the sheltiechick blog

Payton’s tummy troubles continue.

Mr. Man has the poops again. And threw up a bit last night in his crate and it didn’t look right. Part of it looked normal… and part of it looked like poop. Every two hours, pretty much on the dot, he was crying in the crate to be let out.
The vet couldn’t get us in any sooner than 5pm, so he had to sit all day without even any water.

He’s acting totally normal besides having the runs every three hours. First thing this morning he teamed up with Auggie and they nearly caught themselves a squirrel. =P I was on the phone with the vet and they asked “Is he acting normal? Not lethargic or anything?” Nope… definitely not lethargic!

I took the morning off work to catch up on the sleep I missed letting him out all night long – and after he threw up I had a pretty hard time falling back asleep at all, even though I knew it wasn’t anything major to worry about yet – and one I found out the vet couldn’t get us in before 5pm, I took the rest of the day off too so I could just watch him and make sure he doesn’t get worse. And so I didn’t come home to take him to the vet and arrive back to a poo-covered dog.

So after a full day off work and fifty-some dollars later… the vet nothing apparently wrong with Payton.

We came home with more Flagyl, I guess it’s just the general tummy troubles med. Sigh. Best guess seems to be when he eats little pieces of rope and fleece bits off toys it might be enough to irritate his digestive system? I’m not on board with that theory, to be honest.
Doc was thinking blockage, but couldn’t feel anything, his belly felt fine, wasn’t hurting him… asked if I wanted to x-ray him anyway, and I asked if he thought it was worth an x-ray, and he said no. So no x-ray. A friend had recommended checking for clostridium, so I asked about sending a fecal off to check for clostridium. They can actually do a clostridium strain right there in the office with their fecal floats, so didn’t have to send away for anything. We talked about switching food, Doc said maybe switch food; I went over and talked to Auggie’s breeder’s husband about switching food, and he said probably not switch food, at least not now until we get him settled again this round, because if he doesn’t take to the new food it will be hard to tell if it’s that or he’s still got this going on… so no new food just yet… and he isn’t convinced switching food will take care of it anyway. Neither am I.

So chicken and rice for a few days, Flagyl for a week. I’m frustrated. I want more than “The good news is, it’s not this, this, or this! Bad news is I dunno! Here’s some Flagyl, cross your fingers!” which is kind of how I feel right now. =/
Poor Payton.

We just did this two weeks ago. Seriously? Buh.