My dog is sick, I'm afraid she's going to die....?

Question

We have a collie/australian sheperd mix who is about 9 years old. She's a great dog, but she has bad arthritus, and she limps around all the time.
The past few days she wont eat her pills, or much of anything. When you rub her stomach she heaves. We took her to the vet, no heart worms, or any worms, and he gave her a shot. But none of us know what's wrong with her stomach, plus it's bloted. Any help? Anything I can give her that my be of use?

The vet said we could bring her back monday for xrays, he did test her stools, and everything and he is a good vet. He gave her something for her arthritus, I'm not sure what he called it though.
Love my dog to death, she's a lovely animal that looks you in the eyes.

Ohh, she's doing better this evening! She ate some food, and is showing a bit more interest in things.But her breathing is also a bit raspy too...

Answer 1

She may have eaten some chocolate or something.
She is not taking her pills because she is so bloated.

Answer 2

Go to a different vet now. Don’t wait.

Bloat can be caused by a lot of things but whenever a client mentions bloat to me, in a large dog, GDV (Gastric dilatation-volvulus) is the first thing that springs to mind. This is when the stomach fills with gas putting pressure on the other organs and his diaphragm.

Having his abdomen full of air can cause the stomach to rotate, cutting off blood supply. This causes the stomach to die. This is an extremely serious condition and is fatal if not seen to immediately. Even with surgery, not all outcomes are successful unfortunately.

I hope it all works out, but I cannot stress enough, go to another vet straight away and get some x-rays taken.
And do not try and force your dog to eat or take tablets until you have seen a new vet.

Answer 3

Have you considered contacting a Women's Crisis hotline in your area? There are many organizations across the States which have access to resources for women who are just getting out of a domestic violence situation. It sounds like you are just completely overwhelmed but there are resources out there, most of the time. It's good that your children and your little sister are busy in school and after school activities, but I think it is important for children to participate in the family with chores which don't really take any time if kept up and it's good for kids to have a sense of responsibility, whether taking the dogs for a walk or taking out the garbage, washing some dishes, whatever. If they are not interested in having the dogs or if none of you are interested then you could try a chihuahua rescue organization or calling some shelters in your area and talking to staff there, or to a Vet you use and see if anyone there knows of a person or place that will take your dogs. It sounds like it's not fair to the dogs or to you or to anyone to keep them with so many things going on. Hope you can get hooked up with some resources that will help you and your family.

Answer 4

Hi
Please take her back to the vet or to a different vet.
You need to know exactly what that shot was and what it was for!

A good vet would have taken an xray to make sure there were no growths, would have taken stool samples to test for poisons, etc. The fact that her stomach is bloated may mean something as easy to treat as constipation, to something as serious as cancer or intestinal blockage.

BTW, if she is on arthritis meds, those can sometimes cause constipation. Our dog has arthritis too, and we changed his diet to a joint mobility formula; it's made a huge difference in the quality of his life. His limping has decreased by 1/2!

Monitor her overnight and if she starts to seem worse, take her to the emergency vet. If not, wait til the morning and take her in first thing to get this sorted out.

Good on you for not being satisfied with incomplete vet treatment.

Answer 5

Go to another vet, and if possible, see if you can find a homeopathic vet in your area - do a search on google. Your dog may have a stomach virus or something. Have you tried her on some cooked hamburger with rice - we have a dog with a sensitive stomach and we give her this when she's thrown up in the past.

There is also a wonderful thing called FlexProtex - www.unigethealthy.com - that works great in dogs with arthritis - our dog takes it with the Rimadyl and is doing remarkably well at 11. Good luck.

Answer 6

Get her to another vet just as fast as you can. A second opinion is not a bad thing. It sounds as though the vet was too busy to pay any real attention to your dog.

When an animal shows signs of distress and stops eating you have about 4 days before they die. Don't waste time - get to another vet.

Answer 7

I would get a second opinion - it could be something relatively simple and treatable.

Sorry to add, but at that age and history be prepared for bad news. I recently lost a collie at age 10 who had been rather sedentary most of his life due to a hip injury and arthritis. We did not get a good answer, but it appeared to be heart failure at the end with an accumulation of fluids causing bloating - apparently related to the dog's inability to have a healthier degree of exercise.

I hope your dog's outcome is happier - good luck!

Answer 8

While I understand your fear about losing her, it is a bit selfish. She is suffering and not going to get better. All you are doing is prolonging the inevitable and making her suffer longer because your head and your heart are not on the same page.

Sometimes the most loving thing we can do is allow our animals to die with dignity. Everything has a time to live and a time to die. Look in her eyes when she is in pain and ask yourself if you are keeping her alive for her, or for you. Is her quality of life such that she can truly enjoy it. Or is she so willing to please you as her master that she attempts to muddle through the pain.

Answer 9

You need to get her to a different vet, as soon as possible. If there is an emergency vet in your area, call them NOW. At this point, you may have no other option other than to put her down, but at least that would be kinder than letting her be in pain until she simply dies.

Good luck.

Answer 10

Get her to another vet --- NOW. There is NO excuse for a vet letting a dog go without a diagnosis, especially when she is suffering. Get to another vet, soon, soon, soon.

Good luck.

Answer 11

yes, ask for a referral to specialist if your vet is not able to diagnose, or ask him to consult a specialist at the least if he is not able to diagnose. frankly if he hasn't taken further steps to identify problem at this point, i would seek another highly referred general vet for future as well. try to insert pills in things to see what she goes for, hot dog chunks, cook chicken, anything stinky she might respond to and eat to get food in her stomach. loss of appetite is very serious and should be treated as an emergency situation by your vet. it may be an obstruction in digestive system, you might want to ask for an xray if new vet/specialist isn't able to otherwise identify problem.