Aspen the Yorkie

This is kind of a yucky post, but maybe it will help you if you have a Yorkie, or other small dog, that gets diarrhea, or bloody diarrhea.  It might help you if you have a big dog, too, but it’s more of an emergency with small dogs like Yorkshire Terriers because we lose our fluids quickly and can become dehydrated and go into shock…now don’t get scared if you’re reading this and your dog is sick right now, read on, most of the time things will be okay.  First I’ll tell my story,and what the vet did, then give some tips to help until you can get to the vet….but get to the vet you must, if you’re having symptoms like I did.

Last night I didn’t feel good, and had bloody diarrhea…I’ve had it before just a little bit, but never have been real sick with it.  My owners didn’t know what to do because it was time to go to bed when I got really sick, but I settled down a little bit.  Then they got up with me at about 1:30 in the morning, and I was sick again.  Then by morning, I was panting, and trembling, and passing blood, bright red blood, more than we had seen before.  Of course they called the vet right away, and took me in to get checked.

The vet took a stool specimen, and it is getting sent in to see if I have parasites or other things that might have caused this.  She took my temperature rectally, then she felt all around my abdomen, I guess to see if there were any swellings or lumps.  Then they took me and injected a water-electrolyte solution under my skin that made kind of a big soft mushy bump on me, so my body would be able to absorb some fluids.  Since my intestines were so inflamed, even when I drank water,  and it was good that I was, it is hard to know how well he body can absorb the fluids.  Then she gave (sold) us, or told us to buy, the following:

• An antibiotic – Metronidazole 100 mg suspension, and said I had to take 1/2 ml. 2x a day….bought that from the vet.
• Pepcid AC 10 mg….have to take 1/4 a tablet once a day…got that at the store
• id canned cat food, yes, I sad CAT food, esp. good for intestinal problems….bought that from the vet, and guess what, I love it, have almost eaten a can of it today in a lot of small portions.
• Gerber Baby Rice flakes or boiled white rice (not quick rice), we got the flakes, and mix them in with the food.
• Pedialite – we kind of think that might have been a waste of money, but we are mixing a little bit in with the food and rice…I won’t drink it alone….that’s to help replace fluids and electrolytes lost.

It wasn’t long after I got the antibiotic, and ate some of that yummy food that I started to feel much better, and by tonight I felt good enough to beg all evening for my snack…the owners wouldn’t give me my favorite snack tonight, because they can only give me boiled chicken, which they did, and the food from the vet…but I begged anyway, worth a try, right?  And I felt good enough to beg for my old stuffed bunny to be thrown a few times. So unless we hear something different from the vet when they get the results of my fecal tests, I think we’re all set.

Oh yeh, forgot to mention that my owner is going to sprinkle just a little acidophiles in my food to help get good bacteria into my system between times that she gives me the antibiotics, and after.

The Pepcid AC will be a good thing to have around in case this happens again and we can’t get to the vet on time.  And we’ve read that Pepto Bismol can help, but my owner feels funny about that one because she thinks it has aspirin in it, which can make bleeding bleed more.  We have to ask the vet about that one.

So that’s my story.  I’ll let you know how things go…but I feel a lot better tonight!