# Guidance/Advice ... Sick little girl



## Marbel (May 20, 2014)

Scenario:

3:00a.m Saturday - Sept. 9/20 - Chloe wakes up and vomits up her food. We get cleaned up and settle back in - minutes later she at it again - white bile. We get up go downstairs and I take her out to potty - she pees and poops minutes later. Sitting downstairs with her trying to comfort her and offer water - she doesn't drink. Vomiting starts again white bile and then again now it has a pinkish tint. This continues throughout morning until about 7:10. I take to the vet as soon as they open. She had displayed no signs of being sick prior to this episode - eating, drinking, potty was all good. No, not to my knowledge or eye site had she gotten into anything.

Doctor visit - I explained what was happening - had a pic of vomit with pinkish tint - might be blood. So treatment plan - run tests - blood work most important - I opted not to x-Ray right way - but all other treatment including checking for parvovirus was done $262.00. Everything with blood work came back negative - liver count was a little elevated but that could have been caused by vomiting episode - wasn't concerned. Also given hydration pack - She was a little dehydrated.

So of course that morning while up at 3:00 am - I fixed some chicken and rice. She hadn't eaten for past 12 hours.

I was given script for the vomiting - Famotidine .25 twice a day - should stop the vomiting. It did. Continued bland diet rest of Saturday into Sunday with reintroducing her kibble. Blue Buffalo Life Protection Chicken and Oatmeal small breed - continued this from Breeder. Eating and doing fine.

All going well on Monday - back to her old self.

Tuesday hubby calls me at work early morning - she has bad case of liquid diarrhea. I go home home call vet and describe what's happening and was told I probably switched back to quickly (my fault) but wasn't told how long to keep on bland. So the doc gives me script for the diarrhea - metronidazole .25 2x a day. Said ok to give both meds at same time with food. Also given script for Hills i/d dog food - was told continue bland diet for 5 days - when stools look like they are returning to normal start integrating her kibble.

Follow visit today for initial vomiting. Diarrhea getting better stools are trying to firm up. She checked out fine and was doing well but low and behold she has a yeast infection in left ear. $$$$$ - so given $50 drops for that. Still she seems fine in the car ride home. It's been raining all day here and when it rains she reluctant to go out. So once we got back she finally pooped - still soft but not liquid like it was. Gets in the house and vomits her food up?:frusty:

I'm thinking it could have been car ride?

That's my story - help/suggestions? She goes back on 10/15 for preventive and follow up on ear infection.

Sorry for such a long post.


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## Molly120213 (Jan 22, 2014)

Sorry Chloe is not feeling well. Molly recently had a bout of soft and liquid stools. Her blood work and stool exam were normal. Vet prescribed 5 days of metronidazole and a prescription bland diet. Picky Molly would not eat the diet so we tried chicken and rice instead. Her stools would not firm up until the vet prescribed a second, longer round of metronidazole and we limited her protein source to one not likely to cause a food reaction. She is back to normal now. My vet said she has had several dogs with these GI issues and the extra dose of metronidazole seemed to help them also. I hope Chloe is better soon.


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## Marbel (May 20, 2014)

Thanks - that gives me hope. She seems fine - but it's the little occurrences that are worrisome. Forgot mention too - she had a bad day with gas as well on Monday/Tuesday. That seems to have cleared up. She is not too happy with Hill diet either. She's been loosing teeth since last week also.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

you did all you can for now, time will help .


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## lfung5 (Jun 30, 2007)

Hope she gets better soon. Please read this below. A lot of people's dogs had same symptoms after feeding blue buffalo. Maybe you got a bad batch.

Blue buffalo food complaints

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/blue_buffalo.html


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## SJ1998 (Feb 4, 2013)

My advice would be to feed the best food you can afford and be very careful with vaccinations. I try to give my dogs as few chemicals as possible. 

It is possible you got a bad batch of food. With a small dog it is easier to feed better food - they dont eat much! Something like ziwi peak or honest kitchen are good options if you dont want to go the full raw route. I use commercial raw and honest kitchen, sometimes Ziwi too. Sometimes honest kitchen and chicken. Knock on wood, my hav has never been sick. He's a year and a half old. He has never had an ear infection, never thrown up other than a couple of times when he pigged his food. I have been lucky but I also think the diet helps.


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## Marbel (May 20, 2014)

Thanks for the great advice - the bag of food she is on is nearly a month old - she had no previous problems with it. I guess my question now is, if I try a new kibble do I start it once I start weaning her off the bland diet? The 5 days will be on Sunday.

Please recommend a high grade kibble I can switch to.


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## Molly120213 (Jan 22, 2014)

Molly's favorite brands of kibble are Taste of the Wild and Natures Variety Instinct. We also tried Orijen and Merrick but she didn't like them. Try to buy the food from a store that will take it back if Chloe doesn't like it. That helped me out a lot when I was looking for something Molly would eat, however she is extremely picky.


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## Marbel (May 20, 2014)

Molly120213 said:


> Molly's favorite brands of kibble are Taste of the Wild and Natures Variety Instinct. We also tried Orijen and Merrick but she didn't like them. Try to buy the food from a store that will take it back if Chloe doesn't like it. That helped me out a lot when I was looking for something Molly would eat, however she is extremely picky.


I actually have some TOTW pacific stream already - I had tried switching when she was smaller to this but the kibble was too big at the time - she would gobble it down whole and then get sick. Maybe I will try again.

Shall I start gradually as I transition from the bland diet?


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

The best advice I can give you is to be very VERY conservative about when to switch her back to her regular food. Keep her on the bland diet at least several days past when you think she's fine, then start adding her regular food (or the new one if you decide the BB might be the problem) very, VERY slowly.


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## Marbel (May 20, 2014)

krandall said:


> The best advice I can give you is to be very VERY conservative about when to switch her back to her regular food. Keep her on the bland diet at least several days past when you think she's fine, then start adding her regular food (or the new one if you decide the BB might be the problem) very, VERY slowly.


Thanks Karen - I will do that. The vet said once I start to see her stool returning to normal I can start the slow transition.

What do you think of Nature's Variety Instinct Grain Free - I see they have a regular one and some that says limited ingredient.


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## Suzi (Oct 27, 2010)

I switched to a great dog food. I thought I couldn't afford to step up but Ive found it really isn't much more at all. Its called Honest Kitchen Keen. I think its freeze dried. Mine are four years old now and have had many different kibbles. I free feed them and neither got fat. The box says 1/2 cup a day for my dogs weight. The box is about $35.00 and lasts me about two weeks. Zoey started having some problems with her anal glands and Maddie doesn't drink enough water. I've been feeding the new food for 2 mo now and Zoey is much better and Maddie love's it to. Each serving has over a cup of water. I mix it up every night and let it absorb the water. Yum Yum very good and better than any kibble on the market. Another thing Ive noticed is that Zoeys white face doesn't have any more staining.


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## Marbel (May 20, 2014)

Suzi said:


> I switched to a great dog food. I thought I couldn't afford to step up but Ive found it really isn't much more at all. Its called Honest Kitchen Keen. I think its freeze dried. Mine are four years old now and have had many different kibbles. I free feed them and neither got fat. The box says 1/2 cup a day for my dogs weight. The box is about $35.00 and lasts me about two weeks. Zoey started having some problems with her anal glands and Maddie doesn't drink enough water. I've been feeding the new food for 2 mo now and Zoey is much better and Maddie love's it to. Each serving has over a cup of water. I mix it up every night and let it absorb the water. Yum Yum very good and better than any kibble on the market. Another thing Ive noticed is that Zoeys white face doesn't have any more staining.


So that's it - you don't add anything other than water? But how would I transition to that with the bland diet? So the two weeks is for the two dogs? I would get a month perhaps? Which flavor?


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Marbel said:


> Thanks Karen - I will do that. The vet said once I start to see her stool returning to normal I can start the slow transition.
> 
> What do you think of Nature's Variety Instinct Grain Free - I see they have a regular one and some that says limited ingredient.


That's what I'm feeding at the moment... The limited ingredient duck, since we are currently trying to narrow down an allergy issue. He gets kibble for breakfast and canned at night.


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## Marbel (May 20, 2014)

krandall said:


> That's what I'm feeding at the moment... The limited ingredient duck, since we are currently trying to narrow down an allergy issue. He gets kibble for breakfast and canned at night.


Thanks - I can get this locally and try it - introducing very slowly.


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## azcolaw (Jul 19, 2013)

We just had an issue with Blue Buffalo. Ginny, all of a sudden, started to have loose stools at night and would soil her crate. The vet said she checked out just fine. 
I switched her to Fromm and have had zero problems since then.


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## lfung5 (Jun 30, 2007)

Yes. Continue with the chicken and rice for a full 5-7 days. Then start adding a little kibble to that. Each day add a little more kibble until you are feeding all kibble. Some food don't agree with certain dogs. I had a foster and all the premium foods I tried gave him the runs. He did well on cheap natural balance grain free limited ingredients. Brady's moms dogs have trouble with certain food so she feeds natures variety limited ingredients. 

The only dry food I can confirm don't source from china are, Orijens, natures logic, earth born, Fromm and Acana.

I choose the raw for my guys. They eat Ziwipeak and stellas and chewys. It's expensive though...


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## Marbel (May 20, 2014)

azcolaw said:


> We just had an issue with Blue Buffalo. Ginny, all of a sudden, started to have loose stools at night and would soil her crate. The vet said she checked out just fine.
> I switched her to Fromm and have had zero problems since then.


Wow, really. I'm glad she is doing better. I can't wait to get over this set back with Chloe, it's very unnerving.

I read up on Fromm that's a good chose as well. Which flavor of the Fromm do you buy?

I'm definitely going to switch, best to do it now (well slowly, of course)


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## Marbel (May 20, 2014)

lfung5 said:


> Yes. Continue with the chicken and rice for a full 5-7 days. Then start adding a little kibble to that. Each day add a little more kibble until you are feeding all kibble. Some food don't agree with certain dogs. I had a foster and all the premium foods I tried gave him the runs. He did well on cheap natural balance grain free limited ingredients. Brady's moms dogs have trouble with certain food so she feeds natures variety limited ingredients.
> 
> The only dry food I can confirm don't source from china are, Orijens, natures logic, earth born, Fromm and Acana.
> 
> I choose the raw for my guys. They eat Ziwipeak and stellas and chewys. It's expensive though...


Thank you, I will definitely do this. Nature's Variety - I thought that was sourced in the U.S. -

Who We Are
ABOUT NATURE'S VARIETY

Nature's Variety is an independent pet food company based in St. Louis, Missouri with manufacturing operations in Lincoln, Nebraska.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Marbel said:


> Thanks - I can get this locally and try it - introducing very slowly.


Unless you suspect an allergy, though, there is no need to go with one of the limited ingredient recipes.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

lfung5 said:


> Yes. Continue with the chicken and rice for a full 5-7 days. Then start adding a little kibble to that. Each day add a little more kibble until you are feeding all kibble. Some food don't agree with certain dogs. I had a foster and all the premium foods I tried gave him the runs. He did well on cheap natural balance grain free limited ingredients. Brady's moms dogs have trouble with certain food so she feeds natures variety limited ingredients.
> 
> The only dry food I can confirm don't source from china are, Orijens, natures logic, earth born, Fromm and Acana.
> 
> I choose the raw for my guys. They eat Ziwipeak and stellas and chewys. It's expensive though...


Nature's variety doesn't source from China. It is a small US company, and they have their own factory. I like that they have a whole line including frozen raw, freeze dried raw, canned and kibble. It gives you a lot of options while sticking with the same ingredients.


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## Marbel (May 20, 2014)

krandall said:


> Unless you suspect an allergy, though, there is no need to go with one of the limited ingredient recipes.


Thanks, Karen - I don't suspect one. So I'll try just regular for now.

Everyone has been very helpful and I really appreciate it.

I'm comparing prices of how much I paid for my scripts (smh) - although I need them right away - but Foster and Smith is way cheaper.

Thank you.


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## brookeandcolby (Dec 31, 2009)

When my havanese was about 6 months old he went through a phase of throwing up bile every night around 2 am. The vet concluded that it was probably because he was eating dinner too early and throwing up cause his stomach was empty. I don't remember him having other symptoms but just thought I'd share incase you want to try feeding dinner a little later.


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