Recent Tummy Troubles

Tummy troubles are no fun, especially with huge dogs. Just wanted to document this one because after it's over, we never remember how long it took for a dog to get better or what all we did to help things along, so here's a breakdown of the situation so far.

Day 1 - Saturday, August 16:
Noticed that Sebastian had bad diarrhea during our nightly walk. He was acting normal, though, and still drinking and eating normally. That night, he woke us up almost every hour needing to go out.

Day 2 - Sunday, August 17:
Sebastian still had bad diarrhea and needed to go out often. Started him on that afternoon on kaolin+pectin (k+p) which he's supposed to take every 12 hours (administered the first dose via a medicine syringe directly in his mouth – he wasn't a fan, ha). He's still drinking water and acting normal. Otherwise let him fast.

Day 3 - Monday, August 18:
Another sleepless night over Sunday night to Monday morning with needing to go out almost hourly. Gave him 2 full doses of k+p, this time with food - once on a piece of bread, and then mixed into a little bit of canned pumpkin. He really likes pumpkin! Which is good, because pumpkin is supposed to be good for tummy troubles in dogs. Also fixed him a little boiled chicken breast and plain white rice to get him to eat. He hasn't had much of an appetite. Otherwise behaving normally.

Day 4 - Tuesday, August 19:
More of the same. Continuing k+p, rice, boiled chicken, and pumpkin. Added a little kibble.

Day 5 - Wednesday, August 20:
He slept all night Tuesday night without having to go out. Still diarrhea on Wednesday, but he was able to hold it throughout the night. Continuing k+p, rice, boiled chicken, pumpkin, and a little kibble.

Day 6 - Thursday, August 21:
He slept all night again last night. Today at noon, he had almost normal poops! Still soft, but no longer 100% liquid. Definitely improving. Still giving him k+p and canned pumpkin with his kibble and what was left of the chicken.

Day 7 - Friday, August 22:
I stayed home with again today just to be available in case he needed to go out. No emergencies. He had one last dose of k+p around lunch time. He had normal poops during his evening walk. He's back to normal!

Day 8 - Saturday, August 23:
Yep! He's back to normal!

Goodbye, Abby

We had to say goodbye to Abby today. We found her at the pound 12 1/2 years ago. She was a faithful member of our family to the very end. I always try to update this group when our pups struggle with sickness for any of you fighting the same battle. 

Abby was diagnosed with arthritis at around 8 years old. We've had her on glucosamine, chondroitin, and fish oil her entire life in an effort to prevent this but there is only so much prevention can do. 

Since we had luck with Meloxicam (NSAID) in the past with another dog, we put her on that daily until she turned 11 years old. This drug served us well. 

At 11, Abby began to struggle getting up and was just "slowing down". We swapped her Meloxicam for low-dose prednisone (5mg) and this pepped her up for about 6 months. Then we upped it to 10mg, then 20mg. By this point, the vet began trying different add-ons. Gabapentin did nothing except make her more wobbly. Tramadol had a minimal effect and codeine made her even more wobbly. 

By this past May, Abby could not get up without assistance. By June, she began defecating while she slept or attempted to stand. She also began peeing and pooping while she walked. Speaking of walking, all summer we have had to gradually reduce her nightly walk until last week when she could no longer walk without falling. She was now falling and "knuckling" every few steps. We had changed drugs again to Amantadine for a few weeks in hopes that something would improve but yesterday we came home to her yelping and not being able to support her own weight (and she had lost 20 pounds since May). It was time. We kissed her between the eyes this morning and said goodbye. 

You know the day you get them that one day, if you're lucky and bond to them, they will break your heart. My only solace is knowing that somewhere right now in a pound or rescue, there is another one waiting for me to find them.

Puppy update a few weeks down the road

We've had Sebastian almost a month and a half now. Here's updates:

• We're now giving him 5 mg of prednisone once per day, not twice, and it seems to still be fairly affective at stopping the itching. He's still itchy, though, so we may end up having to take him to the vet anyway. Sebastian is also way less manic and ravenous. Usually. He gets super annoying around bed time or when he's tired.
• We've started him on one pill of fish oil per day. Hoping that might help with the itching too.
• He's finally losing his puppy teeth. He's very bitey still.
• He's pretty well house trained at this point. Messes are rare.
• He really likes squeaky toys.
• Oscar tolerates him much better, but I still wouldn't call them buddies. There are brief moments when I think it looks like Oscar wants to love on Sebastian or play with him, but it doesn't last long, and usually ends with Oscar hissing and/or swiping at Sebastian.
• Abby and Sebastian have finally started to play some in the evenings. They never play outside, though, which is weird. And most of the time Abby doesn't want anything to do with Sebastian; it's just sometimes at night when she gets a wild hair and decides it's play time.
• He sleeps really well at night. He's great in the crate. :D
• The diarrhea cleared up after a week or two when we first got him.
• We messed up and didn't continue his deworming meds like we were supposed to, so now he has worms again, and we're treating all the animals this time. Ugh. They'll all get a second dose in two weeks. And we'll continue treatment as directed this time.
• He's learning his tricks pretty well (sit, up, down, spin). He might be pretty smart!

Puppy Update

Quick bits:

• Sebastian seems to have come to us already crate trained. Yay!
• He's not house trained. Several messes, but he might be slowly starting to get it.
• He's very very itchy. We've tried benadryl with no luck. Oatmeal baths didn't help much either. So we're trying prednisone (5mg twice per day at the moment). It helps with the itching, but the Sebastian is very thirsty, VERY hungry, and is pretty manic ALL THE TIME.
• Abby doesn't like him much. She's not aggressive towards him, but she also doesn't want him messing with her. So, of course, he's constantly trying to get all up in her business. He wants to play. She does not.
• Oscar isn't a fan, but Sebastian is VERY curious about him.
• Sebastian came to us with diarrhea, probably due to a combination of intestinal parasites, changes in food, and stress. 

Tummy Troubles

On June 25, Samson had loose stool and messed on the floor. For the next five weeks, Samson continued to have loose stools. When taken off of Ol’Roy and given rice, stools would improve. The veterinarian placed Samson on metronidazole and propectalin and continued the rice meals. Stools improved within the week. Samson was slowly started again on Ol’Roy. As soon as Ol’Roy was re-introduced, the loose stools would begin. Also, we began to notice Abby having loose stools. I threw away the Ol’Roy, cleaned the food container, and bought and new bag of Ol’Roy but the loose stools continued. That’s when I noticed the bag read “Improved Formula”. We switched to Purina and stools immediately improved with both dogs. We suspect that a change in the Ol’Roy recipe caused the gastrointestinal issues.

Abby + Benadryl = Crazy Dog

So apparently there are a small percentage of people and dogs who don’t get drowsy when they take Benadryl; they experience hyperactivity instead.

Such is the case with Abby.

It’s why she has been constantly pacing and acting nutty the past couple of days. Travis even slept in the living room with her last night so that she could pace freely around the house (he slept out there so he could prevent her from barking all night).

Fleas Bite

We visited Travis’ dad last weekend, and apparently their dogs had fleas. After we got home, we discovered that our dogs also had fleas. Great.

We gave them flea baths with some kind of “natural” flea shampoo, but I don’t think it did much. After a few days, Travis got the dogs (and Oscar) flea collars but it seemed to have very little effect on the dogs. So yesterday Travis washed the dogs with a new flea shampoo (Hartz Ultra Guard Rid Flea & Tick Dog Shampoo, active ingredient Phenothrin 0.27%).

The bath seemed to help Samson, but Abby has been manic ever since her bath: constant panting, pacing, and itching. She seems to only find a little relief outside.

We tried giving her enough benedryl for a 150lb dog, but it didn’t seem to help much. She got a little bit better over night, but she is still very uneasy, and she kept us up a lot of the night with her restless behavior.

The last time she acted like this was when we put some of the flea medication on her. It’s got to be some kind of allergic reaction to the medication. Hopefully she’ll get better soon.

Sam on Thyroid Meds and Meloxicam

Just noticed this draft and figured I'd publish it. Based on the post title, I'm going to assume that this is when we first started Samson on his thyroid meds and meloxicam. (note added October 8, 2020)