Storygirl Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 (edited) DH just called me downstairs in a panic because our 11 month old goldendoodle is sick. The vet can't see her for two hours and we are trying to figure out of we need to take her to the animal ER, which is 20-30 minutes away from us. DH said she started to dry heave and produced spittle, then vomited (mostly water) and lay down in it. She just sat up for about two minutes just now but otherwise has just been laying limply on the floor. She likes having someone pet her, but her eyes look sad and worried and her ears are down. She will lift her back leg so that someone can pet her belly. It is not distended. DH talked to two vet techs who said we could wait to take her in. One of them talked with a vet before getting back on the phone with him. They asked what color her gums are (Pink) to make sure they were not white. Just while I've been talking, she picked her head off of the floor and looked at DH when he entered the room. When others entered the room 15 minutes ago, she would look with her eyes but not pick up her head. Would you wait for the appointment or take her to the ER? Evidently the vet does not consider this an emergency and won't bump another patient to see her sooner, but it is alarming to us. Edited April 24, 2019 by Storygirl 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terabith Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 Oh man! I don't know enough to know if that's an emergency, but I would be very worried, too! I would probably defer to expertise of vet techs, since it's only a couple hours and vet is likely to be much less expensive than emergency vet. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storygirl Posted April 20, 2019 Author Share Posted April 20, 2019 Oh, I forgot to mention that she urinated on the floor as well. I don't think she ate anything weird this morning. She has been with DH (he got up first) except for just a couple of minutes when he went upstairs for something. But you never know. She will pick up and chew bits of things that she finds on the floor (kleenex, bobby pin, etc.), and I suppose she could have swallowed something little when he wasn't looking. But I think it seems unlikely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippiemamato3 Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 If you feel worried, take her to e-vet. Your instincts in person are better than a vet tech's guess over the phone. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storygirl Posted April 20, 2019 Author Share Posted April 20, 2019 (edited) She is perking up slightly now. She is still lethargic, but is enjoying attention from DH and DD17, who are sitting on the floor with her, petting her and brushing her (she loves being brushed). When DH stops brushing, she lifts her head to ask for more, and she is touching him with her paws instead of being completely limp like before. Edited April 20, 2019 by Storygirl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storygirl Posted April 20, 2019 Author Share Posted April 20, 2019 Now she seems to be having hiccups. I feel less alarmed now, because she is more alert and seems happier, even though she won't get up. I think unless she gets worse again we will wait for her appointment, because she is feeling better instead of worse. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercyA Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 (edited) I think it is probably okay to wait until your appointment. Please keep us updated! Edited April 20, 2019 by MercyA 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthwestMom Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 hugs to you. How terrifying. I hope your dog is okay. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pawz4me Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 I hope she's okay! Let us worried aunties know what the vet says, please! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 32 minutes ago, kand said: It might be appointment time anyway by now, but I would go in now either way and just be in the waiting room until the appointment. That way if something gets worse, you are there, and I can’t imagine they would ignore a veterinary emergency if it were happening in their waiting room. That was what I was going to suggest, and I've done several times. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storygirl Posted April 20, 2019 Author Share Posted April 20, 2019 Back from the vet. Winnie just lay on the floor until it was time to leave for the appointment, then she got up, shook herself, and eagerly jumped in the van. We thought we would need to carry her, but she perked up enough to get through the appointment. The vet speculates it could have been fainting or a seizure. She took blood work and will check for Addison's disease specifically, as well as whatever else might show up. If it happens again today, we are to call/ take her back in and then they would keep her under observation over the weekend, but hopefully that won't happen, and we just wait for blood work to come back on Monday. We gave her some anti-nausea medicine. Winnie has generally been healthy, but she has had two other incidences of vomiting and diarrhea over the past six months (no diarrhea today), so perhaps there is some kind of ongoing issue that hasn't been detected yet. My sister said that her husband had a golden retriever that had issues like this, and they finally decided they were seizures. Which is interesting but also scary, because that dog died when it was only two or three. I'll try not to dwell on that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storygirl Posted April 20, 2019 Author Share Posted April 20, 2019 (edited) Thanks for all of your support! Two interesting side notes -- First, I had a dog as a teen that had Addison's disease, so if it turns out to be that, I think it would be an odd coincidence. It is more common, evidently, in standard poodles, and my childhood dog was a poodle. Winnie is half poodle. Also, Winnie growled at the vet, which is extremely out of character for her. Winnie is experiencing a false pregnancy currently, so the vet thought she might be protecting her family members, as she would protect puppies. So she took her out of the room, away from us, and Winnie then had no problems allowing the vet to examine her. So I guess she feels like my mom now. 😃 The fact that she is already having a hormonal issue with the false pregnancy makes me wonder if there could be Addisons or another autoimmune thing. Her body is stressed (she also has an ear infection, which we have been treating this week), so she had an acute episode? Just speculating. But I'm really hoping it is just a random incident. Edited April 20, 2019 by Storygirl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pawz4me Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 Seizure was what I first thought of. But years ago I had a young, otherwise healthy dog who had kennel cough who fainted once due to coughing hard. So I'm wondering if the same thing could have happened due to her dry heaving? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storygirl Posted April 20, 2019 Author Share Posted April 20, 2019 I thought of that, but she's had the vaccine. DH said that it sounded almost like coughing or gagging when she threw up, but it was the only time she made that sound. And she seemed to be heaving from the abdomen. So the vet thought it wasn't coughing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storygirl Posted April 20, 2019 Author Share Posted April 20, 2019 She is sleeping in her crate now. She ate some cheese with her pills and was willing but not excited about the cheese. She normally would be prancing around, but she just watched me get it ready and ate it in two bites instead of wolfing it down like normal. She is definitely not herself, still, but she just seems tired now, not scary lethargic like this morning. She has slept more this past week than normal. I had chalked that up to the false pregnancy, but perhaps she was feeling sick all week. She hasn't been as enthusiastic about her food this week but has still been eating, so I hadn't been concerned about that. Her weight showed that she was four pounds lighter, though. So perhaps she has been a little sick this past week, and I didn't realize it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pawz4me Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 (edited) 16 minutes ago, Storygirl said: I thought of that, but she's had the vaccine. DH said that it sounded almost like coughing or gagging when she threw up, but it was the only time she made that sound. And she seemed to be heaving from the abdomen. So the vet thought it wasn't coughing. Oh no -- I didn't mean that she might have kennel cough, but that if she dry heaved hard enough that might have triggered a fainting spell. That's what happened to my Brittany--he coughed really hard a few times and fainted. He was a little dazed for a few minutes and then he was fine. I did take him to the vet afterwards to make sure, and he said what happened wasn't uncommon. It seems to me the action on dry heaving is fairly close to a hard cough, so just the violence (can't think of a better/more correct term right now) of it might have triggered it. Edited April 20, 2019 by Pawz4me 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selkie Posted April 20, 2019 Share Posted April 20, 2019 1 hour ago, Storygirl said: She is sleeping in her crate now. She ate some cheese with her pills and was willing but not excited about the cheese. She normally would be prancing around, but she just watched me get it ready and ate it in two bites instead of wolfing it down like normal. She is definitely not herself, still, but she just seems tired now, not scary lethargic like this morning. She has slept more this past week than normal. I had chalked that up to the false pregnancy, but perhaps she was feeling sick all week. She hasn't been as enthusiastic about her food this week but has still been eating, so I hadn't been concerned about that. Her weight showed that she was four pounds lighter, though. So perhaps she has been a little sick this past week, and I didn't realize it. Did she lose four pounds in a week? That's a pretty big drop for a dog. I hope she's on the mend and back to her normal self soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storygirl Posted April 20, 2019 Author Share Posted April 20, 2019 I don't know what the date was in the vet's records for when they weighed her last and didn't think to ask. She was at the vet on Monday (she was supposed to be spayed, but they couldn't do it, because of the false pregnancy), but I don't know if they weighed her that day, or if the weight listed in their records was from her vet visit in January. Today when they weighed her, I was thinking a couple of other things, so I didn't think to ask about it. There was a mastiff there right before her, and I was watching to see how much he weighed, and they were having a hard time getting an accurate weight for him (the owner said he is usually 160 pounds!!!). And Winnie had a ton of hair removed at her last grooming, so I was thinking that she weighed a little less because of that. But four pounds is a lot. She was 43 pounds today and 47 pounds previously. The vet didn't discuss the weight loss, but I will bring it up again with them. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storygirl Posted April 22, 2019 Author Share Posted April 22, 2019 The vet called me at noon today to say that she wanted Winnie to be brought back in to stay overnight. Her liver enzymes are elevated -- three of the four are twice as high as normal. They are giving her IV fluids and antibiotics and running more tests. She says that elevated liver enzymes suggests she may have eaten something toxic, but we can't think of anything. She is always on a leash when she goes outside. If not that, it could indicate a portosystemic liver shunt, so they are testing for that. I've been googling, and what I read is not especially encouraging. I hope it's not the diagnoses that we get. But part of me thinks it may happen, since we doubt she has ingested something. I'm preparing myself to hear bad news but hoping for good when the vet calls sometime tomorrow. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted April 22, 2019 Share Posted April 22, 2019 Oh dear, I'm so sorry for your poor puppy girl! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercyA Posted April 22, 2019 Share Posted April 22, 2019 Praying for Winnie! It's my understanding that there are lots of reasons liver enzymes can be elevated. Hoping your vet finds the cause quickly. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selkie Posted April 22, 2019 Share Posted April 22, 2019 Oh, I'm so sorry! Winnie is in my prayers and I hope you get good news. Please keep us updated. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zimom Posted April 22, 2019 Share Posted April 22, 2019 Not trying to derail at all, but we are dealing with an 8-month-old lab with elevated liver enzymes right now too. Twice as high as normal. They have been tracking him for about 8 weeks now as he has no other symptoms. Please keep me posted. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storygirl Posted April 22, 2019 Author Share Posted April 22, 2019 Sorry to hear that, ZiMom. I hope they are able to figure it out. I'm glad your pup is feeling fine. I did read on one website that liver enzymes can be pretty high before the dog will show symptoms. The vet called just to say she will call me later. She wants to check on Winnie later this afternoon before deciding whether to send her home tonight or not. She said she has eaten some -- not as much as they would like, but enough for them to complete the bile acid test, which requires one fasting blood draw and a second one after eating. High levels on the bile acid test would indicate a liver shunt. We won't get the results until tomorrow, so we have another day and night of fretting before we know. I'm not sure they would say that test is definitive. She told me yesterday that it was a good indicator of a shunt, but I think high levels would likely prompt more testing, special x-rays, etc., from what I've read online. Thanks to everyone for your support. The liver shunt problem can result in a very shortened life, so it is hard not to be worried, even though we don't know for certain yet. There is a surgery, but it's more successful on small dogs. I'd rather prepare for the worst and be relieved than be caught off guard with bad news. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted April 22, 2019 Share Posted April 22, 2019 praying for a good outcome! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storygirl Posted April 22, 2019 Author Share Posted April 22, 2019 I can go get Winnie later this evening. Her liver enzymes have come down, but they are prescribing some meds and supplements to help with that more. The other test results will come tomorrow, but at least she is feeling a little better now. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selkie Posted April 22, 2019 Share Posted April 22, 2019 I’m glad she’s home and that her enzymes are headed in the right direction! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storygirl Posted April 24, 2019 Author Share Posted April 24, 2019 The vet finally called at 7 pm, while I was at a track meet. The test results all look good, in the normal ranges, and she doesn't think there is a liver shunt, which was the scary concern. We are so thankful and relieved! Winnie has to take antibiotics for two weeks, and they want to see her in the office again in 10 days to check her liver enzyme levels. They seem to think this has been a one-time event, and I hope they are right. Thank you! Your support has been really helpful over the past few days, and I appreciate it. 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selkie Posted April 24, 2019 Share Posted April 24, 2019 Hurray for your good news! So relieved for you! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercyA Posted April 24, 2019 Share Posted April 24, 2019 Yay! This makes me so happy! 🎉🐶❤️ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pawz4me Posted April 24, 2019 Share Posted April 24, 2019 I'm glad it's good news!! I started to post this earlier, but didn't want to be overly optimistic. But now I'll say it -- I had a young, seemingly healthy dog once with elevated liver enzymes. The vet said even something like getting hit/bumping hard against furniture in the area of the liver while playing could cause it. His were never elevated after that until he was old (almost 15) and at that point both his liver and his kidneys were going. I don't think developing liver disease in very old age had anything to do with the one time elevated enzymes when he was young, though. I think that was just some weird fluke. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storygirl Posted April 24, 2019 Author Share Posted April 24, 2019 I will share a cheery story to balance out the angst in this thread. The clasp on Winnie's collar has been stuck for a couple of days, so that we are not able to get it off. We've been working on it periodically, but I knew the vet might need to cut it off, so I gave them a new collar that I had purchased, just in case her old one became unusable while she was there. When I picked her up on Monday, she was wearing both collars, so I took the new one off when we got home. Later, when she needed to go out, she ran into the family room to look for the new collar, because she wanted it back on. She was very insistent -- the girl likes to be fully dressed! Last night, the loop holding her dog tags on became loose, and so DH took the tags off and put them in his pocket. She stuck her nose on his pocket and wanted them back out again; she knows they are hers, not his. This morning, she started whining and looking for something in the family room, and I realized she wanted those tags! It took both DH and me to get them back on her collar, because she was bouncing with excitement as I reattached them. Once they were on, she shook her head vigorously to hear them jingle. I guess she feels incomplete without her "jewelry" on. 😃 6 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarlett Posted April 25, 2019 Share Posted April 25, 2019 12 hours ago, Storygirl said: I will share a cheery story to balance out the angst in this thread. The clasp on Winnie's collar has been stuck for a couple of days, so that we are not able to get it off. We've been working on it periodically, but I knew the vet might need to cut it off, so I gave them a new collar that I had purchased, just in case her old one became unusable while she was there. When I picked her up on Monday, she was wearing both collars, so I took the new one off when we got home. Later, when she needed to go out, she ran into the family room to look for the new collar, because she wanted it back on. She was very insistent -- the girl likes to be fully dressed! Last night, the loop holding her dog tags on became loose, and so DH took the tags off and put them in his pocket. She stuck her nose on his pocket and wanted them back out again; she knows they are hers, not his. This morning, she started whining and looking for something in the family room, and I realized she wanted those tags! It took both DH and me to get them back on her collar, because she was bouncing with excitement as I reattached them. Once they were on, she shook her head vigorously to hear them jingle. I guess she feels incomplete without her "jewelry" on. 😃 That is adorable. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selkie Posted April 25, 2019 Share Posted April 25, 2019 12 hours ago, Storygirl said: I will share a cheery story to balance out the angst in this thread. The clasp on Winnie's collar has been stuck for a couple of days, so that we are not able to get it off. We've been working on it periodically, but I knew the vet might need to cut it off, so I gave them a new collar that I had purchased, just in case her old one became unusable while she was there. When I picked her up on Monday, she was wearing both collars, so I took the new one off when we got home. Later, when she needed to go out, she ran into the family room to look for the new collar, because she wanted it back on. She was very insistent -- the girl likes to be fully dressed! Last night, the loop holding her dog tags on became loose, and so DH took the tags off and put them in his pocket. She stuck her nose on his pocket and wanted them back out again; she knows they are hers, not his. This morning, she started whining and looking for something in the family room, and I realized she wanted those tags! It took both DH and me to get them back on her collar, because she was bouncing with excitement as I reattached them. Once they were on, she shook her head vigorously to hear them jingle. I guess she feels incomplete without her "jewelry" on. 😃 Aww, she must be feeling better if she's worrying about accessories! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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