Yorkie diagnosed with Hemorrhagic gastroenitis?
 

I need any advice or opinions on what may be wrong with my one and half three pound yorkie.:(

I have a three pound yorkie that is a year and a half old. At the beginning of December 2011 she vomited once at night for about three days in a row. On the third day she had diarrhea with a lot of blood that continued to drip out of her the whole way to the vet which is a 25 minute car ride. They diagnosed her with hemorrhagic gastroenteritis after looking at the blood work. They gave her an antibiotic and metronidazole and kept her over night to keep her on IVs and a catheter. They also switched her to science diet i/d. About a week later she started to vomit once daily again. I called the vet and they gave her a weeks worth of metronidazole. A couple days later she continued to vomit again so they gave her medicine for an ulcer. This still did not work. So I brought her in and they ran xrays which looked normal so they gave her an injection of cerenia. About a week later she had another bloody diarrhea so I took her back to the vet where they gave her fluids, then they ran a barium xray. The barium xray was moving slower then normal out of the stomach which made them believe that she had a blockage. We decided to allow them to perform exploratory surgery. Everything looked normal, so they checked her blood work again which came back normal, then tested her for Addison's disease and pancreatis, which she doesn't have either of them, and checked for a liver shunt (which doesn't have either). A day after the surgery they started her on reglan and then four days after the surgery started her on amoxicillin because she got an infection around the stitches from the surgery. I thought the reglan was working, but last night she vomited twice within five minutes of each other. Im not sure what to do at this point. I started her on IAMs cat fish and potato which is supposed to be hypoallergenic and promote gastrointestinal health the day of her surgery which was 1/9/12. In the morning I measure out a half cup of her food and then give it to her in tiny portions four to five times through out the day. Sometimes I will mix water in with it because shes not drinking a lot of water. She has been playful this whole time and still has energy. Shes normally a high energy dog. Every night around 730 she gets all her energy and then plays for about two hours. Now shes been playing for maybe a half an hour to hour so not as much energy as normal but still active.
Observations Ive made of her: she was sneezing occasionally, she licks a lot (ex. shes always like the hair on her legs), about 95 percent of the time she is vomiting at night. She used to have a bowel movement three to four times a day. Now she has one once a day (in the morning). They thought she had hemorrhagic gastroenteritis in february 2010 (they treated her and she was better within a week when this occurred in february 2010). She was also tested for giardia in February and that was negative. If it is the same thing both have occurred in the winter (we use a Humidifier in the winter. Not sure if that would cause this?), she makes a strange licking noise in her mouth, and sometimes sounds like shes going to get sick but does not. Also when she started the reglan I noticed a lot of hair come out in her bowel movement (seemed to be mine and hers). I also noticed this morning a lot of hair in her bowel movement (mine and hers). Not in pain when I touch her stomach and doesnt act like she's sore in that area. My thoughts are could she have hair causing a blockage or maybe a food allergy that's causing her intestines to become inflamed? I just have no idea at this point. I have talked to vets about her issues.
Any suggestions?? :confused::confused::confused:

Has she been seen by a board certified internal med vet? If not, that is where I would go if she were mine!

You can speak with your vet about one...or look for one on your own at:

www.acvim.org

If you are close to a vet school with a small animal clinic, you might consider going there.

Welcome to YT! :)

Her vet is a member of AVMA, OVMA, and member and past president of CVMA. Is that the same as what you described. If not I could ask her about it. Thanks :)

No, I am referring to a Board Certified Vet....a specialist, not a general vet.

Not sure if you are close or if this is a possibility, but I love the vet schools for these types of things:

Hospital for Companion Animals | College of Veterinary Medicine

Thats a good idea. Ill look into and see if I can find something near me.:)

Hopefully, this link will come up correctly....it has all of the small animal internal med specialists in OH:

ACVIM

Gizmo was just diagnosed with the same thing on Sunday. Same thing he would throw up and then eventually had blood in his stool. Hes on flagyl ( Metronidazole) & Cephalexin. Poor guy we have no idea where this came from. I think its from a recent 3 hours car ride from Los Angeles to San Diego... but its scary to know that we cant prevent it. Our vet did say to switch Gizmo to a new protein diet. Funny thing is Gizmo is also 3.5 pounds just like your baby and hes also 1.5 years old! Crazy!

It could defeinitly be a food allergy with your baby thats why she is constantly licking. Hair can cause a blockage and hair can not be digested by the stomach. Gizmo does get really dry skin during the winter and would lick himself. My mom has this oatmeal shampoo that i use on him and it seems to work well. I am wondering if thats whats going on with your baby. Or it could possibly be a food allergy. I know a common food allergy with dogs is grains. Gizmo is on Fromm and its grain free. I dont think that Iams is grain free. I hope you can figure it out! Its definitly a scary thing and i completely understand what your going through :(

Heres an article that i read today i thought it was informative!

Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis in Dogs - Whole Dog Journal Article

I was wondering if the medications they put him on are helping. Daisy was on Metronidazole but she continued to vomit while on it. Ive read that hypoallergenic food can help prevent HGE from occuring again, but there is not guarantee. Thank you for sharing the article! :)

My old Chi was throwing up & the vet ran test & said she had a bacterial stomach virus. Gave her Cerenia till vomiting stopped then a round of Sulfatrim Susp/ml........She has done fine evere since. She also had a round of hemo.gast. about a year ago. Almost lost her to that, But doing good now. Hope you can get some answers soon..........If she will drink Pedialite it will help keep her from dehydrating

My Rusty was dianosed with this but unfortunately passed away. I wish you the best of luck!

I read that this condition can be deadly. Could you explain what happened to your Rusty? If not I completely understand.

Rusty got sick on Sunday September 18th 2011. He started with diarrhea, vomiting and loss of appetite. I cooked him rice, chicken breast and venison. He refused all of it. :( He was however still drinking water. Around noon he started passing blood in his stool. He had been wormed 6-7 days before and there were worms in it. I called the ER vet immediately. The girl I spoke with told me that the blood was normal with the worming and that as long as he was drinking, it would be okay to wait and take him to my vet in the morning. I can't believe I took her advice. :mad: He ended up having a seizure at 6 a.m. I rushed him to the ER vet. They didn't even try to save him. :( They sent me to my vet where he passed away a couple hours later :cry: The vet diagnosed him with HGE but we still don't know what the cause was. She doesn't think it was the worms. My other male Morkie and my black Lab both ended up with the same symptoms about a week later but were treated immediately. My Morkie ewent to the vet and still ended up with an overnight stay at the ER vet clinic.

I pray you get some answers. Starting the meds right away I think makes a huge difference.

Do they know what caused the HGE? Ive read that its not contagious but have also read that sometimes multiple dogs in the same house will get it and other times only one will get it. What time of the year did Rusty get it? Daisy had HGE last February and then again the beginning of this winter. Since it has happend two winters in a row I am wondering if this has something to do with the season? Ive also read that putting the dog on a hypoallergenic food can help prevent HGE from happening again. I figure if Daisy has a food allergy, IBD, or HGE, hypoallergenic food is the way to go right now. Im just wondering which type will work best for her and if she will need any other medication from this happening again. She vomited today the first time in about 12 days. She was pretty worked up though since I was trying to give her a hair cut and she had a full belly (not sure if this could be the cause). I figured since she is licking so much its best to shave her hair pretty short. Shes making it difficult though not too happy about it. Her vets groomer is out due to surgery or I would take her there. What type of medication did they put your pups on and did they change their diet? Daisy has been on all sorts of medication and none has seemed to work until the reglan, but she has vomited twice on it in the last 19 days. She is constantly burping and sounding as if she is swallowing her vomit. I have also read that it can take up to 12 weeks for improvement after switching them to hypoallergenic food.

The first episode was in September. There are many things that can cause the HGE from what my vet has explained to me. Ziggy just had his third episode since September, this week. The first time we had no idea what caused it. These last two times we are starting to think it that it was caused by dog treats. From now on I'm going to make sure there is no change in his diet at all. The vet put him on Flagyl and Biomox. He cleared up right away. I feed my dogs Holistic Select chicken meal and rice recipe, and they seem to do great on it. Switching foods can cause upset, and must be done slowly. I have also talked to my vet about IBS but he's really thinking it's the treats. From what I've been reading here on YT, alot of dogs are sesitive to changes in diet any cannot have treats.

Good luck, and if you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask.