Sick Bella

[bellasmom]

It's been some time since I've been on here, and I did the normal "google" and forum searches for a possible cause.
But on and off for a week now, Bella has had some mild vomiting, most looks as if she has been eating and drinking too fast (food comes back up completely solid, she has been on TOTW since we've had her, almost a year). Friday morning I let her outside as usual, she immediately went for grass, which she has done before but never vomited. A few minutes after being inside she vomited, so I made her 1/2 cup of rice, which seemed to go down well. About an hour later it call came back up, whole. No never (yes I checked), no shakes, still her same spirits, energy levels, no runny nose or coughing, etc. As the day went on, she continued to act fine aside from diarrhea instead of the solid forms, no blood in the stool, just very runny. I fed her a mix of rice and her normal food in the evening, went in with no issues, and same Saturday. I forgot to mention that she has been drinking normal. Tonight, during dinner she snuck in the corner and did #2, was very running again, and just a few minutes ago, she was asleep on the couch, jumped off and urinated right on the carpet. She is trained to ring the bells on the door if she needs to go, and was out about an hour before hand, hadn't had anything to drink or eat since that time.
She never gets table scraps (unless the step daughter tries sneaking her some), has not gotten into anything she shouldn't have within the past 2 weeks. I will mention though that 2 Fridays ago she did get into a container of little smokies and make sure to polish them off, those came out the next morning, what a mess. Everything else has been perfectly normal with her. Now there are several other dogs in neighborhood the she interacts with, all in which have not had any symptoms or illnesses. A friend of mine just posted within the past few weeks that her pooch was just in the ER vet for an intestinal bacteria that she somehow picked up outside, but wouldn't that need to come from another animal?? I'm pending a response on the symptoms. Oh one more thing, the only symptom that has been apparent for the past week is the occasional vomiting, not everyday, but here and there.

Maybe I am just being over worried and it's just a small stomach bug, but would anyone have any ideas? I am calling the vet tomorrow to try and get a possible prognosis over the phone, bring her in immediately or if I should let her continue this course for a few more days. She is up to date on all shots, has been on revolution for almost a year as well, and has no access to any type of harmful household cleaners. Hell I crate her while I mop until the floors are 100% dry.

[AllisonPibbleLvr]

It could be any number of things. I'd be taking her in to the vet today if that were my dog.

[creiter]

Poor Bella!!

As opposed to retyping, I am going to link the thread where a fellow member is having similar issues (vomit/loose stools). Read my comment!

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=155780

In short, Duke had a couple of instances where he would vomit up non digested food a couple hours after he ate it along with runny stools. His energies levels were high as always and he was drinking water fine (which are both good signs). Because there was no drop in his energy or bloating (also check for any purplish areas on his skin, like bruises, that is a sign of internal bleeding if there is a blockage or something that caused damage), the vet kept in touch with me a couple times a day over the phone (which was free) to get updates on his behavior and make sure it wasn't anything more serious. She suggested adding canned pumpkin to his dry food to solid up his stools and make the dry food easier to digest because it became mushy.

Is Bella still eating some? How frequent is the vomitting? For Duke, after he threw up the dry food I removed his food until he could empty out all the runny stool, then tried again and he kept it down fine and stool went back to normal. The vet and I never figured out exactly what caused the vomitting to begin with, but it was early on when I adopted him so could have been related to stress/anxiety (sounds like you have had Bella for awhile though). Sometimes dogs get sick like we humans do, and sometimes they get in to things that they shouldn't. They typically get over it on their own but I would ALWAYS side with caution and at least contact your vet immediately over the phone so he/she can explain dangerous signs you should be looking for and advice on home remedies you can try yourself. Not to mention if you need to take him QUICKLY to the vet, best that he/she is already aware of the problem.

I hope Bella feels better soon! Poor girl! Keep us updated.

[bellasmom]

I called the vet first thing this morning, and they directed me to keep an eye on her for the next few days since it's not a daily issue and she has continued to eat and drink, as well as she is still her in your face all the time self, even on the off days. If not better 100% by Friday, I already have an appointment to bring her in.

Bella has been eating fine, drinking the normal, etc. Even when she is having her "off" day or moment she is still trying and begging to eat. The vomiting has not happened since Friday, which to me is a good thing, but the diarrhea episodes have been on and off, Saturday evening she was solid, last night became liquid again, and this morning she didn’t go for me, but I did take her out numerous times over the night because I was so concerned about her, as well as diarrhea is not something I want to clean out of her crate first thing in the morning. I thought over and over again what could she have gotten into? The only thing I can recall in the past month was the sausages incident, and she did get ahold of a crayon the other day but we were quick enough to grab it from her before any was ingested. She has no access to my step daughters toys, as we have a dog gate at the top of the stairs since the cat boxes are also up there. I did think, well maybe the cats passed something to her, but again, they have no interaction with each other since all Bella wants to do is play, and they are scared of her and it just turns into a giant hurricane of a mess
I’m going to try the pumpkin instead of rice tonight if her stool is still runny, the vet did say to try a probiotic as well to keep her grass eating to a minimum.

I’m hoping this passes, if this is how worried and worked up I get over my fur-kids, I’d hate to see how I act when I have children of my own.

[AllisonPibbleLvr]

Keeping my fingers crossed that it turns out to be nothing!

[bellasmom]

Update on Bella.
All was well after i posted this thread until last Monday, I got a call on my way home from work with concerns from my fiancé, apparently he sent me a picture of what came out of Bella (not sure what end), it looked like strawberry jam all over the floor. I immediately called the vet and was able to get her in within an house, in the meantime, she went #2 on the living room floor, it was red, no solid. I took everything in with me including a stool sample, everything came back normal. No bacteria or parasites, no blockages, etc... Vet just seems to think she either ate something she shouldn't have, which i can't even begin to image what she got into, OR, she just developed an upset stomach somehow. So they provided me with a bacteria medication anyways, and a few doses of anti-diarrheal medicine as well as a very very strict diet of only rice and boiled chicken and beef for 5 days. After about 2 days she seemed a lot better, but then Saturday she went back to her normal food and feedings, back to eating grass again, but no vomiting. Not sure if it's from the change again, or if she's developing a food allergy, she's been on TOTW for almost a year with no issues. I left a message with the vet for a call back on it, but I'm thinking it's the drastic changes of food over the past week. I'm glad it's nothing serious, but she still has me worried and on edge with any changes, plus several of the shelters in the area have been closed temporarily for cases of Parvo.

[Curly_07]

Do you feed rawhides? Not trying to scare you, but when Curly was pooping blood like that it was from a rawhide that got stuck and tore her intestines. Have you had an Xray to rule out anything being stuck or such?

What TOTW are you feeding? She could also have IBS...there is a recent thread on that by PitBull Lady on one of her dogs. It is very detailed and may help you. It's in the Health section a few posts down.

Also wanted to add, we had a similar situation with Curly when I used to give Nyla bones. The pieces she would chew off, eat, and pass were to big and would cause her pain pooping with some blood in the stool.

Sent from my HTC using Tapatalk

[bellasmom]

No rawhides, not only do they not agree with her, I hate watching and listening to her try to swallow big pieces and hack it back up. Only thing she is given are the cow/horse tibia/fibula bones with peanut butter in them.
They didn't do an x-ray because she was still using the bathroom without any issues, as for the kind of TOTW, 99% of the time i get the grain-free stream formula, unless the local pet store i go to is out, then i'll go with wetlands (which i avoid like the plague because it gives her rancid gas). Which makes me think even more, she ALWAYS has horrible gas (except when she was on the rice and meat diet), so maybe it is IBS, I'll defiantly read the thread! Although i've brought it up to my vet twice now, she directed me to find treats with active charcoal in them, I have yet to find any.
The only things she ever gets is her dried bone, which i swear she's had the same ones for almost a year now, a little peanut butter in her bones or kong on occasion, IAMS treats maybe once a day (usually when she is told to go to bed for the night and listens), and her TOTW feeding.

[dogs4jen]

Old Mother Hubbard makes charcoal biscuits, I don't know if that's the sort of thing your vet meant though. Boy that sounds like a scary episode.

[bellasmom]

Old Mother Hubbard makes charcoal biscuits, I don't know if that's the sort of thing your vet meant though. Boy that sounds like a scary episode.

I will at least take a look, thank you! As for the episode, I was in tears the entire time we were at the vet, I even slept on the couch with her and took the following day off work to make sure she was ok. I'm a sucker.

[AllisonPibbleLvr]

Did they do anything to check for pancreatitis? (bloodwork, etc?)

[bellasmom]

Yes, they did the whole 9 yards, although they didn't want to since she was not acting sick, i asked for the tests for my piece of mind. I did look at the "low fat diet" thread as well as did some looking into IBS in dogs, it ALL sounds like my Bella. It all makes more sense now, although i did choke when i saw the prices of low-fat grain free foods.

[dogs4jen]

I was just wondering if it could be a food issue too, since Taste of the Wild had a recall a while ago. I think salmonella was the problem, so that probably would have been checked for at the vet's.

[bellasmom]

I was just wondering if it could be a food issue too, since Taste of the Wild had a recall a while ago. I think salmonella was the problem, so that probably would have been checked for at the vet's.

The recall was only because of the effect on humans, had no effects on a dogs health. Basically if I had a contaminated bag, touched the food with my hands, and then ate without washing my hands there would be a chance of becoming sick. But this bag she is on was purchased less than a month ago, and i believe the recall has been expired for some time now (don't quote me on that )... I think I'm going to try this one, I can find it locally unlike several of the others i looked at, and it's not going to break the bank a few weeks before santa makes a landing: http://www.bluebuffalo.com/dog-food/wil ... ht-chicken

[Murfins]

Sounds like HGE - Hemorrhagic gastroenteritis. My dog, Ellie, has had two bouts of this over the last five years. It is something that dogs can die from if not treated properly and aggressively. They need IV fluids and medicine immediately. I almost lost Ellie the first time she had HGE it was so severe. The raspberry/strawberry jam stools is one of the big indicators. I would be concerned if your vet didn't even mention HGE.