Good-ish update on my Katy!

I hope she's doing better today and eating some. I agree with Sharon about Cerenia, it's great stuff and pretty benign in terms of side effects, it can even be taken daily. You can get appetite stimulants from your vet, our Barkley was on one for quite a while years ago. Has she been on metronidazole for the runs? I found with mine it doesn't always work but worth a try if you haven't used it. Hoping to hear she's doing better....I know what a worry not eating can be.
 
Calliesmom said:
will she eat some canned pumpkin? has always fixed our poo issues.................
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Nope, I opened a can and got her to lick a spoonful, then she spat it out into the carpet :-/

I'm convinced that it's an issue of nausea and bile. I forget if I said this earlier (I'm on page 4 now and can't easily go back mid-sentence) but she's not wanting to eat until about 7pm! I've read that this is common when they have too much bile just sitting in their stomach overnight. The vet might suggest something different, but to me it sounds like anti-nausea medication is the best way through.

The vet was closed today (office Christmas party), so hopefully they'll give me the prescription early on Tuesday morning!!
 
You can also use famotadine (generic for pepcid) in dogs for reducing acid in their stomach. I believe it's 10mg twice daily before meals. Elijah has been on that for reflux.
 
Ann said:
Has she been on metronidazole for the runs? I found with mine it doesn't always work but worth a try if you haven't used it.
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Oops, I almost missed this!

Yes, she just completed day 7 of metronidazole. It hasn't seemed to have any impact on her diarrhea, but her coughing has improved and the cyst on her foot went down! LOL

Sharon7 said:
You can also use famotadine (generic for pepcid) in dogs for reducing acid in their stomach.
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Thanks for the tip! If the appetite stimulant doesn't work out then I might give that a shot. I don't think that her issue is acid, though; based on the orange diarrhea, it has to be related to bile production thanks to the Prednisone skyrocketing her liver numbers.

If I'm right on that, though, then it might be MONTHS before she fully recovers!
 
I got the Cerenia. Y'all weren't lying, $50 for 3 pills! But I'm cutting them half, so once daily for 6 days.

Any suggestions on WHEN to give it to her? I read online that it works best on an empty stomach.

It's currently 4pm, and I'll be leaving in about 30 minutes to get groceries. I'll be back at 7-ish, which is when she's started to get hungry for the last few days. So my options are:

1. Give it to her now, but then leave almost immediately after and not be around in case there are negative side effects. Not exactly an option!

2. Give it to her when I get back at 7-ish, but then not give her any food until 8 or 9pm.

3. Give it to her at bed time, which might make it the most effective for when she wakes up but, again, if there are any negative side effects then I would be asleep and not notice. Worse, the closest emergency vet is 1 1/2 hours away, so if there IS an emergency then it could be deadly :-O

4. Wait until first thing in the morning, and just deal with another bad night of not wanting to eat and forcing pills.
 
I've never worried about giving Cerenia separate from feeding. I will give it a few minutes before, say 15 to 30 minutes so I'm sure it's down but never had a problem. Don't be surprised if it doesn't work instantly tonight. It may need to get into her system. Then I'd supplement with the appetite enhancer if she doesn't start eating.

My Checkers lived on Cerenia daily for the last few years of her life. I bought the 60 mg pills from Chewy (with a vet prescription) and quartered them so she got 15 mg per day....still expensive but a bit less. My vet said he had numerous dogs who used it that way.

One other thing I use regularly that you may want to consider is giving her Slippery Elm. It's an herbal that helps both nausea and diarrhea. I get it on Amazon and use it to help soothe their gastro system. It shouldn't interact with anything you're using but check first. It's a liquid dropper and you just squirt a bit into their mouth. No one minds it; it must taste good. Here's the one I use.
 
Good to know! I ended up giving it to her at about 7:30pm. She started to get a little bit of an appetite by around 9:30, but it still took about 2 hours to get 1/2 cup of Royal Canin GI kibble and a boiled chicken tenderloin in her :-/

She hasn't pooped in about 40 hours, though, so I'm sure she's feeling pretty crappy (ha) from that. Which probably means another middle-of-the-night wake up call!

I REALLY hope that she does poop in the middle of the night, though, then wakes up with a real appetite. You just don't know how relieving that would be! We're just over 2 weeks of being exclusively focused on getting food and pills in her and then trying to make her poop, it's just been mentally exhausting. Her blood work says that she's OK but she acts JUST like every other pet we've had when they're on death's door, so we've been super, super stressed.

And thanks for the tip on Slippery Elm! I just now added it to my cart, so if she's not recovered after 6 days of Cerenia then I'll have to give it a shot.
 
Update:

This was Day 2 on the Cerenia, but I don't see any impact from the Cerenia at all yet. She wouldn't eat anything at all until about 9:30pm! She snubbed the Royal Canin GI kibble mixed with boiled chicken (the only thing she'd eat for the last week), she snubbed the sweet potato chips that she was enjoying, and she even snubbed her favorite chicken strip treats!

I got her to eat a very few liver treats (they're very small, like the size of my pinky nail but in a cube), and at about 9:30pm I got her to eat about 2/3 of one serving of Farmer's Dog by putting tiny amounts in a spoon and holding it in front of her. I had to keep the bowl far away, though, and the amount in the spoon had to be TINY!

That's nowhere near enough food, though. She usually eats two servings per day!

We're currently at 66 hours since her last bowel movement, too :sick: The vet doesn't seem concerned, but I sure am!
 
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