Still here....I Think

What a week..

On Tuesday my dog, Shae, started getting sick. This happened last year at this same time, just not this bad. If you are grossed out by poop and puke, now would be the time to stop reading. I won't get too graphic.

Tuesday afternoon I got home and took Shae out. I noticed she pooped 2 times while out there, which she doesn't do too often, but I didn't think anything of it. She comes back into the apartment and she pukes, like 3 times. Thinking now, maybe her tummy is upset, not really sure what's going on, then she runs to the door to go outside again. So, this time I got down with her and she has to poo again. Sure enough, loose stool with blood in it. This is what happened last year, they did an IV right away and put her on meds thinking it was irritable bowel or colitis possibly from stress. I called the vet on base and of course there are no vets there for the whole week, which seems to happen often. So, I figured I would call a vet the next day and see if I can get her in. Then I started to notice welts coming up on her snout, so I was now worried more than I was before. I got the number of an American vet that has lived here many years and texted him (it was his cell number and I felt bad about calling) and told him what was going on and if he had any openings the next day. He wrote me back and told me he could see her the next morning. That night things got worse, she was vomiting so much, probably 15 times during the night, her loose stool with blood turned into bloody diarrhea and she went out about 15 times during that night. I think I got an hour and a half of sleep that night. I took her to the vet the next morning, of course she seemed more perky there (a friend here that is a vet said it was the adrenaline), but he thought she had some kind of gastritis, he told me to hold her food and water and he gave her an antibiotic shot, antiemetic shot and a shot of benadryl for her snout. He has a basic clinic, so no labs or diagnostic tests were done, just an exam. We came back home and she was still just acting weird. She would start shaking, then run in her crate and usually puke. Just not herself. The antiemetic shot he gave worked great, she didn't throw up from the time we got home until 745am the next day. She did however, continue with the pooing. That night (3am) she started getting red around her eyes now and that concerned me. By this time the vet asked to be my friend on facebook, so I shot him a message asking him about it and he wanted me to bring her in and he would take a look. He now thought she got into something or is allergic to something in the apartment, but nothing has changed. He gave her some more shots and sent us back home and wanted us to come back around 5pm. When we got home she was vomiting a lot again and just getting really fatigued. This whole time I was talking to our squadron commanders wife through email, she was an emergency vet in the states, and she told me that I absolutely need to get fluids in her. I texted the vet and asked him when I brought her in that night if we could get an IV going so she could get some fluids, he wrote back saying we should do that and get blood work. I was getting ready to leave and he called and gave me the name of a clinic about 10 minutes away from where we live, they could do everything there. If I went back to him, he could draw the blood, but he would then have to send it out and we wouldn't get results for 2 days or so. So, I took her to this other vet and they got her blood drawn, which wasn't easy with how dehydrated she was, and also started an IV in the leg. Blood work came back, no infection, everything was normal except her potassium was a little low from vomiting so much, so they hung a bottle of electrolytes. They also wanted to do an xray because she was pooping and puking all over the place there, they wanted to rule out obstruction along with other things. X ray showed inflammation in her stomach and intestines, so they gave her some antibiotics through her IV along with a shot for nausea. The vet was great, there were many works she didn't know how to say in English, but between the two of us, we got it figured out. I was there 4 hours that night. I went back the next day at 9am so they could give her more fluids and they also wanted to do an abdominal ultrasound to make sure nothing else was wrong. They hung the electrolytes and let them go in very slow so she could get hydrated, they also hung an antibiotic to help with her gut. At 4:30pm she got the u/s everything, besides the inflammation of the lining of her stomach and intestines, were normal. 9.5 hours later we were headed home. Her diarrhea continued, but not as bad. She did throw up at the vet that morning, but at least that was somewhat under control. I went back yesterday (Saturday) and they checked her out and gave me medications for her. They gave me an antibiotic pill (had 2 antibiotics in one), Zantac for her stomach and a liquid for her nausea. They gave me food to try and feed her, but she wanted nothing to do with it, along with the chicken we tried giving her, she wanted nothing. So, I've been feeding her chicken flavored baby food through a syringe for the past few days, along with water. I was worried that the antibiotic was going to make her stomach upset, especially with barely any food in there, but it didn't. This evening around 5pm she ate a few bites of her food (thanks to my cat Eddie who was by her dish and she got jealous.) She only ate a few bites which was perfect. She still doesn't want to go outside when I ask, I have to pick her up and take her out there, but this last time she came in and actually ate some chicken as a treat. She seems to be getting much better, I am also having to give her benadryl because something is making her itch like crazy. She's been a trooper throughout the whole process. It's been a long, exhausting 4 days. I take her back tomorrow for a check up.

I got out her records because I wanted to check when she got her vaccinations last year and how long it was before this occured at this time last year. She got her shots on 1/26/10 and this happened on 2/5/10. This year she got her shots on 2/1/11 and this all started on 2/7/11. I can't help but think it's one of the shots. I asked the squadron commanders wife (the vet) about this and she said it is a possibility. She she definitely thinks there is a correlation between the two, she is going to try and find articles and send them to me. She said it would be best for Shae to get the 3 year shots, so she doesn't have to get them as often and to premedicate her with a steroid and benadryl and to give them a week apart. They gave the 3 year DA2P shot, but only the 1 year rabies. They like giving the 1 year in case you have to leave out of here for an emergency. Animals are required to be vaccinated at least 10 days prior to travel. So, they want to make sure there will be no problems there. Amy said she knew many people who couldn't vaccinate their dogs because of reactions, but I don't know how that's legal? I will have to look into it, because I sure don't want this happening every time she gets shots.

Sorry for the long post, run on sentences and mistypes, I'm pretty tired, but have been catching up on my sleep. Italy hasn't been nice to us when it comes to our pets, that's for sure. Let's hope she continues to get better! I will keep you posted!

This is a picture I took a while ago. She has never sat on the couch like this and I thought she looked so funny.