Should I be worried?
So, Sunny has had diarrhea and/or very loose stool for about a week now, and yesterday she started vomiting. She's now vomited 7-10 times in the last 24 hours. She has lost most of her appetite, eating only 1/3 of her regular food. I had her in to the vet on Friday last week, for the diarrhea (and I mentioned that she's been leaking urine while sleeping now and then, most likely uterine incontinence due to a hormonal imbalance from being spayed, she was on estrogen last year for a bit for it). The vet didn't seem too worried, she did the old poke and prod exam, gave us Metronidazole to settle her stomach and sent us home. After the urinalysis had come back clear for bladder/UTI/kidney infection, she phoned and said we could pick up some estrogen for the uterine incontinence. We've tried to give her the Metronidazole via syringe, but she is so resistant to it, I feel it stresses her out so much it's making her more sick. She usually vomits soon enough after that I doubt it's doing anything. So, her symptoms in a nutshell are: -diarrhea started 8 days ago, has improved in last 3 days, but probably due to loss of appetite -leaking of urine during sleep (apricot sized puddles, however, one cantaloupe sized puddle) -vomiting for last 36 hours, bright yellow bile -desire to sleep outside (very out of the ordinary!) -sleeping more, but easily excited by normal things, like opening the front door, putting my shoes on, etc. -less energetic on walk last night, but not lethargic. She still ran around at the park, just not as much. -loss of regular appetite, vomits food about an hour after eating -drinking fairly normally, maybe a bit less than usual So, any red flags going up for anyone? Sorry if this post isn't worded well, and for the length of it, I just want to get it posted so there's enough time for anyone with insight about the situation to respond before I head out tomorrow morning to the vet. Thanks everyone! |
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| I'm not specifically up on sheepie medical issues but here are some thoughts re: dog in general issues and hopefully someone else can chime in on sheepie specific stuff. I'd assume there are two separate issues occurring with one being the urinary incontinence and two the gut issues, but there could conceivably be some unusual thing causing both. Bearing in mind that vomiting will tend to stress the pelvic floor muscles and can make the incontinence worse. I dont know how old Sunny is but vomiting and diarrhoea suggest a couple of possibilities from gastro infection hence the Metronidazole as it treats bacterial and protozean infections to obstruction, has she eaten anything she shouldnt have lately? There are other causes of obstruction that are kind of nasty and most likely Sunny would be in much poorer health and not running at the park. Gall bladder or pancreas can cause vomiting, diarrhoea and lack of appetite. Pancreatitis is common in some breeds of dog but sorry I'm not sure if OES are on the list. Liver dysfunction is also a possiblity. Blood test can help to rule out some of these possible diagnoses so that may be where your vet will go next depending on how ill Sunny is if they havent already. Good luck. I hope its something simple and easy to fix.  |
| As Mim said, pancreatitis and obstruction are the two that my Vets consider if the fecal doesn't show unwelcome organisms (giardia, cyclo....(?)) Obstructions can come and go out of place and so energy level can be intermittent but vomiting with diarrhea is considered significantly more worrisome than just diarrhea. Pancreatis may be more likely if she is not generally a dog that swallows things. My Maggie tends to leak urine when she is sick but not at other times so I see it as a symptom of something else -- not incontinence. Worth considering. Good luck at the Vet! I will be hoping for good news. |
| I echo those who think it might be pancreatitis. Oscar has had it twice. Whenever Oscar presents with these type of symptoms, my vets do a blood test to look at Amylase and Lipase levels, to determine pancreatic involvement. (Oscar has Inflammatory Bowel Disease, so if we treated him for that, and he actually had pancreatitis, it could potentially be fatal for him.) Treatment for pancreatitis means that a dog gets NOTHING by mouth for at least 48 hours, not a sip of water or a crumb of food. Most vets keep the dog on IV fluids for that time, to avoid dehydration, and give the pancreas time to settle down. I say most vets, as my vet allows me to take Oscar home, but I must bring him back every 24 hours for blood work, as well as a liter of SubQ fluids to prevent dehydration. As it doesn't sound like it is resolving on it's own, I would have the vet do some blood work to look for an underlying cause. Laurie and Oscar |
| Portage used to get pancreatitis, and when it flared up it was like everything was going wrong at once, and he was very sedate and panted a lot, too. My parents' dog also gets it, and his symptoms are completely different, so I wouldn't be surprised if this is pancreatitis. Portage used to be incontinent when he had it. He didn't even want to get up and move. |
| Thank you for your replies! I will make sure our vet checks for pancreatitis for sure now. And general blood work to rule out vital organ stuff. She hasn't vomited since yesterday afternoon, and no signs of diarrhea since Sunday. And the leaking has stopped, but we haven't put her on the estrogen yet. But we haven't gotten enough Metronidazole into her to have made a diff yet, she really freaked out and would then have a worse episode of diarrhea, so I suspected that it was stressing her out. So we'd give it to her on a crust of dry bread, and then the vomitting started, so we just stopped giving it to her. I'll ask for something in pill form. But she's still lazing around and not eating much, just a couple mouthfuls every couple hours, so I'm still taking her in. Praying that my fur baby is ok! I just want to pick her up and rock her, have to keep reminding myself that she weighs 70 pounds! |
| We're back and Sunny has been given a thumbs up from the vet!!! She said that they've seen a lot of dogs with diarrhea and vomiting lately, and think that there's a bug going around. She told me that because her vomiting & diarrhea are decreasing, it was probably just the bug. She also said that the Metronidazole might have upset her tummy, prompting the vomiting. She also did a very thorough exam (better than the one the other vet did on Friday). If she gets another bought of diarrhea, or vomits more than one more time, then I need to take her in for blood work, but she felt comfortable with not doing any more tests at this point. Her red eye turned out to be pink eye, so we have drops for it (that's going to be fun!) She gave us Sulcrate to replace the Metronidazole, thankfully in pill form, and Zantac. And some gastro food for the next few days (which she loves!). And the estrogen for the leakiness, but we'll wait on that until she's feeling better. Too many pills, glad she's on a wet food for the next couple days. Thanks everyone for your concern and advice, I felt much more informed and in control today than I ever have going to the vet. I'll let you know how Sunny's doing as things progress. Take care everyone! |
| This is great news. You must be so relieved. Keep us updated....and virtual hugs to Sunny! |
Glad to hear the good news!  Do keep us posted to let us know she's improving.  |
| Glad to hear that Sunny is doing alittle better. Hugs to her. Hope she's back to her sheepie self soon. Lisa and Frankie |
| Hopefully Sunny's through the worst of it and she'll be back to her old self in no time. |
WHEW! Sunny is doing so much better! She's still sleeping more than usual, but for the most part she's back to her excited, herding me around the house, asking for food by pawing her food dish around the house, self again  I am sooo relieved, I really was very worried with all the vomiting. She still hasn't vomited since Monday, and no diarrhea either.  She absolutely loves the wet gastro food the vet put her on, almost so much that I'm considering putting her on a wet food. Thank you so much for all the well wishes, and for the advice too. You guys and ladies rock! (sorry for all the emoticons, I'm just really excited!) |
YAY!!!!  |
| So glad to hear that Sunny is doing better! Oscar eats canned food, ever since a bout of pancreatitis. He seems to tolerate and digest it so much better than kibble, so now he just gets a little kibble as a treat. He LOVES the canned food, and it takes him longer to eat because I mash it down into the bowl (adding probiotics) and he has to work at it to get it all out. He licks the bowl clean! Laurie and Oscar |
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