[nagdu] Ideas to help a sick dog?

[Tami Kinney]

Gary,

Heavens! Poor kid. The canned food in a case like this is good because
it has extra moisture in it, so he is less likely to become dehydrated.
Until you can track down the cause of the problem with a decent stool
sample, and since he isn't showing other signs of sever ill health, all
I can think of is that rest and whatever food you can get down him is
the best you can do. How helpful is that? /smile/

So I'm wondering if giving him a bit of light play, or even some energy
burning play with the offer of the canned food and some extra water in
after might get something into him? Or, perhaps, somehow making a game
for him that involves food and moisture? It might be icky, but doing
something entertaining for him and including a bit of food in your
fingers as a reward for the play or, well, whatever. You know how poodle
loves to play. Especially if it's a new, interactive game. I haven't had
that exact problem with Mitzi, although I do sometimes have to make it a
game with her and Daisy when I want her to eat breakfast before we're
going out for a long day's work. Sometimes I end up just grabbing a
baggy of kibble an putting it in my purse to feed her by hand throughout
the day, either as part of her food reward or just because we've stopped
for a rest somewhere. I get the impression that sometimes she's just to
busy or has too much on her mind to eat... So small snacks throughout
the day. /smile/ Which I have to do with myself sometimes for the same
reasons. Sigh.

Other than that, I can only hope that your curly critter gets to feeling
better and that this is just something that will work itself out of his
system. Since he's otherwise bright eyed and bushy tailed, that could
very well be it. After all, sometimes the first prescription for
diarrhea, at least from any of my vets, is to simply not feed the dog
for awhile; leave water but don't worry about it. The don't worry about
it part is just crazy talk, as far as I'm concerned. I will most
certainly worry about it. But sometimes just allowing the dog to go
without eating or with only eating very small amounts will give the
digestive tract a chance to work out it's on problems. I eat Tums, so
extra calcium. /smile/

Keep us posted, and best for you and your poodle.

Tami

On Sun, 2011-09-04 at 12:00 -0700, Gary wrote: 
> Hello everyone:
> 
> Well poor Bogart still isn't doing so wonderfully. He started having full
> diarrhea in the middle of the night Thursday. We were having to go out about
> every 2-3 hours. By Friday night nothing much was coming out of him. Nothing
> that could be felt with a pick up bag anymore. Saturday morning he had a
> couple laps at his water dish but that was all.
> 
> I took him to the vet and temp is fine, abdomen is fine, eyes sparkling and
> tail a wagging. The vet gave him a couple of spoonfuls of the canned food
> they have that is supposed to be easy to digest with some water and he ate
> the food and drank the water. She tried to get  a stool sampl from his bum
> but he is just too emptied out so they couldn't get enough to do any tests.
> We can't gather enough at home either.
> 
> We came back home and I was able to get him to drink some water and he ate
> half of one of those cans of food as per doctors orders. So I was  thinking
> things are on the up side but I don't think he has drunk hardly any water
> and hasn't eaten any food since then. Even put some enticing things with it.
> 
> Poor bogart. I had told him he needed to lose a bit of weight since he
> gained 4 pounds in the past 3 months so he has gone over board and lost 1.5
> pounds in a week.
> 
> Anyway, if anyone has any ideas of how to get bogart eating a little bit
> that would be helpful.
> 
> Thanks
> Gary
> 
> 
> 
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