help severe diarrhea

[silvia]

Hi all

 

unfortunately we had a accident with Oberon. He was suffering an attack of severe diarrhea since last Wed, and, after two days in which, despite lots of medications and one liquid injection, he was refusing food and water, he get really dehydrated and letargic. The decision was to hospitalize him today, at least for 24h till tomorrow, so he's receving food and water via phlebo. We  visited him tonight, and it seems he's doing well since at least he's weeing and his gums are less dry. The diarrhea stopped, he's not vomiting, so hopefully we can take him home tomorrow...

 

BUT: still he's not drinking (nor even eating) by himself. I can't figure out what caused this: is not parvo (he's vaccinated and, more important, never passed blood in the stools nor vomited) , maybe he was licking something in the park, but nothing we can identify as we have seen him to do..

O. is 7 months old

 

 

So: we are a bit worry whether to take him home or not.. On one side, since synthoms stopped and he's been receiving liquid food for the last  24h, and he seems to be quite worry and alterated (in mood) in the hospital, so maybe, now that he's out of risk,  he's more likely to re-start to drink /eat normally in his own environment.. On the other side, when he was here at home and not drinking I tried almost everything (including siringing water in his mouth) and he kept refusing all this, as well crashed ice or the most variety of food I tried, so he went down in a few hours....(1 or half a day, depending on when you start counting the falling down of energy levels..)

 

Did you have similar experiences? Once the symptom stops (so is not passing water anymore, as now) and he are sure he had some liquids/foods for the last 24h, can we take him home, in your experience, or there is something that we may ask to better check in terms of tests/exams?

 

thanks for your help!!

s

 

 

 

 

 

[silvia]

Just a little update... I called the clinic this morning and there is no improving: the diarrhea stopped but O. is very weak and still not eating/drinking by himself.. he also stopped to pass feces at all... (I though is not surprising since he's been starving since Tue by now! He's very thin and the coat color is pale and opaque now, in just two days he went down so quickly!)

he's receiving liquid food via phlebo, but they want to wait till at least midday before to decide if he can come back home or not.. Again, the big decision is whether to try to take him home (because diarrhea has stopped so he's more likely to start eating/drinking in his own environment) or keep waiting and insisting with the liquid food... Really, I dont know, but it looks to me that while there he's very confused and scared and very unlikely to accept any kind of food or water..

[silvia]

Thanks Sue for the suggestions ! Our vet is open 24h, 7 days per week, so fortunately at least is not a problem to bring him back at any time....

Meanwhile, we are thinking and thinking about what can have caused this..

There are billions of things he could have eaten or licked in a park, BUT I just realized this: on Sunday we went to wimbledon and in one part of the common it was plenty of mushrooms , including amanitas. Most of them were the "muscaria" variety (I know mushrooms quite well), but I cant exclude the phalloides one. Since the watery diarrhea started in Oberon on Tue, the times are as expected.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_phalloides

in this case, the end of the diarrhea is not a good signal: it just means the gastro-intestinal period (usually lasting 3 days) is finished and the poisoning is progressing to a much more serious, liver-related stage.

We went away quickly, so I dont think at all he had a mushroom, but still .. pieces and spores may be anywhere.. It is extremely extremely unlikely, but I just called now to report this, and requested a *liver* test and blood test for peace of mind, so we'll have these results in a few hours.,..

[silvia]

Oh my god.... no, we havent been there, but is very useful for all us to know this, thanks !!

[Louise Perry]

I haven't got any info that could help you Silvia but just wanted to say I hope Oberon gets better soon x

[Cathy Smythe]

Same here Silvia. Thinking of you and hope your gorgeous boy is better soon.

[silvia]

Hi there, thanks a lot for your posts! blood and liver tests were normal, so I have taken Oberon at home now. He seems a bit more playful and certainly much more happy than in the hospital, so I hope the worse is gone and he'll start eating again by himself soon.. Gosh, he's lost at least 2-3kg in just two days, is impressive (and, well, scaring) how quickly puppies go down... Seem to be big boys at this age, but they are still so fragile.. thanks a lot !!!

[Sue and Cash]

I just wanted to wish you well and please update this post during the day and weekend and let us know how it is going.
I will be thinking of you O.

[Dixie Cruise]

Hi. Glad Oberon is home and seems to be happier and hopefully well on the mend. I was wondering if you had a kidney test in addition to the liver test? Probably. I know some of the mushrooms here in the Appalachians can eventually lead to kidney failure once the initial digestive tract symptoms die down ... Anyway, I hope your big little guy :) is well on the mend ... it is such a worry when they take sick, especially when they can't tell you where it hurts and what they ate. Best wishes.

[silvia]

Hi Gigi

no, I havent done a kidney test, just blood and liver. I guess that, in any case, if the liver functions are normal we can exclude poisoining in general (o no?).. but is good to know this!

I think that, in the case of O., the most important thing is that, once re-hydrated (1 day and 1 night on the dip) and taken home, yesterday he turned cheerful and playful. In case of organ failure we dont expect them to improve in mood, they are supposed to go down and down...

I will keep watching him, but thanks a lot for the suggestion (I hope is not needed, but is useful to know this!)

[Sue Paterson]

Oh silvia, how awful for you and Oberon. I do hope he's lots better now he's home with you. Its so difficult to watch them all the time....Steo always seems to be chewing something and when I look in his mouth he's just swallowed!! Very interesting info from others on walking locations...You may never know what it was though. I've got paranoid about slugs and snails and the risk of some worm or other...forget if its lung or heart...either way that can be very bad news too. Even a small thing can cause terrible problems for the young and old. As you say they seem such big strong lads at 7 months, but they are still babies.
Anyway Steo and I hope his brother regains full health very quickly. xx

[silvia]

Dear all

thanks a lot again!! Oberon is incredibly happy to be home and played beautifully with all his neighbourhood friends yesterday (they are 13 dogs playing toghether twice daily in our local park, and they all know each other, O. jumped in the group running and running minutes after being released from the hospital.,,)

He seems mad about playing (even more then usually;), which is certainly a good sign.

As for the food, we need to take it easy.. He resolutely refuses the (expensive;) special food we had from the vet (that is supposed to be full of electrolytes, etc..) . Never mind.. Yesterday, after 3 days of starving, he managed to have: 1 ice cube, 2 entire raw tomatoes, ~120g of rice with chicken and olive oil, 3 slices of ham (useful to take the pills), and half of a big pot of yogurth (this one is the only food for which he asked more, but I stopped since milky stuff is not supposed to help with the diarrhea..)

All these things have been given literally spoon-feeding him, piece by piece, with patience.,.

More important: late in the evening he drinked some water (not even half bowl, but least I saw him drinking by himself!).. Unfortunately, now that he has some solid food in the stomac, stools turned to be semiliquid
again, so synthoms are not completely over.. But definitely there are improvements, so I hope it will be a rising curve now :)

I and see that he's drinking a bit more right now, such a wonderful lapping noise :)
As you guess... he's going to be "a bit " spoiled over the week end;)

thanks a lot!!!
Silvia

[Dixie Cruise]

Lots of spoiling is EXACTLY what the doctor ordered! Glad to hear he's drinking on his own ... very important and good sign. The eating will probably return better once his poor digestive track doesn't feel so uncomfortable. Don't forget to give him a bit of cheese ... I never met a dog who didn't like it!