I rescued a black 5.5 mo. old GSD from the pound on Sat. She has had a normal and great appetite up until Tues. of this week.
Tues. I took her to our vet's office to get her wormed before starting shots, etc. and putting on Frontline, etc. I wanted to take it one step at a time because she is underweight to begin with.
She weighed 45 pds. at the vet and was given flavored tab of Virbantel at 4:00 p.m. for a 50 lb. canine. She ate it just fine, I purchased Frontline for her size but again planned to t ive it to her a few days down the road, I wanted the wormer through her system, I didn't want to overload her with meds. That evening I gave her boiled rice & hamburger w/just a little Nutro kibble mixed in, maybe half a cup.
At 4:00 a.m. she woke me up wretching, she threw up several times. Apparently she then started eating grass because any vomit thereafter contained grass.
She has not eaten ANYTHING since Tues. eve. and it's Thursday. I pureed beef liver to dress my other dogs kibble and she could of cared less just smelling a spoonful. I bought a chicken, boiled it and cut up just the breast meat and she refused it as well. She refuses anything and everything to eat.
Her stools have been runny, but this morning I noticed there was some form to part of it. She IS drinking water, but absolutely refusing food.
This precious little Schatze was very thin to begin with and I'm worried sick about her becoming weak. She is lethargic as well, seems to have no energy.
I thought about loading a syringe with chicken broth and feeding her just a few ml. by ml.
Would taking her to the vet tomorrow & having them put her on IVs for a day (glucose?) maybe turn things around.
My heart just ACHES for her..... can you help us or has any one ever experienced this before.
We feel so alone with a frail little GSD girl........
nutrical is a good calorie supplement, I would give her anything she would lick worthy of nutrition til the vet can see her. Have you given her a name? Pedialite frozen ice cubes will boost her electrolytes. Prayers and positive healing thoughts are on the way...
Home made Chicken broth or Beef broth, I don't like the store bought stuff. Hopefully she will drink that and stay hydrated and flush what every is bothering her out of her system. Since she isn't a baby puppy, I am concerned about not eating but not as much as if it was an 8 week old pup. I have had older pups go a good 4 days without eating, as long as they take in the broth I don't worry to much.
You might want to get some Probioitics to help get some good bacteria built up in her system. Start with as simple as one as you can with just acidophillius, human grade works. There will usually be a human doseage, start a 1/4 - 1/2 of that doseage.
I agree that it might be wise to take her back to the vet unless she's starting to show improvement. I'd be worried that she may have picked up a virus or bacterial infection at the shelter, or even at the vet's office, and the problem's unrelated to being wormed.
Thank you all SOOOO much, I felt so alone with this little waif.
Her name is Schatze (sweetheart in German). I retained the broth (at least a pint) from the boiled chicken but she won't touch it either. I offered her yogurt earlier, no go. I was in contact w/the vet's office yesterday and today and told them I would try the boiled chicken, specifically clean bits of white meat and let them know. She refused. Her rectal temp at 11:00 this eve. was 101, which I believe is within normal limits.
Definitely will be at the vets office if she refuses any nutrition in the a.m. She is so ribby, hip bones sticking out and ganted up in the flanks. Such an abrupt stop to what was a happy and liked- it-all eater before Tuesday.
All sound advice, I forgot about the pedialyte but thought a couple times "Electrolytes! I need electrolytes" Now that I think about it I know I have some in my horse inventory supplies. It's probably over a good year old. But worth trying!
Again, I'm so grateful for your help!
A complete loss of appetite would have me worried, especially when she had a a good one before. That combined with a lack of energy definitely warrants a trip back to the vet.
Any possibility that she ate something she shouldn't have eaten?
Almost same thing happened with a rescue pup I had years ago.The vet told me that loss of appetite for short time after worming is common-when the worms die they are digested as food and are pure protein that is why dog may not be hungry.Yuck.I actualy also had lack of appetite with Nutro just recently and switched to better grade food.
Friday morning and I called the vet immediately. I am watching this little girl fade before my eyes.... at 3:00 a.m. she started wretching and threw up.... there IS nothing to vomit. But she did. She came to my bedside twice out of her crate.
I threw the covers off and made a bed on the floor and spooned with her and stroked her softly from one end to the other, I think the warmth felt good to her deprived body.....
she fell asleep and snored.....
c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, I wish the vet would CALL...... when you wait for a call like this a minute is an hour.
(P.S. What I've heard on the worm load dying off is the toxins they emit can be fatal to the animal depending upon the load..... I'm sure no expert, the protein hypothesis is much more appetizing, if you will.... LOL)
I hope this little girl is okay. I hate to be alarmist here but to me it sounds like it could be parvo. She's not too old for it and loss of appetite followed by vomiting is often the first sign. Too many people think if they're not having bloody stools with the characteristic "parvo" smell, it's not parvo, but truth is parvo can take many forms. If the dog is under a year and stops eating/becomes lethargic, I think it warrants a parvo test.
Thank you all and you have my gratitude for your concern. It's been a beacon on life's tempetuous sea, that's from the heart. I felt alone and helpless for Schatze and you came to offer your knowledge & experience.
She went in on Friday (yesterday) to our vet for a thorough exam, parvo test and blood profile. Parvo was negative, blood looked good! Then WHY is this little nugget dying before my eyes?!!!!!! [/
i]The vet practice I use has a man and wife team and I have been pleased with their care. Dr. (Mrs.) Darcee experienced an explosive, watery stool with a tinge of blood upon the rectal exam. They gave Schatze two rounds of fluids SubQ for dehydration, Metronidazole, an antibiotic, Fastrack Canine gel, a probiotic to jumpstart her tummy and get things smoothed out (my take on it) and 20 mg. IM of Cerenia to stop the vomiting. She did not arrive at a diagnosis.
She came home listless and emotionally and mentally 'flat' if you understand what I mean. Within 2 hours my hubby Herb remarked "we're going to lose her"! She wanted to drink water, drink, drink, drink and we were to keep that to a minimum which is hard for me to do, water ... goooooood. But we did. The evening brought the same of everything, she isolated herself in my garden level bathroom on the tile floor, quiet and cool and I let her be. Again anything we offered in the way of food she refused. I soft boiled eggs as someone suggested with just a few shakes of sea salt and no luck, next I tried the chicken broth from the the chicken I boiled for her. Nada. So, I took a 12 cc syringe filled it w/broth and gave orally. At 4:30 a.m. she woke me and I took her outside, she just started walking off to the pasture, wouldn't listen or even turn to acknowledge me or the other dogs, just slowly kept heading out...... I went out and she was laying in the taller grass. I carried her back to the house, she just doesn't have the energy. I put her on the counter to make her take some broth from the syringe again and saw rope drool hanging from her mouth and she coughed some. To me I've always felt rope drool like that indicates moderate discomfort or pain. What is your opinion? I gave her a syringe and a half of broth about 20 minutes later and an antibiotic and dose of the Fastrack gel.
I called the clinic right away this morning and talked to Dr. (Mr.) Greg and told him. "Doc, NOTHING has improved, she is listless and flat, rope drool, weak and unsteady. There is NO progress and it's breaking my heart to watch her! I'm at my wit's end .... please help us". He called his wife to consult, called us back and we took her in. She will be there until Monday on IV therapy (glucose is one of them, an antibiotic as well) and they will be checking her progress regularly the next couple days. I was up until 2:30 searching the internet for different ailments. I came across an article on anoretic dogs -- found it interesting and related to what she has been presenting. Like symptoms with Pyometra, though she doesn't fit the standard in age.... and Leptospirosis. Similar symptoms.
We will do everything we can to sustain her and save her life. She absolutely deserves nothing less.
I feel better that she is on IVs and had thought they should be started Saturday, I believe I mentioned it to Dr. Darcee. I trusted her judgment on the route she took, what do you do when the blood profile looks good.... plus she hadn't observed her like I had.
BUT it's here and now and she's in the clinical setting and I feel much better. I will let you know what kind of little girl we get back Monday.
Again, thanks for piloting me over rough waters. I needed that and I'm grateful!
I think that dogs/pups that have a lower food drive (seems that there are more now) and they get ill it is almost impossible to get them to eat. Their systems are out of wack just enough to kill what little appetite they have and it is a slippery slope from there.
I like that they were giving her Probioitics I hope they will continue to do that while giving the ABX (just not at the same time).
Some times the best place for our pups is at a Clinic. Sending good thoughts to your little gal, you and your DH.
I agree and the less they eat the less they want to eat. I'm glad to hear the parvo test was negative. If she doesn't improve, they may still want to revisit that. We've had dogs test negative and first and positive later. But I'll agree that with a negative test and good bloodwork, that's less likely the be the problem.
If she isn't eating when she gets home and assuming there's no contraindications (like a digestive problem) I would start force feeding her. Sometimes that is what it takes to get them eating again. You can get a large (like 30cc) syringe and mix up a gruel and gradually feed it to her in the side of her mouth like you were doing with the broth. If you go with a commercial preparation I like the Science Diet A/D. It's high calorie and highly palatable. It's also high fat, so if she's got IBD or something then you wouldn't want that, but for things that don't require low fat diets, it works great. Usually once they've started taking in a little food then they're more willing to eat and you get the snowball rolling the other direction.
Link to article:
https://cvm.ncsu.edu/bartonella-bacteria-found-in-hemangiosarcoma-tumors-from-dogs/?fbclid=IwAR3W1_PYVJNVnKnvMZ398PaQ055VvF1yiJuFE-1hhKbb99rJ09HjsdGIKew
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