Here we go again!

[doxielady5569128]

Round 3....or 4?  I lost count.  Anyway, Porky woke up happy this morning and was running around the house playing.  By noon, it was clear he was no longer his happy go lucky self.  He laid down by me on the couch and started to whimper softly and shiver.  We've had this enough to know what was coming next.     I put him in his crate to let him rest in there and hopefully protect my carpet and furniture. 

A few minutes later as I was cleaning in the kitchen, I heard Porky moving around inside his crate an then I smelled it.  From the awful smell I was expecting it to be much worse.   I put Porky outside and started cleaning out his crate and his blankets.   It was mostly solid so I was thankful for that.   After I got done cleaning up the crate, I put Porky in the tub and cleaned him.   

He seemed okay after that but, I put him into his crate anyway.   Then I heard him vomit.   So, we put him outside again..and cleaned out his crate....again.   I brought him back inside afterI was finished and gave him some of the pink medicine the vet gave us.   It seemed to help and Porky fell asleep.  Then i heard him vomit ...AGAIN!      This time it was mostly stomach acid.  I cleaned up the crate and Porky and put him back to sleep.  It has now been an hour without anything so, I'm hoping its over for today. 

I am guessing it is stress from the move, IBS, or maybe he has acid reflux???  I'm kind of lost on this one.  We thought that he was doing better since it has been weeks since his last bout with this stuff.   I called the vet and talked to him and he says we'll assume its stress from the move causing it again.   Is it possible he has developed an allergy to his new food already?!   He was having problems with some ingredients in the last kind so we switched and it seemed to help. 

Any ideas on this would be great.   Our vet is wanting to refer us to a specialist in Colorado or Kansas if Porky has one more bout with this.  Because he is at a loss as to what to do.  Please send rays for my little man.  He's not doubled up in pain anymore so I think the tummy medicine is helping.   :xfinger:

[Kelly]

Rays are coming to our friend Porky Pie from Illinois! Hang in there " Little Buddy"! 

[papbouv]

Rays from Patches & Buddy,Hope you get to feeling better soon and stay well forrrrr a long time to come.
Papbouv

[Sandishooligans]

Oh no!!  Soft belly rubs to Porky.  It's awful when our puppers are sick and we can't figure it out.  Loads of healing rays coming Porky's way.

[Dee Dee and Hallie]

Poor Porky. It does seem to be an ongoing thing, even if this bout was brought on by stress of the move it is enough of a pattern now that it's likely to show up again. Didn't your vet say last time, one more time and he should go to the specialist? Maybe it's time now? I am no expert by any means but the symptoms are the same as both my Simon and Sophie had with their IBD. But then these symptoms be the same for more than one thing...could also be the suspected food allergy or intolerance.

I was thinking about all he's been through, knocked out with a concussion, poisoned, fell down the stairs, split his lip open recently...I just wonder if any of that has contributed? I agree with Sandi that it's sooo frusttrating when they are sick and we don't know what is wrong. And harder to treat! I'm really sorry you are both going through this again. I hope you get to the bottom of it and our Porky has no more problems! 

[TerriL]

Rays on the way for Porky Pie...how is he feeling today?

[papbouv]

Gizmo the little Papillon I had had Reflux Disease she would up chuck foam sometimes yellow stuff she did that off & on all her life of almost 15 years.No matter what food I fed her would keep her food the same all the time nothing new she was very,very picky eater.She would go maybe a month or so then be sick not eat for 3 days would give her Peto the pink stuff, i would be getting ready to take her to the vet she would start eating again then maybe a month would go by and she would do it all over again.When she was a baby she would throw up water all the time would give her pedilite. At about a year old the vet did turn her esophageal valve a different direction so she quit throwing up the water but still did the above.Maybe Porky has something like that.Sure hope the little guy is feeling beter today. Feel Better soon from Patches & Buddy.
Papbouv

[doxielady5569128]

Well we had quite a night last night. I had to go over to mom's house last night. We took Porky with us since he had not been feeling well all day.  As soon as we got there he started vommitting and then he had an accident in the house.  There was a small smount of blood in his stool.  Of course, this made me FREAK!!   :crazyeyes:   Our vet was not able to meet us at the office and said to watch Porky through the night and see if he had any more blood in his stool.  If he did we were to RUSH him into the animal hospital.   

Luckilly, Porky slept soundly through the night and had no more vommitting or accidents.   This morning his stools were more solid but he still wasn't acting like himself.   The earliest appointment we could get was two in the afternoon today. We were told not to feed him anything and bring in a sample.  My husband stayed home with him while I had to work.   

We took him into the vet and the vet took his temperature, took some blood, sent the sample to the lab and then checked his back, and felt his stomach.  As he was feeling Porky's stomach he said he thought he felt some slight swelling in the intestine area.  So...then we had an ultrasound done.  Everything appeared normal except for some very minimal swelling in his intestine.   The vet said he thought Porky had eaten something that didn't agree with him.   He said he thinks Porky has gastro-intestinitis.   The vet gave Porky a injection of Amforal and then gave us some tablets to give him at home.  He also said the test results would take until Wednesday or Thursday to come back and that if Porky got worse to bring him in and they would do an endoscopy on him.

Porky is to have no food until morning.  In the morning I am to feed him non-salted chicken broth and water.   Then if he holds that down he will get a small amount of kibble mixed in.  I'm hoping this medication takes care of the problem.  He is to take 1/2 tablet twce a day.  My poor little baby only weighed in at 8.5 pounds!  The vet said the weight loss was because of the "infection" he has.   

[David C.]

When you described the symptoms, my first thought was gastroenteritis.   Does Porky scavenge?   Many dachshunds do, and sometimes it's tough to detect because they are so low to the ground they ingest something before you even realize it.  I used to have a real problem with Max-angel getting stomach problems from his scavenging.   His partner in crime, Rudy-angel, used to literally be able to eat rocks and nothing would happen (at least when he was younger...by the time he was a senior he was equally susceptible), but Max would look at something on the ground funny and he would get sick.

There are two powerful medications that have worked for us:  Metraozinadole and Sulfazsalamine.  If Porky isn't on one of these, or hasn't been on them, he probably should be.  Ask your vet about them.  The key is to stick with the meds consistently, maybe even ask for more than the "typical" prescription so it really does kill off whatever is giving Porky problems.   Sometimes the prescription is cut off too soon, allowing a little bit of an infection to survive and then flare up again.

My guys would go through cycles where they would get sick every 4 to 6 weeks like clockwork.  Then one day, the symptoms wouldn't come back at all, and maybe we'd get a year or two before another scavenging cycle triggered it again.   Max's stomach cleared up almost permanently during the last 5 or so years of his life.

[Dee Dee and Hallie]

Poor Porky. I was hoping he'd be back to himself today. At least it sounds like you are a step closer to figuring it out! David has some good advice (the voice of experience!). Doesn't it seem they get sick most often either right after closing hours or on a holiday! I hope the meds help him and he'll be feeling good again soon. Don't panic too much at the sight of blood in his stool, it's very common to have some blood in the stool when things are irritated like that. It usually isn't anything to get too excited about but of course should be checked when other symptoms are present too. Give him a belly rub for us.

[cheryl186]

OMG poor Porky.....Mega tons or rays headed your way from all of us here in Cinti.   

[doxielady5569128]

Great advice David! Thank you soo much!!   I do think he ingested something sneakily.  The vet said most likely he did.   Porky is doing much better today and galdly accepted his broth. Poor little guy is starving.  I called the vet to ask if he could have more and the vet said he wanted me to give a small amount to Porky every few hours as long as he's keeping it down.  The diarrhea seems to have completely cleared up.    :apls:  He hasn't had any vomitting since Sunday so that's great news too.    Once he is on the mend we'll go back to the double feedings to put the weight back on him.  :xfinger:   

Porky is on this medication for five days and the vet said if it flares up right after we're done with it he will send a prescription to us for Metraozindole. So, I thin we should have this problem taken care of after this.  David was exactly right when he said it comes back like clockwork.  Porky's has consistently been every 4-6 weeks as well.  The vet said he was going to give us some of the tests for free since it was "his fault" for not catching it the first time.  I thought that was nice of him to do, even though I offered to pay for them anyway.   

I had to go to work this morning and leave Porky alone.  I was really worried about him the whole time, but I came home to find him sleeping soundly.  Our neighbor lady said she came over to check on him a few times and he was asleep when she came too.  That makes me feel better.  He was up all night whimpering so I'm glad he is resting now.

[cheryl186]

Poor Porky.  It is a worry to leave them home alone, especially after they have not been feeling well.  Would it be possible to put a camera at home on him like the Penny Cam?  Also, it is great the vet would like to do some tests without charging you for them.  I just feel so sorry for you all because it is such a worry.  I know Zoe gets cholitis every couple of months and I have to be careful with what she eats.  One time she ate a hibiscus flower that had fallen on the ground outside and it was a miserable time for us all.  When she gets cholitis, there is a lot of blood in her stool.  Rays and kisses to you all that Porky puts on some weight and is back to his ole self for a long long time.

[Delia and girls]

I was thinking back also. Did this problem start before or after he would sneak out to feed the baby raccoons? Maybe they had something he can't quite get over? As cute as they were, they were wild.

[doxielady5569128]

It was quite a while after.   We haven't seen them since last March or April I think.   We are pretty sure he ate something that didn't agree with him and the first flare-up he had was a result of that.  The repeated flare-ups are most likely because it was never treated properly the first time.   We thought it was allergies so we were headed down that route of treatment first, not even thinking of this an option.     Porky is loving his broth today so, I'm having trouble convincing him to take it easy. 

When i first presented it to him, he kind of looked at me funny.  "Mom, I'm hungry I NEED food, not water! "  Then he sniffed it and wasn't sure whether to chew it or lick it up.  It was funny watching him try those first few bites.  He would open his mouth and grab a mouth full then spit it out and try licking it up.  It took him a while to figure out he was supposed to drink it.  The faces he made were hilarious! 

[David C.]

Typically, the things that would touch off the worst episodes in Max (and later Rudy) would be when they would scavenge decomposed material, such as human food that had been left out for some time and spolied, or another animal's droppings (Deer droppings were almost guaranteed to make them sick).   

Even Zeke gets tummy bumpers, although not to the severity of Porky's.   Zeke has been self-regulating...when his stomach hurts, he doesn't eat.   Zora, like Rudy, is capable of eating just about anything without problems. 

I wish he had access to archives on the original WW board...you'd see a constant cycle of Max getting sick like clockwork like Porky.  It got to the point where the vet would no longer need to see him, he would just write up a script for Metraozinadole or Sulfazsalamine.

Don't rush Porky's system back onto full portions solid food too quickly.   Despite the looks he gives you, he isn't going to starve to death.    Small portions are definitely the way to go.  Too much food too quickly may not give enough time for the inflammation to subside and you'll be back at square one again.

[Valerie]

Poor Porky- I hope he feels better soon!