My dog's not doing well

[2manyrocks]

Pet ER clinics are not shy about taking advantage of anxious pet owners by charging outrageous fees. One tried to charge my daughter $2,000 to treat a cat with a urinary block at 2am on a Saturday. We took the cat to my vet at 8am and the bill was $75.

 

[GeneV]

I travel a lot and when I was home last weekend, I noticed my dog would have a slight cough, or more like he was clearing his throat, every so often. Anyway, I asked my wife to keep an eye on him, because it seemed odd. Thursday, she said he didn't seem like he was hungry. Which is really odd, because his dinner is usually the whole reason for his existence. Last night, he barely touched his food and the wife said he just slept all day behind her recliner and seemed lethargic, something is definitely wrong.

He drank water and pooped when she let him out this morning and the poop looked normal, but he was all mopey and clingy. So, she took him to the vet today. They took an xray and confirmed no intestinal blockage, but his blood work showed him to be dangerously anemic. All the other bloodwork parameters were normal. The minimum normal value for the anemia is 143K and he was 60K. So they gave him a subcutaneous IV of 1500cc's and sent her home with some steroids to give him. They'll follow up in 24 hours. If he isn't improving, he'll need to go to the pet ER.

He's a 6 YO black mouth cur, that's never had any issues, other than a food allergy that will make him itch and lick his paws. I give him a salmon based protein food and he has no issues.

We're trying to figure out if he got into something that's poisoned him or some other cause. I hate that the poor guy is ill, and I can't be there to try to help in some way.

Anyone have a similar issue that could throw out some ideas to look for? I have the wife checking the patio, carport, barn and any other place around the house for something/signs of him getting into something.

Sorry to hear it. Our little tibeten terrier once got really ill out of the blue, swelled up and lost much of her fur (not permanent, it grew back), marked weakness, lethargy and so forth. It was Thanksgiving weekend, so we had to take her to the pet er, and they flat out sucked in every way, is alls I could say. I think they'd kill her if we kept her there all 4 days. I won't even tell you what the bill came out to be, it was astronomical. Finally next monday our vet could see her, and he pulled her through with steroids and hetastarch iv infusions. Her main issue was 3rd space fluid loss, basically cellular dehydration. The reason for this was never figured out, but luckily she came out ok. This was like 8 years ago or so. Sometimes they just get ill with something or other, like no clue what the reason is.

 

[gsganzer]

Pet ER clinics are not shy about taking advantage of anxious pet owners by charging outrageous fees. One tried to charge my daughter $2,000 to treat a cat with a urinary block at 2am on a Saturday. We took the cat to my vet at 8am and the bill was $75.

I agree with you. Just for the visit yesterday: $395 for bloodwork, $350 xray, $145 for another test, 1500cc subcutaneous IV, steroids. The total was $1200 Everything is so darn expensive now.

I looked at his blood work and the platelet count was 60, normal range is 148- 484. So definitely an issue and I'm thinking he got poisoned somehow.

My wife said he ate his dinner yesterday, not fast, but at least he finished it. She said he seems better today, but still sleeping a lot and not energetic. He's been drinking and pooping normally. We'll see if how he eats tonight.

We'll follow up with our regular vet tomorrow and I suspect he'll do a comparison blood test.

I thought cur dogs were supposed to be very hardy and trouble free!?!? It's actually common for them to live as long as 16 years. My little trailer-park-trash buddy is getting expensive with vet bills and special food.

 

[drssg]

I agree that the emergency vets are expensive, but I figure that I'm paying to have a vet and a lot of expensive equipment available 24/7, with no appointment necessary. They sure are nice to have, when needed.

I hope your guy continues to recover.

 

[Pixguy]

Most of us love our pets like a child and will do anything for them. We are going through our own challenge with our fur daughter but this is not my thread so I won't post here. Be his advocate and do your research. Best of luck ganzer.

 

[Sigarms]

Pet ER clinics are not shy about taking advantage of anxious pet owners by charging outrageous fees. One tried to charge my daughter $2,000 to treat a cat with a urinary block at 2am on a Saturday. We took the cat to my vet at 8am and the bill was $75.

We had a issue with one last Friday when my wife texted me at 3:30PM. Luckily our vet knows us pretty well with all our animals we bring to them and called them. They set up a 4:30 appointment that same day, and it was something odd and simple that my wife was worried about. Vet looked at the dog, since the dog could actually digest a treat he wasn't overly worried and sent me on my wife with no fee.

If your lucky, you vet is open Saturday mornings and generally they will always try to work you in if it's really an emergency. If you're unlucky, the emergency is after 6PM or on a Sunday.

That said, end of the day an "Emergency vet" I have little doubt has higher overhead costs with all the equipment they have as well as having more "specialists" on hand and overal people working. Our local emergency vet is open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Anyway you cut it, running a business, that's going to be a lot more money.

 

[Jrasband]

All dog food(kibble) is complete crap and is a huge reason why dogs get sick and die early. feed them the diet that they thrive on which is primarily RAW. Meat, eggs, milk, etc.

Check out the book, "The Complete Herbal Handbook for Dog and Cat" by Juliette de Bairacli Levy if you are interested.

 

[Sigarms]

All dog food(kibble) is complete crap and is a huge reason why dogs get sick and die early. feed them the diet that they thrive on which is primarily RAW. Meat, eggs, milk, etc.

Check out the book, "The Complete Herbal Handbook for Dog and Cat" by Juliette de Bairacli Levy if you are interested.

Really, you don't say?

If I may ask, exactly what you reccomend per raw meat, eggs and milk when you have more than one dog?

See below. Picked up today and thought of your post when I bought it. Honestly, we don't pick up crap per "bought" dog dry dog food, and this is one "buy" for a 60lb dog, 55lb dog, 45lb dog, 25lb dog, and 20lb dog along with two cats. What do you think 4 bags of "animal food" costs?

That said, we had one cat pass away recently. That cat "ate" better than animal we've had because due to blood work and trying different things, we cooked chicken for the cat and cut it up weekly. Even with raw chicken pricing, that cat at more expensivly than any other aninal in our home.

Yes, it would be great for all animals to eat "raw food", but if you have more than a 20lb dog, exactly how do you afford to feed the animal?

 

[Eagle1]

Please don't take this the wrong way, but no **** sherlock.

If I may ask, exactly what you reccomend per raw meat, eggs and milk when you have more than one dog?

See below. Picked up today and thought of your post when I bought it. Honestly, we don't pick up crap per "bought" dog dry dog food, and this is one "buy" for a 60lb dog, 55lb dog, 45lb dog, 25lb dog, and 20lb dog along with two cats. What do you think 4 bags of "animal food" costs?

View attachment 824633

That said, we had one cat pass away recently. That cat "ate" better than animal we've had because due to blood work and trying different things, we cooked chicken for the cat and cut it up weekly. Even with raw chicken pricing, that cat at more expensivly than any other aninal in our home.

Yes, it would be great for all animals to eat "raw food", but if you have more than a 20lb dog, exactly how do you afford to feed the animal?

My pack is 24#, 85#, 100#, 130# (x 2 dogs) and 150# +++ no way here to weigh the monster. They get crap food bolstered with eggs, beef and deer trimmings, squirrels (never a shortage here) , and other things we can't eat.
We don't feed raw except for the self provided snacks.
Add a few dozen farm cats, chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, and 15 head of cattle we normally return from the feed store with at least 1000# (20 bags) of feed.

 

[Sigarms]

Add a few dozen farm cats, chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, and 15 head of cattle we normally return from the feed store with at least 1000# (20 bags) of feed.

I had to laugh. At first when I read your comment, I thought you fed farm cats to the dogs

Point being, you feed anything living, it costs money.

What people tend to forget is the same can be said for children of their own.

EDIT- What was in the picture was $250 (and that's with a 20% off coupon) and that might last us 4-6 weeks. And that's for animals that produce no income for our family.