The Official "Dogs of the DMF" Thread

[Stella]

My little ankle biter is super sick. I'm super sad.  He'll be in ICU for a few days.  Test results by end of week (?!). 

[IZ]

Sure he'll be OK!

[Stella]

Oliver Baconator needs all the good juju healing vibes as possible - pretty please!

Very critical condition.  Was doing worse at clinic so made decision to take him home late last night/this morning in the hopes that, being the nervous and shy and timid boy that he is, would perhaps do better at home.  Downside is no IV fluids to keep him hydrated but doing my damnedest to get him to drink (some success) & to eat a little.  However I think he's resting as comfortably as he can be.

Even with heavy anti-nausea meds he had some throw up at the clinic.  That's no bueno.  Only some burps here at home (which still shouldn't happen but glad it's not barf!)

Pathology tests won't be ready for a few days, end of week at most although I said I wanted that expedited.  They'll see what they can do.

Cultures can't be expedited.

Rat wisdom would be oh so welcome about now....  

Clearly the 696 was not meant to be.  He IS my 696 since he is where all that money is going.  

[Ducatamount]

I will say a prayer for Oliver.

[Stella]

 

[ducpainter]

If I were RAT...

I'd remind you that regardless how this all plays out that Oliver will be in your heart long after the bike was just a distant memory.

Good luck P.

[Stella]

Ahhh so true, so true, wise Rat channeler (not that you couldn't come up with that bit of wisdom yourself).


Thank you.    

[Grampa]

all of our pet clan say... boop Oliver on the nose for us.

[red baron]

GWS Oliver.
We're all thinking about you.




I love the RAT story about his dog and his dad.

[Howie]

Our thoughts are with Oliver.

[red baron]

[red baron]

[Stella]

^ nice close up!  


I guess I never did mention what Oliver Bacon's deal is/was/will be/. Sorry.  So here's the story.  Or a lesson in why you should get pet insurance (which I do not have of course).  

Thursday evening after coming home from a routine hike around a lake in the woods, he finished his dry kibble dinner.  Not long after, he up-chucked it (and his breakfast).  Proceeded to barf (the bad foamy bile) throughout the night and Friday morning.

Regular vet clinic overbooked.  Called another vet who makes house calls (he didn't get my message for 2 hours.  Talked a bit, decided he needed to be seen elsewhere (he's not equipped for big jobs). By the time I got him in to the mac daddy of clinics it was Friday afternoon.  

Out of a stomach x-ray and stool sample, they only detected a common parasite giardia (comes primarily from goose poop). Stomach totally free of anything - no blockage.  Giardia diagnosis was curious to me since Brian has had it several times and just gets diarrhea (put on whatever meds and he's fine - no worse for wear).  Oliver's first reaction to giardia seemed SO severe to me.

That clinic (AE) gave him anti-nausea injection (+ antibiotics). He threw up a few more times Friday night/early Sat. I called regular clinic (TT) who we really like and miracle: they had an opening Sat. afternoon.

Learning his stomach was clear from previous clinic, they decided bloodwork and x-rays of intestines was in order (suspecting s'thing in those). Bloodwork showed white blood cell count 2x higher than normal. Intestines appearing clean.   (WTF?!?!?!?!)

This clinic hires someone who comes 1x/week w/an ultrasound machine so they could not do that to double check the innards.  Option was to wait until Monday for that person or go to AE or other big clinic that has a machine and tech onsite.  Third option:  open him up now.  Rather than drive around town wasting potentially more critical time, I asked for gut feel of s'thing in the intestines that they couldn't see on x-ray.  "80%".  Ok, can you stay and open him up (they were closing soon).  The two docs who were very worried about him, opened him up w/in minutes ("we've never made an  estimate so fast in our history").  uh.

After surgery, Dr. comes out:  clean intestines and stomach (another WTF).  What they did find is that what little fat he has around his organs (primarily around the stomach and pancreas â€" pancreas being the primary suspected demon) was very hard.  They also said the intestines were disconcertingly dark in color.  They palpated stomach and intestines and flushed them out (still found nothing).

Cultures and pathology tests due this week.

Post surgery, we did have to take him to a 24 hour care clinic. I knew he would not do well there â€" being so scared and shy and timid to begin with.  Got approval to take him home 36 hours after being admitted there since he indeed was not doing well.

Even having been given anti-nausea at 24 hour place, he still threw up one time.  Some small burps when I got him home but not bile foam.

Feeding him whatever bland we can get in him in the hopes he keeps it down (mission critical) and recovers.  If he can't keep it down, he goes on a feeding tube (only if we don't yet have test results back to make more informed decisions).

While he only had a few urps yesterday, I was really really really worried he wasn't going to make it through the day.  But he has.  Still really critical at this point.  

Waiting, as we know, sucks.

[Ducatamount]

What bland food are you trying to get him to eat?
I do the boiled chicken and rice mix.
Hang in there Mr. Bacon!

[Stella]

Feeding baby food, prescription wet, boiled buffalo burger, boiled chicken breast.  He's only eating tiny bites by hand so skipping the rice additive for now. 

Downside is getting meds in him 4x/day.  He's learned rather quickly that they're in those tiny bites of food so he then refuses the bites thinking there's a nasty pill in it.  Peanut butter always works but that's not on the approved food list right now.

Going to run out this morning and get a bag of the pill pockets to see if that works.