bowl's water?
@cezieg - not sure if you read any of my pasts posts on Saru and I, but we had a super rough start, he was my first dog ever and I made a lot of mistakes, over time he's gotten really patient with me so I'm pretty sure patience is a big factor for dog and trainer. I would suggest a crap load of repetition and trust building. I also do random intervals of interruptions just to be sure he knows stop from go. it really comes in handy when they are scavenging for those invisible crunchies dogs always seem to find. Eventually it got to the point that he did it out of habbit just as frequent and persistent as his bad habbits- I guess in this case it came back to bite me because he really needed to eat.