Apologies in advance for the long post, will try to keep it as brief as possible.
5 weeks ago my previously healthy 5 year old mini schnauzer suddenly became very ill overnight - vomiting and bloody diarrhoea in the house. The vet diagnosed Acute hemorrhagic diarrhea syndrome and kept him in for four nights on fluids and intravenous feeding. After we took him home he didn’t seem to be getting much better and was refusing food so he went back to the vets where they took a stool sample, prescribed antibiotics and digestive care paste and sent us off again.
For the next week he seemed to get worse, crying to go out every hour, all day and night, where he’d mostly do a little diarrhoea or just squat and strain with nothing coming out and his head thrown back in a kind of ‘silent howl’.
The stool sample came back showing positive for campylobacter and after another period of vomiting and refusing food we went back to the vet and he was kept in for another four nights.
He’s now back with us with another, longer prescription for antibiotics (metrobactin 250mg) and the digestive paste. He’s making it through the night now (in a crate in the bedroom) but a few times during the day he has had diarrhoea in the house (he never does this) and has vomited most days over the past five days.
He’s obviously lost quite a bit of weight, and seems very depressed. His walks are hard as he stops every 10 paces to squat and strain (with just a tiny drop coming out most of the time) is a bit wobbly and sometimes will just stop and stare, refusing to walk. The diarrhoea has been constant for 5 weeks.
Things that would normally excite him like seeing a squirrel or fox or meeting another dog get no reaction now, and trying to engage him with a toy or ball at home get nothing either. He also needs to go in the bath 4 times a day to clean the poo from the fur at his back end.
On the vets advice we changed his food from wellbeloved to hills Id digestive care (the pebbles) and nothing else.
The vets seem to have given up a little - they keep saying he should be better by now and don’t seem concerned that he’ll only walk ten paces at a time or the silent howling. The bills are over £5000 now and though I’m trying not to think about it I will soon.
DP had lots of childhood dogs and is quite matter of fact about when dogs reach the end of their life but he’s my first dog.
Does anyone have any experience of an illness like this? Did your dog recover? Am I expecting too much of him?
Thanks in advance
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Is my dog seriously ill?
63 replies
MiniMiniMiniBar · 11/04/2020 09:52
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