Update on Dizzy...

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Update on Dizzy...

Posted : 12/30/2006 9:49:11 AM

For those of you who read my other posts asking for help figureing out what was wrong with my dog Dizzy, we still aren't sure. We went to the U like we were suppossed to. The vet there said he thought it would inflammatory bowel disease based on what I was telling him and said the only way to be sure would be to do an endoscopy. Well, I couldn't afford to do an endoscopy at the time so he said the other option was trying the meds she was on at a lower dose and changing her food to a duck and potato one. So we tried that and right before Thanksgiving she went off the meds. Right on schedule about 2 weeks later she started throwing up again. I still had some meds left over from before I went to the U as the U vet gave me a new prescription, so I just cut the 500mg ones from the referring vet in half and put her back on the meds. I called the vet that referred me to the U and since I can't afford to go back there and do the endoscopy, he prescribed me the drugs again at the lower dose since that was working. So, unfortunately, she probably has to be on the meds the rest of her life to keep her from constantly throwing up and consequently throwing up blood from all the vomiting. I think that's where the blood was coming from, the fact that her stomach was irritated from all the throwing up. But, until she learns how to talk and can tell us what she's feeling, we'll probably never know. I don't like havin g to have her on the meds, but I'd rather do that than make her throw up on and off for the rest of her life. Like I said before, if she was 15 it would be different because she'd have lived a long life, but at 4 she's got a ways to go and I'd rather she go without the vomiting.

So, now I have to hope if I move and switch vets, again(my current vet is my third vet and the vet that referred me to the U is the fourth and an additional as my current vet doesn't want to do anything for the vomiting problem) that the vet I find will believe me something is wrong with Dizzy and prescribe me the drug she's on to keep her from vomiting so I don't need the fourth vet anymore.

Okay, just wanted to update anyone who read my other posts and who remembers.

Shiva

jessies_mom

Posted : 12/30/2006 8:12:14 PM

Thanks for the update; I agree that it's better to give her meds than have her throw up the rest of her life. Was the duck and potato a prescription food? There may be other prescription foods that she would tolerate better; especially canned diets; have you asked the vet about trying other foods? I hope someday you're able to determine what causes this but at least the meds help. My son has a cat who has a similar problem; if he eats more than a small amount of cat food at a time he'll throw up, so my son puts small amounts of food in his bowl throughout the day. He never consulted a vet about it since feeding him frequent small meals solved the problem.

Amber Murphy

Posted : 12/31/2006 2:20:08 PM

The vet wanted to put her on a prescription duck and potato diet but I couldn't afford a prescription diet so I searched around and found Natural Balance Potato and Duck food at Petco. So, no I haven't talked to the vet about other prescription diets as I can't afford it, but for what they think she has, they said either the duck and potato food alone would help, or the duck and potato food plus meds. I wish feeding her frequent small meals would work, but her problem doesn't involve the food at all. She'll throw up even if she hasn't eaten anything so changing how I feed her won't help.

Yes, I too hope some day I can find out what's wrong with her. Even her breeder is perplexed. I emailed her an update as I had previously asked her if she'd ever heard of anything like Dizzy's problem and she wanted me to keep her updated. So, I emailed her and told her the food alone didn't work so she was back on the meds and she emailed back saying this problem was so strange and she'd never heard of something like it happening before. And it's not the food as we've switched food several times, the only time we switched it fast was on the food she's now on because the vet wanted her on it for 2 weeks with the meds and then take the meds away and see if the food worked so we had to switch over a little faster than we would have liked. And we also know it's not the food having a problem as our 3 other dogs eat the same food and they don't have this problem, they just throw up like normal dogs, every once in a while, or if they eat something they shouldn't.

Shiva