Sasha is sick!

[shewasmyshadow]

My little doxie/lab Sasha was having bloody stools a few days ago. We brought her into our vet and they put her on antibiotics. Now several days later she's had RAPID weight gain and has a distended tummy! I'm taking her back in to the vet tonight, but here's my concern.

We're new to the area and this vet is not my first choice. The only reason I picked them is because they are open later in the evenings and they had an appointment for me RIGHT AWAY. I just can't decide if I should switch or keep going to them. There is another vet in the area that is very highly recommended by my neighbors, who are show dog people, but they are hard to get into. I feel like I should stay with the other vet because they already did the fecal exam on her and know her a little bit. But, they are SO expensive and I have to drill the vet for information. I've worked in a vet clinic before, so I have no problem digging at a vet for information, but it doesn't seem like I should have to.

What should I do?

[livaward]

go with your gut

[shewasmyshadow]

go with your gut

I can't figure out what that is...can you?

[livaward]

you could call the other vet to see if they can see you.

[vicklynn]

Yup, call around. When I first moved here I used PetSmart, but changed vets, and I found a great All animal vet, one that is people friendly, and animal friendly. Not only does he work on them, he owns them, horses, ect.
Psst, he looks good in jeans too, that helps..lmbo.

[shewasmyshadow]

Well, I just realized I can't this time. My husband is an auditor and with his current client he won't get home until 6pm-which is closing time for the other vet. Sasha NEEDS to get seen today, so I guess I'll hold onto this appointment this time. I think I will call the other vet for her dental cleaning though...

[menagerie]

I agree you should go with your gut but personally I wouldn't trust the care of my animals to anyone I had to pull info out of. JMO

[oursarge]

I hope your little dog will be fine. I know how stressful it is when our animals are sick. It's hard to say about the vet, we had to rush Noah in last week. I was so thankful they were there and saw us right away. I love my vet but like most Drs he just tells what he feels you should know and you have to pull info out of him. The problem with that is when I am nervous I can't think of anything to ask. Thankfully they had all the instructions for the medication written on the bottles and boxes so I didn't have to wonder about that and call back.

Right now Noah seems to feel fine but when his medicaiton is over with I have to talk to the vet and ask how to prevent what happened to him from happening again. He seems fine, his mother is a basket case and can't relax.

Good luck, I really hope all will be well.

[shewasmyshadow]

Well, the thing is they seem very professional and friendly, but everyone is very young. The vet looks like she could be my age (24) which kinda freaks me out. She is just real quiet and never suggests any reasons for my dogs illness. She just says, "We'll see what the tests show..." which means I have to get about $100+ worth of tests every visit just to find out what's wrong. Every vet visit takes about 1/2 my paycheck. :eek:

[shewasmyshadow]

Phewfta that siggy's kinda big...I'm gonna have to work on that.

[Remali]

She doesn't have bloat does she? That can be fatal if you don't get it treated ASAP. You don't want to wait, my friend's dog ended up needing surgery, set her back over $2,000. But, then I think bloat/intestinal torsion occurs in large breed dogs only.

I guess I would take my dog to the first vet I could in at and not wait. It may be she has giardia too, that can cause bloody stools.

[shewasmyshadow]

I'm on my way to take her right now. I'll update everyone when I get back.

[oursarge]

Hope all is well, I know how scary it is waiting.

[farmers_wife]

I hope all is well. Good luck

[shewasmyshadow]

I'm in the waiting room now. They are taking xrays now. $120 just for the xrays. There goes my paycheck. :(

[JackieB]

Get well, Sasha. We'll be looking forward to an update.

[~*Domino*~]

Any updates! Sure hope Sasha is ok! Sending healing vibes your way Sasha!!

[Gypsy Rose]

Hope Sasha will be okay!

[shewasmyshadow]

When I took her in the other day she was around 18lbs and when we put her on the scale yesterday night she was 21 (close to 22lbs). The xray informed us it was food and feces filling her up- almost 4 lbs of food and feces!!! They gave her an enema and I left her at the vet to "empty out". When I came back she was 3 lbs lighter and then when we got home she dispelled the last 1 lb in the backyard.

So I've spent almost $300 on vet fees this last week. WOW. But, I don't think I'm going back to that vet. They never explained anything and both times they tried to get me to go overboard on tests and xrays. I would be over $1000 in the hole if I'd let them do what they wanted to do. Each time I had to ask them to please start with the most useful test and see if that was enough to figure out what's wrong. They never use common sense or experience to figure out a problem, they always rely solely on tests (expensive tests). Is that normal?

[Gypsy Rose]

Depends on your vet- the commonsense ones are harder to find- though once you get one, you have a darn good vet.

You do have the right to know why tests are being performed on your animal- after all you are the one that's paying for it, lol!

Maybe they can't always break everything down into simple terms, but someone in that clinic should be able to give you an idea what each individual test is for, and why they feel your animal needs them. I would definitely switch vets.

Classic example of a good commonsense vet- go see my thread I put up entitled "My Kitten is a Cat".

[Gypsy Rose]

http://www.baywindfarm.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1873

The vet asked if I WANTED to do exploratory surgery, and we discussed the pros and cons.

[shewasmyshadow]

The vet mentioned it might be a foreign object blocking her up inside... This morning someone threw up a plastic bag. :( But, since Sasha is acting better I guess I'll wait to see if it was her. Our cat chews on plastic bags sometimes, so I don't know who did "it". I'll read that thread when I get a chance here. Thanks.

[oursarge]

If we didn't have tests my Noah would be dead now. When we took him in last week he was one step from death. We had no idea what was wrong with him, there was no explination. One minute he was fine the next he collapsed and when we got to the vet he was walking on his own but he didn't have a clue where he was. His eyes were dead and his legs shaking. His hair is red, at the office it had turned brown. If the vet didn't run tests we probably would have ended up putting him to sleep because there was no way to know what was wrong with him and there was no way he had any quality of life at that point, it was awful to see.

He started out small as far as tests, he did the blood panel and that was what showed the kidney function, potassium levels and Lyme. He then said we'd do the IV to see if that would bring the kidney function up and by the next day we'd know for sure what we'd have to do. It was a very long emotional night. The next a.m. we found that the IV worked and his kidneys were fine, the vet was as thrilled as we were. He asked if we wanted an abdominal x-ray just in case and we said yes. We picked him up with a month's worth of anti biotics and pills for his upset stomach, Frontline for the Ticks and a bill for $600.. We didn't have the money it had to go on the charge card but I'd do it again in a second.

It's hard for a Dr to know what is wrong when the patient can't talk and for us there were no symptoms leading up to the falling over, he was fine then couldn't walk. There are some vets that I don't like, my aunt had one who said he'd let her know when the dog was ready to die. Yeah, when he drained their savings. The dog should have been put to sleep a month or more before he was. My vet isn't into heroics. Like he said if Noah's blood panel came out normal then maybe there was a brain tumor making him fall over. He can't deal with that we would have had to take him to a big hospital. I said we won't be doing that, I won't make him suffer just to keep him a week longer he agreed.

The only issue I do have which I think I mentioned before is that he doesn't share as much as I wish he would. If you ask him a ? he will answer it happily but when I'm nervous my mind goes blank. I have to call back with the ?'s I have. My husband is pretty sure he said all of the problems are from the Lyme Disease, get rid of that the other things will be fine but I can't remember any of it. I wish that he explained things better, I don't like having to pull info out of him especially when my mind can't function. I have to say though I am thankful for the tests he did on Noah so he knew how to treat him because if there were no tests chances are Noah would have been put to sleep that night because the dog was one step from death, I have never seen him like that, it was awful.

I hope your baby will be OK with no more tests needed.

[Mandzanita]

SWMS...I'm so sorry you are having to go through this! Ugghh I know how it is to want the best care for yuor animal yet you don't want to put yourself too far in the hole. It's so hard dealing with some vets, especially when they make you work for info!

it could be that this particular vet is a teaching hospital. That would explain why everyone is so young and it would explain the fact that they want to do loads of tests. Teaching hospitals are famous for that. I know that the teaching hospital around here does the SAME thing and you can't get outta there without about 5 unnecessary tests. I do think tests are necessary but it's important that the vet know what tests are absolutely needed and which ones can be left out until further notice.

I bet she did have a blockage and if she passed a plastic bag out of one end then hopefully that was it. I would do exactly what you are doing in waiting and monitoring closely, especially if she's looking better. I would probably try the other vet and see if you feel better there. You can always get the vet that's been seeing her to fax over all the records and test results.

[Remali]

Tests are usually pretty necessary....like oursarge said.....my dog would be dead right now too if it weren't for tests....and yeah, my bill was over $600. My vet let me make payments since it was an emergency and I couldn't cough up that amount of money. And if someone threw up a plastic bag if it were me I'd take the dog back in to the vet soon and have them make sure nothing more was left inside....hopefully if she threw up the plastic it didn't rip off and leave shreds behind in her intestines....that would be a slow and painful way to die if she had a blockage. So, I guess I'd still be pretty concerned and I'd keep a close eye on her, and maybe the other vet can take a look at her for you and give you another opinion?

[Remali]

Wanted to pop on and see how Sasha was doing this morning? I sure hope she's feeling better and no more troubles.

[shewasmyshadow]

She's acting just fine. I'm monitoring her and holding off on too much food. My mom is an RN, so she's monitoring her as well. She's very good at sensing distress in animals and checking them for problems. She confirmed that the xray was a good way to go as an enema can be very bad if things are blocked. That made me feel better about the xrays. Anyway, I think the bag may have been from the cat. She's been chewing on bags for ever and Sasha doesn't vomit too much.

[Remali]

Oh that's good news....I'm so happy to hear Sasha is doing better now, that's wonderful! That's nice your Mom can help you keep an eye on her too....I bet Sasha is happy to be feeling back to her old self too!

[Gypsy Rose]

I'm so glad Sasha's doing better!