[pyrnet] Re: pyrnet-l-digest.20040731

["Tom McCulloch" <tmcculloch@achp.gov>]

You asked for Sierra's symptoms.  They began at 4:30 am with vomiting the
partially digested dinner from c. 6 hours earlier, and explosive diarrhea.
She was perfectly fine the night before.  The vomiting then continued for
several hours, expelling everything in her stomach.  Then came the dry heaves
after she threw up all her bile.  (On the advice of our vet she was not
allowed water prior to seeing the doctor.)  At the vet she had a 104 degree
fever and a 180 beats per minute heart rate.  She was very lethargic,
dehydrated, and kept trying to stretch out her back legs.  At her normal vet
she began to drip blood from her nose.  We were then referred to the critical
care vet hospital, where she began bleeding from the mouth.  Five minutes
later in the examining room, right in front of the admitting vet, she vomited
what was determined to be about a pint of fresh blood.  At this point she was
taken into the back, cooled down, and administered fluids, antispasmodics,
and antibiotics.  Her blood profile was normal.  By Monday morning her
temperature and heart rate were back to normal, and she had gained 7 pounds
from the IVs.  Her X-rays were normal, showing no blockage or anything.   Her
ultrasounds also showed nothing abnormal, but she continued to have the
vomiting reflex so they opened her up and examined her esophagus, stomach,
and colon.  All were only very severely irritated and raw, but no signs of a
puncture or tear or a disease.  We visited Tuesday night and she was
naturally disoriented from the surgery and drugs, and uncomfortable due to
the tube they down her nose to her stomach to drain off the stomach acid, and
the lampshade she had to wear.  By Wednesday she was more alert, but still
slow and tender.  We took her home the next day, where she has been getting
more active and alert all the time.

Over this past weekend she has been eating a little more each day, and
beginning to interact with our Samoyed again.  She continues on several
medicines, and has a week to go prior to getting her stitches out.

Both our dogs share everything, eat and drink from the same bowls, sniff the
same things, etc., but only our Pyr got hit with this situation.

The pig ears we get in bulk from a large vet supply house.  The dogs like the
smoked flavor ones.  Sometimes the ears can be very greasy, other times very
dry.  The night before Sierra got sick, they each got about half a pig ear
each.  Looking back I can't say whether the one Sierra ate was a "greasy" or
"dry" ear, only that there was nothing strange about it compared to what they
had had in the past--no different smell, texture, size, etc.  Our dogs have
had pig ears from the same company for many years, with no problems.

As our Sierra continues to heal I'll keep you posted on any new
developments.  Thanks for everyone's concern.


owner-pyrnet-l@pyrnet.org wrote:

> pyrnet-l-digest                                   Saturday, July 31, 2004
>
> Re: [pyrnet] scary situation II        swegers@tricountyi.net
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> Date: Sat, 31 Jul 2004 00:13:12 -0400
> From: swegers@tricountyi.net
> Subject: Re: [pyrnet] scary situation II
>
> What I'm asking for is symptoms.
> My sister - in - law is having a problem with her puppy and he had been
> given pigs ears also. I'm wondering if there is a connection.
> Thank you.
> Deb
> ----- Original Message -----
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