I just read the whole story! I am so sorry you, your oh and Snowy went through such an ordeal! Glad to read he is on the mend and that you finally can relax!
Need a rollercoaster icon. Usual food did not agree. Snowie vomited up breakfast - 100 gm of raw beef heart. Seems to have forgotten he must chew, if came up whole. He re-ate it. Vomited up again whole. Ate it. And it stayed down. But two cow pat-like poos today, a little blood. So it's back to shredded roast chicken and soppy porridge/veg. Still begging for food, so at least he's not nauseas (I assume). And otherwise happy and cheerful to go for a walk, altho seemed a little slower today. Of course desperately trying to scavenge on walks, and I'm desperately policing this!
It took Sky a long time to get over HGE - she was really not herself for a few months. It's a horrible thing. We had to make the decision to muzzle her on off lead walks - her foraging behaviour was too entrenched so I understand when you say you are desperately policing him.
Update: I've been reluctant to provide an update because Snowie has been up and down these past few weeks. No sooner would I provide an update here that he had a good poo, than the next poo would be pure liquid, and he'd be waking me up at 4am to eat lemongrass and vomit. We saw the holistic vet last Friday and I hope that things are truly on the mend now. He tested for giardia, which came back negative, so his diagnosis is Garbage Bin Disease! Snowie scavenges, especially human poo, and, according to the vet, has most likely ended up with an overgrowth of bad bacteria in his stomach, probably E Coli, which causes havoc in the stomach, hence his nausea and vomiting, and then resultant diarrhea and blood in poo. So he is now on strict leash walks to prevent scavenging. Unfortunately I thought we were in a poo-free zone on Sat on the mountain, but he managed to find human poo. Not only ate it, but smeared all over his face!!! Urgh! He had to withstand a face shampoo, which was a lot less worse than what I had to go through!!!!!! Hence, strictly leash walks till he is well and truly recovered. Vet examined him and said his back was tight (he has had a slipped disc before, and in fact my regular vet had emailed him about Snowie's back episode a month ago), so he gave him laser treatment on the affected spinal area. Also injected homeopathic anti-inflammatory (traumeel) along his spine. I am undecided -- probably a non-believer -- in homeopathy. But after the appointment, Snowie was so utterly relaxed, the most relaxed I've seen him in weeks. The laser? Injection? We went out for lunch with him, and he dozed under the table for most of the time -- unheard of for Snowie!! Look, it was a vegan restaurant, so perhaps the food wasn't enticing enough. Although he did try to steal a bag of kale chips from their display counter on our way out! He also got Chinese herbs for his stomach, and homeopathic drops for digestion, to be taken twice daily for five days. And homeopathic drops if he has nausea. We are to continue with feeding kefir (at least half a cup a day, I make it myself) as a probiotic. I also noticed that Snowie's poos were really good after eating dirty green tripe (apparently a good probiotic, too). The vet didn't recommend giving anything else, said that if we start introducing more meds and potions, that we won't know what is working and what isn't. And he must be fed a small meal at 9.30pm every evening to prevent the early-morning nausea. He said that by 4am -- which is when Snowie was waking me up to eat lemongrass, and then vomited -- is likely when he starts to feel hungry and his digestive juices start up, he releases bile, which tastes bitter, and he needs to eat something minty or lemony, hence the lemongrass, to take away the taste. And then vomit it up. Well, I'm happy to say that on the Friday -- as I said Snowie was so relaxed, and he got his late-night meal -- we all slept till 7.30am the next morning!!!!!!! Right through the night. But the boy KNOWS if his dinner is being halved! He usually gets 400gm raw meat and raw meaty bones for dinner. The first night he got 300gm, keeping back 100gm for later. No, he would not accept this, whimpered at the door where his food was being stored. This went on for so long that we gave in to get some peace. Now we keep back 100gm of his breakfast, and feed that as the late-night meal. The boy is happy with the extra meal, us less so -- an extra meal to defrost and feed so late is exhausting when all I want to do is go to sleep then. But at least he's remaining well through the night, and that is all that matters now. Good news is he's also off the cortisone cos he's hardly itchy. I did stop the salmon oil capsules some time ago cos someone pointed out that her dog had been very itchy after taking them, so when the bottle was used up, I didn't buy more. Maybe Snowie has been allergic to fish all this time? The last two meals he had before he got HGE were fish. And I often used to use Orijen fish pellets as treats. Anyway, the vet said that each dog is different, one dog is allergic to fish, the other isn't. Only way to know for sure is through a hellishly expensive allergy test. His advice was to keep feeding him what we're feeding, and if he remains itch-free, then we can assume it was the fish.
That sounds promising. Snowie sounds as if he's keeping an eye on things too and won't miss out on his food! It's time someone did some research into labrador genes to eliminate the scavenging instinct...
My Lab had laser treatment for arthritis in his paw @MF and it was very helpful. My other Lab had a bacterial infection of the lower bowel when he was young and it took several vets to diagnose the problem, a month on antibiotics solved the problem
The holistic vet said he gets all the arthritis dogs, so I'm guessing laser is his go-to treatment that he's found to work. It was effective last year when we took Snowie to him for back treatment. He said that if Snowie continues to have gastro, he recommends sending a stool sample to Germany where they culture it and identify what bacteria is in it so that you can target it with specific antibiotics. And not as expensive as I was expecting! Transport from South Africa to Germany and laboratory work: R400. I think that's about 25 Euros!
What was this magic butt shot please @Emily_BabbelHund ? My Labrador is in hospital with HGE and keen to suggest all options to the vet incase we are missing anything as she’s really sick! Thanks
