Ava is sick and in hospital again; GI problems

[dwerten]

Originally Posted by ally173

they gave her a bath and blow dry; maybe that hurt her ears; she never goes to the groomer

i am going to ask tomorrow for the metronidazole; i think she needs it at least in the begining; he gave her no antibiotic whatsoever all this time there; he said he doesnt believe in over medicating with antibiotic

they did give me an itemized bill; and i did ask questions about some fees; adn they seem to have an answer right away; which makes sense but i dont think it's fair

added 250 for extra anesthia; kept her longer to clean the teeth
200 for an extra biopsy site
250 for usign the endoscope a little longer
and goes on and on like this; fees that dont make sense but i have no say; nothing i can do
he already took blood and send for the allergy test; before i got to the office and had charged 200 for that
after paying 3,300 i only could afford to buy 4 cans of food for her today; and that was $10; i will buy more next week if she likes it
no way i can afford another episode like this.

i am going to pull my hair out
i told ava in front of them; now u look healthy and beautiful; but we are homeless. we are going to eat dog food and live on the street....
not funny though, because i am literally broke
i only have few hundreds in my bank


sorry for the long message but i needed to vent to someone

thanks all for ur support

metronidazole is an antibiotic?? but i do like his philosophy as feel they are way over prescribed in the vet profession

[ally173]

Originally Posted by dwerten

that is a raw diet ???

probiotics are to be given 20-30 min before food and 2 hrs after an antibiotic so not sure not familiar with that probiotics

nutrigest sounds like a digestive enzyme to me not sure never heard of it

she didnt tell me when to give it; i will ask tomorrow
he said she might benefit from digestive enzymes
it's powder; do u think i can mix it with water and give it to her by syringe

[dwerten]

Originally Posted by ladyjane

That is exactly what has been going on with Rookie! I have been suspecting IBD for a while but it was weird because it would happen and then just clear up the same day.

I took a fecal sample in last month to be sure it was not a parasite. The other thing I have noticed is that he passes smelly gas a lot. So.... I kind of put it all together and today I called to run it all by my vet. She agreed that it sounded like IBD, so we are trying the food to see how it goes.

sounds like large intestinal ibd

many feel you should not feed raw because if large intestinal it can sit in the intestines too long causing issues as the food does not travel quickly through the intestinal tract with ibd dogs as they are inflamed and food gets caught air etc so that is why the gas and rumblings etc as stuff gets stuck not going through normally

if large intestinal i would do pumpkin and probiotics

small intestinal is more of a prob as the dog gets backed up and vomitting occurs then can trigger the pancreas so food never gets out of the small intestinal area - if i had to choose between the two i would take large intestine

[dwerten]

Originally Posted by ally173

she didnt tell me when to give it; i will ask tomorrow
he said she might benefit from digestive enzymes
it's powder; do u think i can mix it with water and give it to her by syringe

no you cannot as digestive enzymes have to go on the food to help digest the food and they are used for dogs that eat home cooked or processed foods not dogs that eat raw as the raw has natural enzymes which help digest the food

[ally173]

Originally Posted by dwerten

no you cannot as digestive enzymes have to go on the food to help digest the food and they are used for dogs that eat home cooked or processed foods not dogs that eat raw as the raw has natural enzymes which help digest the food

i am not feeding raw; she's on the iams low residue canned food
he wanted to add nutrigest which is digestive enzyme in caps; but i can open it and sprinkle it
but she wont eat her food; the nurse said it has a smell to it
do u think she needs digestive enzymes; or probiotic will be enough


the nv prairie he suggested for later; is kibble and canned; it comes in raw too; but no way

[dwerten]

Originally Posted by ally173

i am not feeding raw; she's on the iams low residue canned food
he wanted to add nutrigest which is digestive enzyme in caps; but i can open it and sprinkle it
but she wont eat her food; the nurse said it has a smell to it
do u think she needs digestive enzymes; or probiotic will be enough


the nv prairie he suggested for later; is kibble and canned; it comes in raw too; but no way

nv prairie is a dehydrated raw diet though

will she not eat the food they gave you?

Personally i would just do the probiotics and i would give them 30 minutes before food but the brand you got I would ask them how to give but i would assume it would be the same - I mix dd in a little pumpkin and she licks it up but i know you have a harder time with ava

[dwerten]

Originally Posted by ladyjane

He is one of my fosters. He has been exhibiting signs of IBD and a fecal showed nothing; so we are trying food to see if it helps. If it does not then we will get into further testing. Maybe once/week or every 2 weeks he will have a bout of loose yellow stools....and sometimes a stool with gelly like, blood. It only lasts for a day when it happens. SO....this is a guess. He has never eaten this food before today, so i cannot give you a review on it.

I had looked at some threads here and saw that many do use it with success and since it also was the one my vet suggested we start with, that is what I did.

I agree with you....and I would NOT use a food that had corn in it...no way. No matter what the vet said. (I would definitely ask him why he is suggesting corn....and ask him about Z/D....I don't like to tell people not to listen to their vet...he would have to give me a good reason for that food...and I doubt he really could) That was the first thing I looked at with the Z/D...if it had corn.

ultra zd is the hydrolized diet - i prefer ultra zd over z/d -- sounds more like colitis from what you are describing than ibd so you may want to use probiotics mixed with a little pumpkin

[dwerten]

Originally Posted by ally173

he believes the ibd is caused by a food allergy; to what is unknown.
do maybe that test should have be done first; it makes sense if she's allergic to grains, corn or chicken.. then most food has that
i think it does make sense to do this test to avoid the allergen
however he will be putting her on low residue which has all the above including corn grits; so i am sure her GI tract will react;
we'll just have to wait and see; the next food will be ultra Z/D
by the way linda how does ur dog like to Z/D; is he eating it fine?

make sure ultra zd not zd there is a difference

ibd is a food intolerance

[dwerten]

Originally Posted by ally173

he's putting her on iams low residue wet diet for now; he also wants me to buy RX Zyme to help with digestion. and prednisone

he suggested to do the allergy test that cost $200
i dont know but he's starting to sound that he's all about the money
maybe it's me; or maybe he's really thorough
but knowing i am low on money; he should have done blood tests first then endoscopy. her GI panel was clean, her blood tests were clean; and i knew she had IBD
the point of the endoscopy was to find out what type of IBD; and they couldnt' even do that.

yeah i am starting to feel he is about the money too sadly as food allergy cannot be determined by that allergy testing as blood cannot determine food - this guy is bumming me out big time ;( after reading this now

[dwerten]

Originally Posted by ally173

he's putting her on iams low residue wet diet for now; he also wants me to buy RX Zyme to help with digestion. and prednisone

he suggested to do the allergy test that cost $200
i dont know but he's starting to sound that he's all about the money
maybe it's me; or maybe he's really thorough
but knowing i am low on money; he should have done blood tests first then endoscopy. her GI panel was clean, her blood tests were clean; and i knew she had IBD
the point of the endoscopy was to find out what type of IBD; and they couldnt' even do that.

the endoscopy was to determine if large or small intestines but sadly you do not need that to determine this as a dog with ibd in small will vomit and in large will have diarhea this is why i opted not to do the endoscopy with dex as i knew it was small intestines as he never had diarhea like ava has not

[ladyjane]

Originally Posted by dwerten

ultra zd is the hydrolized diet - i prefer ultra zd over z/d -- sounds more like colitis from what you are describing than ibd so you may want to use probiotics mixed with a little pumpkin

From my understanding, the most common cause of colitis is ibd.

Actually, I might want to do just what I am doing for now.

[ladyjane]

Originally Posted by dwerten

the endoscopy was to determine if large or small intestines but sadly you do not need that to determine this as a dog with ibd in small will vomit and in large will have diarhea this is why i opted not to do the endoscopy with dex as i knew it was small intestines as he never had diarhea like ava has not

Ava was vomiting blood and I surely would have done an endoscopy if suggested to rule out something else. What IF she had an ulcer and ended up bleeding out because it had not been diagnosed?

To each his own....but, I am very careful about refusing necessary tests. I don't know how you have run up the bills you say you have since you seem to refuse a lot of tests and operations. Your vetting must be terribly expensive.

[dwerten]

Originally Posted by ladyjane

Ava was vomiting blood and I surely would have done an endoscopy if suggested to rule out something else. What IF she had an ulcer and ended up bleeding out because it had not been diagnosed?

To each his own....but, I am very careful about refusing necessary tests. I don't know how you have run up the bills you say you have since you seem to refuse a lot of tests and operations. Your vetting must be terribly expensive.

i refuse when unnecessary but dex was not vomitting blood - I never refuse what is necessary like the plasma transfusion for pancreatitis etc. But i refused endoscopy and refused scintigraphy. Dexter cost me 10,000 over the course of a year and there were alot of unnecessary ultrasounds in there 400 times about 4 for what to say yep pancreas is inflamed well the cpli tells you that for sure so why the ultrasounds. I learned then that they can rack the stuff up real quick just like this vet just did $3500 and we are back to ibd in small intestines that is sad. It could have been ulcers but then what are they going to treat if ulcers sulcrulfate?

i have spent 10,000 on dee dee in trying to find a cure for allergies and guess what we are back to square one steroids lollll so honestly I am starting to think it is a racket on some of this stuff sadly

the food allergy test did it for me with this guy so i am very disappointed.

[dwerten]

Originally Posted by ladyjane

From my understanding, the most common cause of colitis is ibd.

Actually, I might want to do just what I am doing for now.

actually the number one cause of colitis is stress

http://www.petplace.com/dogs/colitis-in-dogs/page1.aspx

ibd info

http://www.petplace.com/dogs/inflamm...ogs/page1.aspx

[ladyjane]

Originally Posted by dwerten

i refuse when unnecessary but dex was not vomitting blood - I never refuse what is necessary like the plasma transfusion for pancreatitis etc. But i refused endoscopy and refused scintigraphy. Dexter cost me 10,000 over the course of a year and there were alot of unnecessary ultrasounds in there 400 times about 4 for what to say yep pancreas is inflamed well the cpli tells you that for sure so why the ultrasounds. I learned then that they can rack the stuff up real quick just like this vet just did $3500 and we are back to ibd in small intestines that is sad. It could have been ulcers but then what are they going to treat if ulcers sulcrulfate?

i have spent 10,000 on dee dee in trying to find a cure for allergies and guess what we are back to square one steroids lollll so honestly I am starting to think it is a racket on some of this stuff sadly

the food allergy test did it for me with this guy so i am very disappointed.

My point was that you said the endoscopy was to figure out if it was large or small intestines and I beg to differ on that. The test was done to get a diagnosis and yes, if ibd, where.

I already had stated my opinion on the blood test for allergies. I think the vet is just covering all angles...I do NOT think he is money hungry...just looking for answers. He is going to do whatever he is allowed to do. That is why people need to question the whys of everything. This is the FIRST vet who has done for Ava what should have been done imo. Good grief, Banfield diagnosed pancreatitis from what Elly said...and there were no labs to support that from what she said.

I would not be dumping this vet if I were her. I would simply start questioning him a bit more and letting him know my pockets are not that deep.