Tuesday 13 January 2009

Emma update























Well since the last time, Emma hasn't been too good again. All the chicken and rice was coming out of her in the same condition it went in for a while, undigested. Then on Friday just gone, she had bad diarrhea all day, about eight times in all, culminating in doing loads of it in the hall (21 different blobs to be precise...) at 10 pm in the evening, some of which had blood in it.

So I'm back on the phone to the vets, Damien wanted to know if there were any developments, and I thought that warranted reporting pretty quickly. Spoke to Sian this time, and she said to bring her down on Saturday morning, meantime she would speak to Damien.

So off we went, Damien popped his head in the door to see how she was, although he wasn't supposed to be working. Anyway, came home armed with some new tins of food for dogs with sensitive digestion. Guaranteed to settle the most iffy stomachs. No so Emma of course. Continued with the diarrhea all day, and into Sunday too.

She had the most awful wind you could ever imagine, and at 6am yesterday morning, she was sick three times, and the diarrhea continued all day.

So today, back to see Damien. Told him everything and he was most worried about the sensitive food not doing its job. Emma can't have the Addison's Disease, her level of sodium is completely normal and a dog has to have a very low level showing in the blood for this to be the problem. He agrees she has a food intolerance of some kind, that various nutrients aren't getting to the right bits, and this could be caused by kidney problems. The trouble is the only way he can be sure is to take a biopsy using a gastroscope in the gut but this can't be done without a general anaesthetic of course, and we can't risk that because of her heart condition. He is pretty sure she wouldn't make it. So for now, we have to find a diet that won't upset her, to build up her strength, to get the levels back as they should be hopefully and then her heart condition should improve. So I came home armed with another type of food for dogs with Kidney/renal failure or problems. She likes it which is the main thing.

Damien took some more blood tests to check on the four things that are wrong, and will ring me on Friday with results and see where we go from there. So again it's a game of wait and see, and hope that this time her stomach will settle a bit.

I can even try her back on her old original food that she's eaten for months, but will have to soak it because of her bad tooth, so there's another possibilty.

That's all for now, so feel a little bit more optimistic than I did, she seems okay in herself anyway.

5 comments:

Tricia Ryder said...

Oh poor Emma, Jan, and poor you to for having to go through all this.

Fingers crossed that the new food will do the trick and matters will settle down now.

best wishes.

Betty said...

She is such a beautiful little girl and I know how much your heart is hurting for her. She's in my prayers, as are you. If people think it's weird I pray for animals..so be it..I'm still going to do it for Emma. Take care of yourself, too, while you are taking such good care of her.

The Quacks of Life said...

thinking of you both. hope the food works.

((jan & emma))

avalon said...

Thinking of you, you feel so useless when emma can't tell you whats wrong them her, bet that sounds stupid but you know what i mean! Went through this with penny when she was younger, i still have to careful what i give her although touch wood she seems a lot better lately. good luck with it all!!

oldcrow61 said...

That picture is wonderful. Can't help but love that little beauty. I hope they find out the problem quickly Jan. I can imagine what you're going through.