[cowpony]

Galen spent the night at the emergency vet. He had some GI issues and had been off his feed for a few days. At the point where he was acting less playful and bright eyed I decided a vet consultation was in order. Unfortunately, my regular vet was not available due to Covid infections in the staff. They told me to take him to the emergency vet. Initial bloodwork showed a sky high white blood cell count, so the emergency vet kept him overnight for further imaging and IV. Nothing conclusive found, naturally. He came home hungry and thirsty with a very bad haircut. He is oblivious to his haircut. He's just completely thrilled to get chicken and rice slurry for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

I have told him I could buy a new puppy with what this vet bill cost me, and he should stop trying to eat weird things. He is, of course, unconcerned about my threat.

 

[lily cd re]

Huh... so seems like an infection because of high WBC. Did they have any insights in that direction?

 

[Skylar]

Poor you and Galen.

Did they figure out why his WBC was high and give antibiotics to treat it?

 

[cowpony]

Huh... so seems like an infection because of high WBC. Did they have any insights in that direction?

Nope. Nothing found on the imaging. This is why I hate using emergency vets for stuff like this. Snout full of porcupine quills, leg sticking out at an odd angle...the emergency vet is in their zone of expertise. Nebulous "he's not acting quite right" always gets me a huge bill and a directive to follow up with my regular vet.

 

[cowpony]

Poor you and Galen.

Did they figure out why his WBC was high and give antibiotics to treat it?

Nope. They decided not to give antibiotics. I think they felt that unbalancing his gut flora further would not be beneficial. I have probiotics on hand, so I'm trying those.

 

[PeggyTheParti]

Poor Galen! Poor you! Those emergency bills are no joke.

Is he seeming more like himself now?

 

[Basil_the_Spoo]

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhh if Basil were president, then dogs would be included in medicare for all [waves paws around like Bernie]. No news is good news!

 

[cowpony]

Poor Galen! Poor you! Those emergency bills are no joke.

Is he seeming more like himself now?

He's perkier and more playful. Still has diarrhea. He's licking the bowl clean when I give him his chicken rice slurry. I'm breaking his meals into small portions every couple hours and giving him more than the emergency vet recommended for his size. I can feel he's lost weight: his backbone feels knobby, and he's got a hollow between his hips. I want the weight back on him.

 

[Porkchop]

Awww, poor Galen. The weight will certainly come back on with nummy chicken and rice. I have found that it seems to cause looser bright neon yellow poops the whole time it’s fed.
I assume you have another non emergency vet in mind in case you need to follow up. I hope he won’t need anything more than time and chicken.

 

[PeggyTheParti]

Sweet Galen. I’m glad to hear he’s enjoying his extra special sick-boy diet. Tell him I’m sending him some fattening vibes! I’ve got a few layers of Christmas cookie “insulation” that I’m happy to share.

I have found that it seems to cause looser bright neon yellow poops the whole time it’s fed.

I’ve noticed this, too, but only with Peggy. I wonder if some dogs handle rice better than others.

 

[Porkchop]

I have never seen dog poop look like that, kind of shocking, isn’t it? Apparently it’s fairly common since I found many others reporting the same of their dogs!
All we want is for our dogs to have healthy solid, brown poops.

 

[Mfmst]

Poor Galen! I am with you on the pet ER being for scary stuff. But if it’s the only option... Hope he’s feeling better, very soon.

 

[Liz]

The weight will certainly come back on with nummy chicken and rice. I have found that it seems to cause looser bright neon yellow poops the whole time it’s fed.

I’ve noticed this, too, but only with Peggy. I wonder if some dogs handle rice better than others.

The yellow may be from the chicken, as a yellow color can happen even with raw fed chicken (or any fowl). As for the rice, for Mia the rice seems to pass through undigested, leading to weirdly textured poop nuggets that look like ice crystals on a meteorite or the coronavirus illustration.

 

[PeggyTheParti]

The yellow may be from the chicken, as a yellow color can happen even with raw fed chicken (or any fowl). As for the rice, for Mia the rice seems to pass through undigested, leading to weirdly textured poop nuggets that look like ice crystals on a meteorite or the coronavirus illustration.

Peggy regularly eats chicken without yellow poop. But I’m sure it varies from dog to dog.

P.S. Thank you for painting that beautiful picture for us! Lol. Ice crystals on a meteorite sounds beautiful.

P.P.S. Sorry for hijacking your thread with all this poop talk, Galen. We poodle people love analyzing poop. Hope you’re still feeling better!

 

[cowpony]

Awww, poor Galen. The weight will certainly come back on with nummy chicken and rice. I have found that it seems to cause looser bright neon yellow poops the whole time it’s fed.
I assume you have another non emergency vet in mind in case you need to follow up. I hope he won’t need anything more than time and chicken.

Yes, I will follow up with my regular vet. They won't be able to fit me in for some time; they are still trying to deal with the backlog of all their other customers who needed appointments rescheduled.

 

[Porkchop]

I forgot about the fact that it’s tough to get appointments even when a practice hasn’t been closed. I suppose other vets won’t even see new clients because of this.
I hope at least your mind has been eased by the ER visit and that Galen is long past this GI blip by the time his appointment rolls around.

 

[Rose n Poos]

Hope to see that he's doing much better soon, poor guy, and you, too. It's bad enough when you know what's wrong, harder when you don't, I think.