Comment

Comment by astro, starla, joleene & jason on March 29, 2009 at 2:52pm

you know what.....our monsters starting acting weird, a little vomit, a little hack- that went away (which the vet said was allergies anyways), not so much eating and drinking and hiding a bit after we got home from that grovers basin dog park. maybe finn picked up something there? thats why im glad we are going to the other park beside cosmos because i really dont think that the whole "water" idea is a good one. hope he keeps getting better....poor little guy.
are you intersted in a second opinion? i did that once, i payed for the xrays, listened to what that vet had to say (which i wasnt happy about), asked to "borrow" the xrays, signed them out and took them to another vet (so i didnt have to pay for more) and we worked out the issue there. turns out the issue wasnt something on the xray but it avoided me from paying for more. but vet #2 solved the issue and i returned the xrays to vet #1 and all was good.

Comment by Alice on March 29, 2009 at 1:48pm

Jennifer,
Finnigan is doing better. He doesn't act sick and is back to his normal feeding schedule and is always eager to get his food where before we sometimes had to coax him to eat. He has been going potty every day (2-3 times) but that really doesn't mean much considering he was always going potty and yet the vet still believed him to be backed up. As I mentioned before, the fact that I was seeing food pass through that I had just given to him the previous day makes me wonder how he could be all backed up and yet the newly digested food is still coming out. ?? It makes me wonder if something else could be going on.

The vet just said to get him to go potty more and watch for improvement. He said in order to see what's blocking him he would need to do the barium treatment since there was too much in the x-ray to tell what was what, but that if he went back to his normal self then nothing further would need to be done. He is acting normal but my concern is that we still don't know the definite cause of his sickness and if we just assume he's fine, how long will it be before he's sick again? We probably could insist on another x-ray to see if things have cleared out but at this time we are tight on money so that creates an issue. I think we'll just have to keep an eye on him for now and when Jason finds a new job we'll be able to get everything taken care of.

Comment by Jennifer on March 29, 2009 at 8:35am

How is Finn doing now? A very mild chicken and rice diet is good with an upset stomach. Is he going to potty now? I would worry if his intestines are full and he is still not going? What else did the vet suggest? I know that stringy toys are not good as they can wrap up in the bowel and cause a severe blockage, also rawhide is not good. It can cause blockages also. It is amazing what Corgis can tear up. I gave my dogs "pup treads" toys, which are made from recycled tires?? and they managed to chew it to pieces. Well I hope Finn is doing better. He is a very handsom fellow.

Comment by Alice on March 27, 2009 at 12:27pm

He's doing better so far. Once he had the shot he stopped throwing up and we gave him a Pepcid after a few hours. The next day he only had one bowel movement and it was loose and not very much. If there really is as much "stuff" in Finn as the vet said the x-ray shows then I don't know why he isn't going potty. He ate normally yesterday but I don't know if we should keep giving him the normal amount of food since he's not going potty. The whole idea of a blockage just isn't making much sense to me. To have that much in him it would have had to be building up for days but when I gave him some veggies thinking he was constipated, I saw them pass through the following day. I doubt it could have bypassed whatever else was in there so it makes me wonder if something else could be going on. I'm thinking about changing his food. We've been feeding him Blue Buffalo Puppy food since we got him and it's great for his coat and he likes it but he has always been very gassy and I wonder if another food may be easier for him to digest. I'll wait though. I don't want to do anything to upset his tummy even more right now.

Comment by Susan Stanton on March 27, 2009 at 7:44am

How''s he doing? I don't know much about the quailty of the vomit either -- although I know when Bertie is sick because he just has an empty tummy, it's usually just that white/yellow frothy stuff (has a little bile in it, think that's what the yellow is). When Ethel ate a bottle of medicine and was really very very ill, her vomit was horribly dark and very strange looking -- very very different from what you describe.

Comment by Alice on March 25, 2009 at 6:46pm

Update:
The vet gave Finn the shot to stop vomiting. Finn never reacts to shots but Jason said he yelped from this one. The vet said whatever is in it does tend to sting quite a bit. Poor guy.

He's home now and so far has not thrown up. He's had some water and the vet said if in 3 hours he still hasn't thrown up, to give him a Pepcid. If the vomiting returns, the vet will have to keep him overnight to do the barium treatment. The vet did say his tummy seemed less painful so that's good.

The vet didn't say what the different types of vomit indicate. Does anyone know? He stared with a very thick, bright yellow, mucus like vomit then it became very foamy and white, then after a nap it's foamy but bright yellow. I don't know what any of that means.

Comment by Susan Stanton on March 25, 2009 at 6:43pm

oh gosh, well, I sure hope it works out. We are thinking of you!

Comment by Alice on March 25, 2009 at 3:48pm

He always has half chewed rawhides laying around the house but has never tried to swallow a large piece before. The only thing I can think of is if he ate a lot of string from his rope toy. He decided a couple days ago to tear it apart and we found string all over so it's possible that he swallowed enough to cause a problem. As I said, he was at my Mom's all last week so there's no way of telling what could have happened while he was there.

The walk did help him go and Jason said it was a lot. After another run of throwing up Finn fell asleep for an hour. When he woke up he had a couple licks of an ice cube and threw up some more. jason called the vet and they said to bring him back in. I hate that I'm at work and can't be there to know what's going on. I told Jason to make sure the vet knows our financial situation so we can avoid anything that is not necessary and we'll just have to do what is needed. Maybe he'll have a heart and lower the cost or allow us to make payments though I know it's not something they normally do. I'll keep you posted on what the vet says this time.

Comment by Susan Stanton on March 25, 2009 at 3:30pm

Does the vet do any pro bono work (mine does) or would they work out a payment plan with you? Poor little guy.

Comment by Sam Tsang on March 25, 2009 at 3:30pm

walking will promote bowel movement, with a combination of water will help as well, it depends what is causing the blockage, any rawhide lately? Wish Finn a speedy recovery!