I was just looking at my last couple of posts and realized they were about vet visits for my dogs. The last one seemed like there was basically a happy ending to it but turns out that wasn't the case.
Two days after I started giving Oreo the antibiotic prescribed (that I rightfully predicted I would have to force feed him), I took the dogs to the park to walk them and as soon as we got out of the car, Oreo started throwing up. Not a lot but in hindsight, I should've been concerned about the color of it, but that's beside the point now.
I called the vet's office when I got home from the park and told them Oreo had thrown up and they said it was likely because of the antibiotic he was on and told me to cut back his dosage (from twice a day to once a day). We got up the next morning and before I could give him any medication, he threw up again. I decided then that I wouldn't be giving him any more of the medication. I meant to call the vet to let them know and see if there was something else I could give him but I never called them.
Two days after that, we were at the park again and about halfway through our walk (we were walking about an hour a day when we'd go there), Oreo stopped and didn't want to continue. It was very unlike him. When he did finally start moving again he stopped to poop - and it was diarrhea and it was bloody. I got the dogs to the car as quickly as I could and took them straight to the vet's office.
I was told they didn't have any openings for that day but they suggested I could leave Oreo with them and the vet could examine him between visits, so I did that.
I got a call about an hour and a half later (way before I expected to hear from them) saying that Oreo would be spending the night with them. They said he had
hemorrhagic gastroenteritis. He needed fluids, vitamins and who knows what all else. They had to hook him up to an IV drip. I got told that if he survived the first 24 hours, he should be okay. My fear level - on a scale of 1-10 - was at about a thousand! He had been throwing up on Monday and on Thursday he had bloody diarrhea!
Well, he survived the night and they let me bring him home. I was told to discontinue our hour long walks until he "recovered" from this - and then they didn't say how long it would take to recover.
Two weeks later I took both dogs in for their annual check ups and shots. I had them run full blood panels on both dogs, something I would've done whether or not Oreo had gone through this ordeal or not but I wasn't going to leave without the tests because of the ordeal!
Benji's results were perfect. Oreo's looked almost identical to what they were when he had to spend a night at the vet's office. Yet they said he was fine and we could continue our hour long walks again. I pointed out the numbers on the lab tests and they said "oh that's just because of what he went through two weeks ago". Um, didn't he spend the night there for that? If the treatment didn't completely fix it to where two weeks later you can't tell he had anything done, what was the point of him staying overnight? I don't know what to think at this point.
That all said, Oreo seems fine. I still haven't resumed our hour long walks (we were doing 30 minutes when we were on the "break" and that's still what we're doing - usually multiple times a day, just not all at once, like before) and I've been watching him like a hawk. I worry about my furbabies because they can't tell us what feels bad or hurts and they don't always show it until it's late in the case. I feel I need to take him back for more lab work (possibly at another vet) just to see how he's doing. Not to mention, if his labs weren't going to be any better two weeks later, I think they should've mentioned that before I had them run (probably would've anyway but at least it wouldn't be such a shock to see the results).
I did recently buy them some toys that have some funny stories attached to them (at least in my opinion) but I'll save those for another post. 😀
