Sick Dog Please help

[Droanx]

Let me just start off by saying that I am tired a frustrated. My grammar will probably show this.

My fiance and I have a 13 1/2 month old female beagle around 18 pounds.

Ever since we've had her I noticed her poo is a little on the soft side. When she was about 9 months old it got really bad so we took her to the vet. They gave us some story about bacteria and gave us medicine for that. The next morning it was 10x's worse complete with blood in the poo. We immediately took her back and a different vet (place we take her has more then one vet) saw her. He said no way its bacteria it's colitis. Gave us new medicine and food. While on the medicine and food her poo returned to normal. About one week after being off the medicine and special diet our dog got sick again but not as bad. We took her back....same thing prescibed as before. She was fine while on the medicine and food. About a month after she got sick again. This time we got same medicine and diet but we took away all her toys.

She got better with the medicine and because of the toys she was going crazy. We returned everything except the rawhide bones. I talked to someone and they explained how the pieces of rawhide can expand in the stomache and cause problems.

After this she was better for about a month. But she got sick again. This time she pooed every 2 hours without warning. In her kennel without whining to get out at night etc....

Took her back to the same vet....same deal...food and medicine. Same results.

Got sick 2 weeks later....same deal...food and medicine.

Now it is present day and guess what....she got sick tonight......


BTW her "sick" includes obvious pain and shaking...

I am very frustrated with this vet office. You would think that after maybe the second time you would try something different to help the dog. This vet has seen the dog with the same symptoms about 6 times. They gave the same diagnosis 6 times. Each time costing about $200.00 for everything. Thats about $1200.00 spent on a problem that is not being fixed.

Now I know dogs are not human and the are not mechanical...but they are considered property.

So...you take your car to a shop to fix a problem. They say they fixed it and it appears fixed. Then the problem comes back. You take it to the shop again and they claim to fix it....works fine for awhile then has the same problem....repeat the cycle about 6 times..... This shop would have one pissed off customer.

In the morning I am going back to the vet and getting the medicine and stuff that helps the dog.

Next thing I am going to do is call other vets and get opinions from them.


There was an earlier thread about how much you would spend on your dog....well me...obviously a lot....

[GotGlock1917]

I would definitely go to another vet clinic.

What tests did the vet actually run and what meds were prescribed?

[Droanx]

Originally posted by GotGlock1917
I would definitely go to another vet clinic.

What tests did the vet actually run and what meds were prescribed?

All they do is test the stool for parasites. Then the vet feels her stomache and says yea shes inflammed. Thats all they've done and its been 5-6 months of this. The only reason I am going back to them in the morning is because they know the situation and can prescribe the meds quickly and we can get in and out.

Already found some vets close by in the phone book......

[Critias]

I've heard a lot of warnings from people about vets that do exactly what you're describing -- string you along, getting you in there every two weeks and getting a few hundred more bucks off you each time. You're paying his car payments for him, and in the meantime your dog is miserable and confused. Great, isn't it?

I'd ask him to write down everything that's happened so far, and then take those records to another vet and see what's what. Make it clear to both vets (or all three, in this case) that you want a cure, not a band-aid. You've got a sick dog, and it's their freakin' job to fix it.

In my case, we ended up having to put our little dachsund down. He had really weird anemia problems, his gums were grey from lack of blood, his immune system was out of wack, there blood in his stool real bad, he had seizures and gasping fits (from lack of oxygen), you name it. We'd go to the vet, they'd give him some pills, he'd be okay (not "good," not "better," but okay) for a few weeks, then he'd be sick again. He was miserable, we were miserable, and the vet was laughing all the way to the bank, stringing us along with two week's worth of special food and pills at a time. We eventually ended up having to go in and just tell the vet, point blank -- we need to know that you can fix this problem, not just temporarily treat these symptoms, or we need you to put this dog to sleep.

Now, I'm not saying your dog is to that point, don't get me wrong. An otherwise healty puppy is awful different from our 10-11 year old dog, of course! But while talking to other pet owners during our own dilemna, I heard this sort of thing happens a lot.

Also, have you looked into pet insurance? A few people suggested that to me, and while I haven't looked into it very seriously, I know I probably should, with the new puppy we just got. Maybe it can help offset these bills for you some.

[Droanx]

Critias,

Believe me I felt like we were being strung along after the second time. The problem is I am not able to go with my fiance to the vet because I work.

You are absolutely right our dog is in pain and is confused...she poos inside and thinks we are going to kill her. But we don't because she is sick. When she is in her "better" time she'll poo inside and think its ok....all her housetraining is falling apart because of this.

She has such a sad look on her face when we come home and there is a surprise by the door.

My fiance worked for a vet (receptionist type stuff)... we live in a different city now. I'm thinking about going to him because she worked for him and shouldn't give us the string along...

So is there anyone we can report this stuff too or are we SOL.

[JBlitzen]

Second opinions are the name of the game in human medicine and auto repair, I don't know why it would be different for pets. If you don't trust your vet, go to a different one. No ifs, ands, or barks.

[Wiley]

These are the folks you want to contact: University of Florida Vet School Clinic (http://www.ufvmc.org/)

Sorry to hear about your pup. Hope you can get things sorted out. The vet school will not be inexpensive but as a teaching hospital they have probably seen what your dog has. And know how to treat it.

[loandr.]

sounding VERY much like Pancreitis....ask your Vet about it and Viocase-V to help produce the enzynes needed for digestion, in smaller dogs it will cause loos stool w/ blood in it, may vomit w/ signs of blood as well, with weight loss. Hope it helps my friend. be strong

LD

[MrsKitty]

This reminds me of a problem we had with our Fred, although he is a cat the principle may be the same. He is very intollerant to something in his food. At the time, he was on hairball control Cat Chow and he got so sick. Diarreah that was just awful for him. My vet suggested Hills Science Diet hairball. Skeptical, we switched him and he was almost instantly better. In less than 12 hours, no more diarreah. Well, we have experimented with other foods and each time, he returns to the awful diarreah. We have tried everything from Cat Chow to Bill Jack to NurtoMax to Eukenuba and always get the same result.

Maybe it is an allergy/intollerance to something in the food?

[Armed&Feminine]

you might want to also consider asking for an endoscopy of the upper and lower GI. If you do this you will also want to send tissue samples to the lab for testing.

The inital cost will be expensive (probably around what you have already spent) but it will be worth it to have good solid answers.

It wouldn't hurt to have this procedure done at a specialty clinic or at the vet school. You will have fewer 'hard feelings' about being strung along as they are simply being utilized to fix this one problem.

[Armed&Feminine]

Originally posted by misskitty5077
Maybe it is an allergy/intollerance to something in the food?

+1 :supergrin:

[Droanx]

Originally posted by misskitty5077

Maybe it is an allergy/intollerance to something in the food?

Yes, throughout the process we have mentioned this. They always said it wasn't the food.

Well as an update I called the vet yesterday and was politely blunt with them. The Dr. that owns the place is taking control of our file and will be the only dr to see our dog now. He is disturded that the other vets have gotten nowhere. During our hour talk on the phone I mentioned the food and that the other vets disregarded my concerns about it. He is going to look into it and told us to keep her on the special food that she gets when she is sick even if she isn't sick. My personal belief is that it is the food but the vet never listened to me until I called up pitching a fit. We have not had the chance to switch foods on our own because the dog is sick too often.

On Tuesday we are calling the vet with updates and he may have some better answers by then he says....