This is Getting Old

Two days on the bland diet, with some help from a spoonful or two of pumpkin and yogurt at each meal, and Airlie's stools were back to normal (after an initial small amount of congealed, clotting, tacky, blood on the end of her first solid poop, which is normal for her).

No vomiting all week, back on her regular food and portions.

She lost a bit more weight than she needed to. I had already been cutting her back, trying to get her to loose a bit of pudge she'd developed. That 4lbs difference between last year's vet visit and this year's. I forgot she'd been getting daily snacks of popcorn for a while there when I was having it as "lunch" almost every day for about a month. That's probably where the extra weight -which didn't look bad on her, I just wasn't happy with it- came from. I probably didn't really need to cut her back.

Actually, cutting her portions back by 1/2 cup (total) per day was probably what pushed her to start gorging on vegetation grazed from the yard in the first place. I know all about pica and I've never felt like that was her issue. I do know she used to eat a lot of plant matter as a puppy, and there have been other times (also always in the fall) that she's resorted to filling her tummy with mud and sticks when she hasn't been getting enough real food. I suppose that's what happened this time, too, really. I'd already started adding 1/4 cup per day back, when DH (who only notices things when he finally has some time off) mentioned she looked too skinny. Give me a break, man. Either pay attention at the appropriate time, or butt out. So, she's back on her regular portions now, and maybe the other behavior is starting to taper off.  She and Kansas have both been hunting and ingesting a lot of worms and mud this week. The yard looks like it's been attacked by armadillos. It finally stopped raining and all of the earthworms came to the surface so as not to drown, is all I can think.

Ugh.

I wish they'd stop.

They're tearing up the yard.

And Airlie's having bloody anal leakage again.

Plus, I don't like being rudely awakened by her demanding to be taken out to poop at 5am and again at 6:30, like she did this morning.

Tummy Troubles

Airlie, has been having some vomiting and diarrhea this week.

It started Thursday morning at 4am. She threw up a mix of digested food, sticks, leaf matter... not at all unusual for her. She eats everything out in the yard and her stool is usually more like dirt clods or bundles of bite-sized sticks than actual poop. She'll eventually eat too much of something or a piece that's too big and have one episode of vomiting and that's it for a while. She ate both her meals that day and seemed fine, but threw up again at 11:00 that night, undigested food this time (from 8-9 hours prior). No more sticks or other vegetation, but some slimy white mucus, akin to what you would see if a dog were coughing up phlegm (based on my experience last year with kennel cough). Friday she was maybe a little bit subdued- not pulling on the leash during our walk as she typically would. Again she ate both meals, albeit very slowly (finishing last instead of first). She seemed to prefer to lie down and be quiet for a few hours after eating, but was back to her crazy, energetic self by late afternoon, playing Frisbee, wrestling with the current foster puppy, obsessing over the dog next door... Her stool has been a mix of solid and soft, with a little bit of bloody mucus, but I understand that's "normal" for a stomach upset and diarrhea, what with the irritation and all.

Saturday she seemed 100% improved, dragging me along on the walk, eating normally, no vomiting. No change in the stool.

Sunday morning, she threw up her breakfast within an hour. That might have been my fault, for letting her snack on some apple peel before her sensitive stomach was ready. A couple more bouts of vomiting white slime, which still looked to have some sort of sinus or chest congestion in it- small, brownish tan globs. Again, it reminds me of the sputum produced when they have bronchitis. But she's not coughing, or sneezing. I know I've been experiencing a lot of sinus drainage, and I wonder if maybe she is, too, and that's what's upsetting her tummy? She really wasn't interested in her afternoon meal, and again, and hour later, threw up what little bit she had attempted, and then seemed to want to lay around. I wouldn't call her lethargic, more like oddly subdued considering her usual energy level. More diarrhea,, though not a lot since she has hardly eaten. Some bloody mucus still. The last movement she had was maybe 2 teaspoons in size and seemed uniformly reddish rather than having an identifiable bit of stringy, bloody mucus. After reading things online I'd say maybe it had the "raspberry jam" appearance associated with Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis.

Again, a sudden burst of energy and acting like her old self by late afternoon. Her temp seems to be 99, according to the ear thermometer, and based on a few good and bad reads depending on whether she can sit still or not. (A vet tech friend says this is "normal", particularly since ear thermometers, even those made for dogs, are not reliably accurate). She feels cool to the touch. Her nose is wet. Her eyes look fine.

I can't find anything conclusive on the internet that points to one specific thing (though I scared myself reading about coccidia, campylobacter, Salmonella and E. Coli). I eventually ruled out bronchitis, pneumonia, pancreatitis, E. Coli, Salmonella and ingesting something toxic- as DH put it, regarding those last three "She'd be dead by now." I'd like to think she just has a stomach bug or ate something she shouldn't have that is taking longer to get over than usual. Usually if one of the dogs has diarrhea, it's only for about 24 hours.

I was to figure out whether she might have an intestinal blockage or if maybe a stick finally did puncture something. And if I should take her in to the vet or not. Both my vet tech friend and the former vet tech that is the president of our rescue have said it's not a complete obstruction, might be a partial one and to take her in ASAP.

Another rescue member mentioned intussusception.





I emailed our former vet for her opinion, and her words put  me at ease and were in line with what I was thinking:

Sorry to hear that she's not feeling well. Usually with intestinal blockages, dogs won't or can't eat - everything even fluids comes right back up...they are usually lethargic and painful in their abdomen and you obviously start to note weight loss. Partial blockages are also possible - sometimes those are harder to catch - but again you see chronic vomiting, weight loss and decreased appetite. How long have you had your foster dog? If it is new, like within 5-7 days, its possible that you are dealing with a virus. Hemorraghic gastroenteritis is possible - usually you see that raspberry jam diarrhea - we diagnose that based on clinical signs and a high pcv (packed cell volume - indication of dehydration / seen with a high concerntation of packed red blood cells) - treatment for that is supportive - fluids (sometimes IV if lethargic and explosive bloody diarrhea). We don't know why HGE happens - think it is immune mediated but not 100% on why. If diet change, ate something rotten in the backyard, etc...stress colitits sometimes will only respond to probiotics and antibiotics like metronidazole. If this persists, and she feels bad I would highly recommend a check up just to be sure...like I said, maybe something simple like nausea meds and probiotics, but it is always good to get someone's hands on her abdomen. Again, I hope this helps....I'm sorry that I can't help more. This week is looking like a disaster already for me...all my plans for training my staff so that we can be open on the 25th hinge on my inspection tomorrow - and from what I saw today...very possible that we won't pass... Let me know how she does...good luck with her!

So, basically I can take her in, and they will run blood work, take x-rays, do urine and stool analyses, and put  her on antacids, anti-nausea meds and probiotics, or I can try and treat her at home with naturopathic things like pumpkin, yogurt, cinnamon, molasses, ginger... which is what I'm doing at present. Clearly she's not experiencing an emergency, and since my feeling was to wait a couple of days and see whether things resolved or if she experienced another bout of improvement/relapse and then take her in, we will see where that goes. It also helps that my mom and a good friend of mine of many years who always has a helpful take on such situations happened to be in agreement with what I was feeling. 

I hate it when stress makes you doubt your gut instincts, though. 

So far, she seems to be back to her old self today. She was not happy about being left behind while everyone else got to take a walk, but her daddy said not to take her, that she needed to rest. She was also very hungry and not happy that everyone but her got fed while I was waiting for her plain chicken and rice to boil. I gave her 1T of pumpkin and 1T of plain homemade yogurt this morning and she kept that down, so an hour later I gave her about 2T of the chicken and rice. She was out chasing squirrels and playing with Kemah until I went to work, and seemed fine when I returned, so I gave her a little more chicken and rice then, and again 3 hours later at her regular mealtime. She's drinking and her urine looks fine. She's been playing with Kemah and behaving normally. Darned if she didn't go out and hour ago and start eating sticks again, after almost a week of avoiding them. I picked up sticks 3 times last week before this happened, and I always make sure to collect the majority of them after a big wind. It's windy today, so I just spent an hour picking up as many as I could find, while she tried to eat as many as she could find and Kemah tried to take away every stick I collected. I still won't know until she has an actual bowel movement how things look from that end. I guess if she's eating sticks, she's feeling better, but she'd better not undo all of my hard work and worry!
 
I talked it over with my mom and she said it sounded like what Jax (Kansas' brother) went through a couple of months ago, after my aunt gave him too many rawhide chews, and that it took about 10 days for his bloody diarrhea to resolve.

Still hoping it's something she ingested. This dog has thrown up more in her 3 years than all of the other animals put together. Maybe she just has a sensitive stomach. Everyone else is still fine. Her temp, heart rate, pulse rate and capillary refill are all normal and comparable to the other dogs in the house. 

Vet Visit- 3 years Old

Airlie was happy to see everyone when they first came to the room, and greeted all of the vets, techs, etc.. nicely, She was good when they took her to the back for her heartworm and fecal tests, then she practically dragged them back to the room afterward. They talked about how she's the opposite of Kansas- that Kansas does better in the room with me and slowly warmed up to them by the end of the visit (she was trying to "shake" so our new vet would give her another treat), whereas Airlie did better when she was away from me.

Once they brought her back into the room, she had had enough of them, ran behind me and climbed up onto the bench and hid in the corner! She wasn't being ugly, so I just let them handle her, rather than dragging her down and forcing her to participate. She cowered, tucked her tail, tried to sink into the floor... But they just kept petting her, feeding her treats and worked around it all. It was fine.

She weighs 46lbs, so she's gained about 4lbs. It's fine and she still looks great, but it was a surprise. She'll lose it once it's cool enough to play Frisbee every day again. I'm always surprised when they gain weight once they're done growing. She's still filling out, I guess.

Airlie is otherwise healthy, got lots of compliments about her appearance, heartworm negative and negative for other parasites. On the way out, she met a long-haired miniature dachshund whose owner ooh-ed and aah-ed about how Airlie's coloring matched that of her own dog. The dog was on the end of a Flexi-leash,and pretty much had the run of the waiting room, as a result. Airlie really didn't want anything to do with the excited-but-friendly little dog, but she politely went through the meet-and-greet routine and deftly sidestepped the little dog's attempts to play. She did really well and keeping her patience, and even climbed up on the seat to give the little old lady a few kisses. I'd have avoided it all if I could have, not knowing what the dog was being seen for. But she seemed healthy and since her owner insisted up on using the dang Flexi-leash... It's really hard enough to check out while holding on to your own curious dog in a waiting room filled with displays of dog food, without someone else's dog running circles around you.

She's THREE!

Camping

For the first two years of her life, these chairs were our only living room furnishings. We finally got actual, new-to-us, furniture last fall, but prior to that, she would curl up in the chair next to mine every afternoon while I watched General Hospital. As soon as we unfolded our lawn chairs and I sat down, she was trying to get out of her enclosure and sit by me, and this is where she spent quite a lot of the weekend.

Also, she finally figured out how to swim like a real dog this time.

Having Discovered She's Been Living With Turtles for the Past Two-and-One-Half Years

We've been encountering turtles on some of our daily walks, lately, and Airlie is very much intrigued by them. Kansas and Leo mostly ignore our turtles, having lived with them all of their lives (and Leo being bitten by Max when Leo was a puppy, because DH thought it would be "fun" to let Max wander about the living room, and then got distracted watching football and wasn't supervising properly). You can ask Leo where each turtle is, by name, and he will point them out to you, but keeps his distance, otherwise. This past weekend, Red's tank needed cleaning, so Airlie got up-close-and-personal with him while he was sunning on the patio in a laundry basket. Ever since, she's appointed herself Turtle Guardian, and closely monitors Red throughout the day. Mostly if he's active and swimming around. She doesn't seem to care whether Max exists, or not.

Herding!

Airlie's Bluebonnet Pics

New Duds!

Saw them in Old Navy, tried to talk myself out of it. Ended up going back and buying one in every size- I just couldn't stand it!

For Old Time's Sake