Mystery Illness

Ann said:
It's been quite a day. Barkley went to the vet for a shot to help him stop vomiting. It seems to have worked. He is desperate for water and just wants to bury himself in the water bowl. He doesn't want to eat though, but that may not be a bad thing, his throat may be sore and his stomach certainly needs a rest.
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He probably really needs the fluids to rehydrate himself. I wouldn't limit his water overall, but you can try to sort of ration it out so that he gets enough without vomiting it all back up - maybe try half a cup every 15 minutes (I am truly guessing at the amount and timeframe, but you get the idea of trying to slow him down just enough so that he can keep the water down while still getting as much as he needs- which is probably a LOT after being sick like that).
 
Oh dear. Diarrhea running it's course in a sheltie is no fun. In 5 dogs it must be a nightmare.
 
How are your pups feeling today?

I hope and pray they can all recover soon and you can relax with them!:hugs

Hoping for better news today!:fl
 
Oh MAN!! I can't imagine that many long-haired pups with the runs... I am so sorry Ann, obviously a bug has gotten into your dogs' systems. I hope everyone is slowly getting better. Giardia is no fun for sure. So many dogs we get in the shelter have it... it just seems rampant some times.

I know you'll be glad when this is over.... get some rest when you can. :hugs
 
It's been quite a siege here, but I think we're slowly turning the corner. Lacey, the latest victim, is the worst but she was only once up last night at 4 to go out, so that's progress. Like Barkley, she's also throwing up today. Ruffles and Pixie are still pretty bad, but improving I think although tired of having their butts washed 50 times a day.

I'm happy to report that Barkley, who had me very concerned last night, finally ate some canned soft food this morning. He chewed up but didn't eat a small cookie this morning, confirming my suspicion that his throat is sore from yesterday. So he's improving too, hooray!

Baby Sprite, Patient Zero, is totally normal now having infected almost everyone else! She keeps wagging at the other dogs, obviously saying "PLEASE play with me!" to no avail. They're all limp noodles. Me too!

Checkers, still the Perfect Dog, remains the only one unaffected. So far!

I am hoping the end is in sight...in more ways than one!!! Thanks for all your good wishes!
 
This is good to hear and gives some hope that all may be back to normal by the end of the weekend. I can only imagine the dogs' expression between feeling sick and having their butts cleaned constantly.

I will say this for Shelties, they know when you are trying to help them. They may not like it but they do understand.
 
Oh man. This sounds awful! Ann, this sounds very familiar to something we went through about 4 or 5 years ago. The day after a sheltie get-together in Connecticut, Bailey refused to eat for the first and only time in her life. She had a little loose stool in the morning, so I gave her some pumpkin. Not even an hour later she had awful diarrhea and pooped/vomited the pumpkin. She then became very lethargic and had a little fever. I took her to an emergency vet and they diagnosed her with just gas. Bailey was prescribed an antibiotic and pepcid. She started perking up not long after and even ate her dinner. Later that night, Bailey passed blood in her stool. I was up all night cleaning up bloody diarrhea. At some point, she was only passing blood. Got her to my vet the next morning. She was prescribed metronidazole and prescription food. She was much, much better after getting the metronidazole.

A few days later, my mother's maltese starting coming down with the same symptoms. She never got as bad as Bailey because we immediately started her on metronidazole. We were very worried about my mother's chihuahua getting it because she was getting chemo at the time, so we gave her a little metronidazole before she had any symptoms.

Sure sounds very similar to your dogs. I know we ran every test with Bailey, fecal test, parvo test, etc. and everything was negative. So we think it was just a bad stomach virus. If I recall correctly, even a few weeks later, Bailey would occasionally have little blood in her stool. It took a while for her system to settle down.

Hope your crew is back to normal soon!
 
take4roll10 said:
She was prescribed metronidazole and prescription food. She was much, much better after getting the metronidazole.
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The frightening thing about this illness is that metronidazole has not worked. I keep it in the house and have used it for years for dogs with diarrhea. It typically firms things up after one or two doses. This time, I've given it for a week and seen no improvement in stools at all, in any of the dogs. They're still pooping liquid days after I start treating them. Even my vet is shocked. They call it "magic metronidazole" because of how quickly it works but not this time. Mine have also all had blood with the stools. That seems to diminish as the number of movements decreases, leading us to believe that part of the virus irritates the GI tract.

Interestingly enough, none of them have fevers; their appetites are just fine and even their energy levels are normal until a few days in. We've now done fecals on three of my dogs and all of them have come back negative for giardia so it's still a total mystery... :confused2:
 
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