Jump to content

Help - Advice Needed For Foster Dog


Recommended Posts

My little foster girl is 8 years old. She had a toe amputated a couple of weeks ago due to a previous crush injury that had not been treated. She responded well - and was putting weight back on that foot. The only thing we noticed was diarrhea - and we sort of expected that for a couple of days post surgery.

 

I saw her in her other foster home on Saturday - she was excited to eat the raw food I had brought her (in hopes of getting the one full week of diarrhea under control). They took her for her final check up on Monday - vet said all was well with the foot and gave a prescription for the diarrhea. I got a call on Tuesday - she had not eaten anything since I was there on Saturday. We went and picked her up and took her home with us.

 

We have tried every stinky food - every treat we can think of to get her to eat. She has not eaten more than a handful and has probably lost 10 pounds since last Sat. Could not get to the vet yesterday due to a snowstorm but took her in this morning.

 

They ran a blood panel and the only thing that was out of range was the BUN 18.8. Nothing else at all showed up. She is on IV fluids to rehydrate.

 

Any ideas of what we can look for - or what we can do to get some nutrition into this girl?

Deb, and da Croo
In my heart always, my Bridge Angels - Macavity, Tila the wannabe, Dexter, CDN Cold Snap (Candy), PC Herode Boy, WZ Moody, Poco Zinny, EM's Scully, Lonsome Billy, Lucas, Hurry Hannah, Daisy (Apache Blitz), Sadie (Kickapoo Kara), USS Maxi, Sam's Attaboy, Crystal Souza, Gifted Suzy, Zena, and Jetlag who never made it home.

http://www.northernskygreyhounds.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Vanilla Ensure can help. Have to start with 1/3 or 1/2 bottle in a 12-24 hour period to avoid mushy poop. Sometimes it even jump-starts them to eat something. Hope others will have more solutions for you.

:bighug

ETA: I wonder if she picked up an intestinal bug that led to the diarrhea. If so, she'll need a good antibiotic. And I'm not implying anything, as I feed raw to my IBD dog. But it can happen. And when it does, you do get diarrhea, loss of appetite, and weight loss. For us, this kind of thing (SIBO) didn'[t show up in the blood work at all, not even elevated white count. Could only be diagnosed by a culture of the poop.

Edited by greyhead
Mary with Jumper Jack (2/17/11) and angels Shane (PA's Busta Rime, 12/10/02 - 10/14/16) and Spencer (Dutch Laser, 11/25/00 - 3/29/13).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is she still taking medication? Is she getting anything for her tummy? If she isn't getting tummy meds, prescription might be best but what usually works here is, give 1 regular-strength Pepcid (10mg famotidine), wait 30-40 minutes, feed meal or substantial snack, then give any other meds.

 

You would want to check with the vet, of course, but one of the virtues of Pepcid (famotidine) is that it interacts with very few other medications.

Star aka Starz Ovation (Ronco x Oneco Maggie*, litter #48538), Coco aka Low Key (Kiowa Mon Manny x Party Hardy, litter # 59881), and mom in Illinois
We miss Reko Batman (Trouper Zeke x Marque Louisiana), 11/15/95-6/29/06, Rocco the thistledown whippet, 04/29/93-10/14/08, Reko Zema (Mo Kick x Reko Princess), 8/16/98-4/18/10, the most beautiful girl in the whole USA, my good egg Joseph aka Won by a Nose (Oneco Cufflink x Buy Back), 09/22/2003-03/01/2013, and our gentle sweet Gidget (Digitizer, Dodgem by Design x Sobe Mulberry), 1/29/2006-11/22/2014, gone much too soon. Never forgetting CJC's Buckshot, 1/2/07-10/25/10.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We stopped all medications about a week ago and had her on sulcrate to hopefully help the tummy. Just heard from the vet - they have found bumps on her spleen and throughout her intestinal tract witht he ultrasound. Although we do not know if they are cancerous or not (and would take 3-4 days to get results from a needle aspiration) - we can't leave her in this kind of distress. She weighed in at 40 pounds today. I think we are going to have to make a really hard choice and let her go.

Deb, and da Croo
In my heart always, my Bridge Angels - Macavity, Tila the wannabe, Dexter, CDN Cold Snap (Candy), PC Herode Boy, WZ Moody, Poco Zinny, EM's Scully, Lonsome Billy, Lucas, Hurry Hannah, Daisy (Apache Blitz), Sadie (Kickapoo Kara), USS Maxi, Sam's Attaboy, Crystal Souza, Gifted Suzy, Zena, and Jetlag who never made it home.

http://www.northernskygreyhounds.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:(

 

Sending gentle hugs, and prayers.

Star aka Starz Ovation (Ronco x Oneco Maggie*, litter #48538), Coco aka Low Key (Kiowa Mon Manny x Party Hardy, litter # 59881), and mom in Illinois
We miss Reko Batman (Trouper Zeke x Marque Louisiana), 11/15/95-6/29/06, Rocco the thistledown whippet, 04/29/93-10/14/08, Reko Zema (Mo Kick x Reko Princess), 8/16/98-4/18/10, the most beautiful girl in the whole USA, my good egg Joseph aka Won by a Nose (Oneco Cufflink x Buy Back), 09/22/2003-03/01/2013, and our gentle sweet Gidget (Digitizer, Dodgem by Design x Sobe Mulberry), 1/29/2006-11/22/2014, gone much too soon. Never forgetting CJC's Buckshot, 1/2/07-10/25/10.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...