<p>sick dog=sad dog=sad people</p>
<p>We also had our first experience with a sick dog several weeks ago. We boarded our 11-yr-old spaniel/pekingese mutt for 3 weeks (at his favorite kennel, and yes, that is a long time) while we visited our D who is studying abroad in Sydney. He was fine upon our return but 36 hours later, on a weekend of course, he got very sick.</p>
<p>He wouldn’t eat, drink, move much, moaned in pain, and was shaking. After several calls to the vet she determined that he had colitis (which was possibly brought on by the stress of boarding for so long) and we started him on boiled chicken, rice and canned pumpkin. He didn’t eat much and still would only lick water off my fingers.</p>
<p>His symptoms worsened and on Sunday evening we finally called the emergency vet school clinic and they concurred with our vet that he would be okay until Monday morning. That morning we brought him in, he had x-rays which showed a very inflamed colon with lots of stuff inside. He was started on medication and he slowly came back to his usual self, but it took awhile.</p>
<p>I moved a mattress into the living room, since he couldn’t climb the stairs, and slept next to him for 4 nights, until he finally made it up the stairs. I was with him every minute. It broke my heart to see him suffer.</p>
<p>Now I’m very nervous about boarding him again–we have a great kennel but the thought of him getting so stressed as to get sick is disheartening.</p>
<p>So sorry about your dog, somemom. I hope he is feeling a little better today.</p>
<p>Martharap: our previous German shepherd also got colitis while at boarding. They took her to the emergency vet due to blood in stool. She just couldn’t handle that kennel (too noisy for her and too many dogs). We took her back to the breeder for boarding after that.</p>
<p>My current German shepherd also often gets sick after boarding, probably at least two-thirds of the time, even though we have a great kennel now. I guess some dogs just don’t deal with boarding well.</p>
<p>Our (old) dog also gets colitis after boarding - or he used to. Now he gets a Benebac dose starting a few days before boarding (it’s a probiotic) as well as an antacid tablet as a little tummy cocktail before he goes in.</p>
<p>So far it seems to work, although, in fairness, he’s a lot more used to the kennel as well.</p>
<p>I’d encourage you to ask your vet, since you know your dogs are prone to it, if there’s any kind of pretreatment you can do. The colitis is terrible.</p>
<p>Thanks for advice to ask vet about pre-treating our dog before boarding. He has boarded with this kennel his entire life and until this last time never had a problem. This was the longest stretch of boarding, though, and maybe that threw him over the edge.</p>
<p>Here’s another dog lover chiming in with best wishes for your buddy’s recovery! </p>
<p>My own 9 year old dog is currently suffering from a pretty nasty yeast infection in her ear. Bless her heart, she shakes her head almost automatically as a way to get our attention, I think. And now we need to keep her from doing that because of her ear, and you can just see her working so hard not to. </p>
<p>I hope you are doing well!</p>
<p>Have 2 yellow labs.Girl is almost 11 and boy is almost 10.We decided this will be it for us.Do not board anymore due to health issues so I either find someone to come to the house (pay 100.00 a day) or I usually stay home and H and D go to visit family.I feel very bad for sick pets and owners because I know what they are going through .I do seek second opinions when I feel regular vet is not on top of things and will only see ortho specialist for any joint problem He has been treating boy since he was 2 and has saved girl from amputation that Cornell vets sMuggested.I know when my girl goes it is going to kill me (ultra loyal to me)I hope today you are having some improvement.My heart goes out to you.</p>
<p>I hope that the medicine does the trick, somemom. We are close to losing “Poodle”. Could be any day now. Congestive heart failure. She’s on meds now, but gee. The symptomology came on quickly. </p>
<p>She’s bloated and listless and incontinent. She’s a good dog, and the only one of her breed. A “ranch poodle” - tougher than nails (or so she thinks, flanked by her Anatolian and Pyrenees guards ;)). First to bark, first to fly out the door to face down any “threat” (which is usually those damnable horses). </p>
<p>We won’t let her suffer needlessly. When the time comes, we’ll know.</p>
<p>curmudgeon, I’m sorry. </p>
<p>Our dog is 14 years old and our two cats are 18 years old. Sad times ahead.</p>
<p>Somemom, ask your vet about tick-borne disease, as a hallmark sign of many tick-borne disease is a low platelet count and autoimmune problems. There is a great website out there called Jasper’s Canine Tick-Borne Disease FAQ. I don’t post here much, are we allowed to include URLs in the message? Anyway, just search for that site, it has great information. Too many times vets search for a cause but don’t think of looking at tick-borne diseases. Just a suggestion, hope your dog is improving. I’ve had many dogs in my lifetime, and it never gets easier when one is sick.</p>
<p>Very true, kpmom06. Based on bloodwork, the vet thought our dog had multiple myeloma, and when I asked if anything else could cause those test results, she mentioned ehrlichiosis, but since we are currently in a place with few ticks, she thought it was unlikely. Well, we moved to Alaska from Texas, so I asked her to run the test ($$$), and it came back positive. I honestly can’t remember what the treatment was, but he’s beside me snoring 4 years later.</p>
<p>when our older cat was in the end stage of kidney disease the Vet prescribed something that they give to HIV patients. ( perhaps something that increases red blood cells? )</p>
<p>It came in a vial, but sorry I can’t remember what it was. It made her feel better though.</p>
<p>My oldest had thrombocytopenia when she was born & she had multiple transfusions of platelets, scary times.</p>
<p>If your dog has a tick-borne disease–Lyme, erlichiosis, etc.–a long course of doxycycline (sp?) will clear it up. My corgi tested positive at her annual checkup a few weeks ago even though we keep all our dogs on Frontline. She is not symptomatic, but is taking the antibiotics anyhow as a precaution.</p>
<p>My husband contracted erlichiosis a few summers ago and became very, very ill. It’s not something to fool around with.</p>
<p>Yep, the tumor was cancer.
It’s ironic because he is bouncing back from surgery so well. He may be fine for a few months but it will spread to either his lungs or liver. Like curmudgeon, we won’t let him suffer then.
I’m pretty sad.</p>
<p>My 10 year old lab died of cancer of the spleen in October. He was diagnosed in September. No surgery though, by the time they found it, it had already metastasized to the liver and kidneys (and who knows where else). He really had shown no signs that he was sick until one day he wouldn’t eat his breakfast. Even after they found it there were days he felt so good I thought for sure they were wrong. It was heartbreaking. He was my best buddy. He had 3 really good weeks (we treated him like a king) before he died, but one day he again wouldn’t eat and you could just tell he was in pain so we took him in. We were all very, very sad. But, life goes on and over Thanksgiving we got a new puppy and we are all madly in love again.</p>
<p>Thanks, tx5.</p>
<p>I have a not very good feeling about the outcome of this since we have not heard back from somemom… not that she owes us any follow-up. But if the pooch was better, I’d think she’d be happy to share that with us.</p>
<p>It is so hard when your pet isn’t feeling well, and it isn’t just a minor thing. We lost our golden last summer…her health had been declining for over 6 months…husband was reluctant to put her down ,even though she was clearly suffering. It upset me so much to see her stop eating and have to be carried outside to do her business. She passed away quietly on our braided rug , while we were working , and our 13 yr old daughter was home alone…she called to tell us that she didn’t think she was breathing…I really struggled with it because I thought we let her down , but some of my close friends assured me that she passed peacefully and I came to accept it</p>
<p>Somemom, I’m thinking about you.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the kind words, we ended up driving to the emergency vet and putting him to sleep at 3:45AM 
the 25th. I had not posted anything as we had not yet reached our DD in the UK and she needed to know before she heard it accidentally indirectly.</p>
<p>Here is a stanza of a kipling poem we included in an email to friends, pretty much sums it up:</p>
<p>Well, the Lord has a dog now, I just sent him mine
The old pal so dear to me
And I smile through my tears on this first day alone
Knowing they are in eternity
Day after day, the whole day through
Wherever my road inclined
Four feet said, “I am coming with you!”
And trotted along behind.</p>
<p>Rudyard Kipling</p>
<p>PS: the tick borne illness comments were good for any one’s future reference, our vet was treating him with anti-biotics as well as the other things, just in case.</p>