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Really worried about Poppy

I'm glad Poppy is doing better.

Several years ago I had a similar situation with Dolly, a very small adult rescue I adopted. All tests were fine, but without flagyl she had tummy troubles. After several months, my vet suggested getting in contact with Lew Olsen of B-naturals. The probiotics she suggested solved Dolly's problem and that was two years ago.

My Cavaliers will not eat prescription food either. I feed them baby food chicken, turkey or beef mixed as a paste with baby food rice or oatmeal. This is a very lowfat meal. After a few days of this I add just the baby food meat to their kibble.

I hope Poppy continues to improve.
 
I was so worried that we hadn't heard from you. Thank God she's pulled through. My advice would be to forget the special food and boil her chicken (plain) and rice. The liver is probably too rich for her, although you could maybe chop it up real small and mix it in with whatever you feed her to make it more appealing.

:hug: Hang in there, life is all about learning the hard way, right? Just keep in mind that you cannot trust your vet (or any doctor) 100%. YOU usually know when there's a problem and you have to trust your instincts, they are usually correct.
 
What a relief! I'm glad she's picking up. The yoghurt is a good idea too - I remember reading a case of a baby (human!) whose situation was not unlike your pup's. Constant tummy upset and no weight gain. Baby was on the point of being written off as 'failing to thrive' when someone suggested probiotic yoghurt. The baby never looked back, and so long as he had his yoghurt every day he was absolutely fine. I was told to give my girls yoghurt by the breeder and they love it.
 
I am so glad she is improving, have pups with sensitive tummys too. Just this am gave a round of pepcid to them both. Have fed the chicken and rice mix also, read somwhere to make it heavy on th chicken. Good luck with tx and food, my breeder suggests and I feed my adult Royal Canin sensitive stomach, easy on tummy and taste good.
 
Im so glad to hear theres been an improvement in Poppy & that your vet has finally got something figured out. i hope Poppy goes from strength to strength now:)
When i first got Rubes at 4years old she had a poorly tum almost daily(& was very skinny) & we'd be back to vets almost weekly,he tried steroid injections often,tablets,would say try this bran that bran(i could go on!)the last time i said im going to try her on probiotics & he said that was going to be his next suggestion:shifty: Since then she has her probys every night & its rare for her to have an upset tummy.I really cannot praise them highly enough!
i learnt the same lesson-the vet doesnt always know best(this was prior to me finding CT) however when he tried everything but one simple test for her eye problems& at the same time seemed clueless on her SM i changed vets:mad:
Good luck plse keep us updated & i hope you get a little relax after these awful weeks:hug:
 
Thanks everyone for the advice and words of comfort. Got an unusual call from my hubby today, the dog was barking (she never barks) and looking for food:jmp2:
My neighbour mention the probiotic, she lets her dogs have some actimel. I might wait until the infection clears just in case. She likes the chicken so i might try that again one night.
Medication is a big awkward. She is on 20mg, but the tablet only comes in 50g. So i have to open the capsule and split out enough. Bit of a pain but hopefully it does the trick. I am hoping all of my stories will be positive from now on.
I'll keep you all updated:thnku:
 
THought i would update you on Poppys progess. Not great i am afraid. After being on Steriods for the last 3 weeks she has yet to gain any weight, she was weighted on Saturday 2.4Kg, just over 5 lbs. She was 6 months old on Friday. She is on antibitocs for the campylobacter infection and due for my tests next week to see if it has cleared up.
To add to all of our problems she has now got a respiratory infection which she should have because of all of the antibitoics she is one. This infection has caused her eyes to get infected and she now has a small ulcer developing on her left eye. She is now on 5 sets of medication:
  1. Steriods to stimulate appetite and reduce inflamation of bowels
  2. Antibiotic for camplylobacter
  3. Antibiotic for repsiratory infection
  4. Cough syrup
  5. Eye drops for ulcer
She was eating grand the last few weeks but the diarahoe return. The vet put her back on the perscription food which she hates and refused to eat, so she lost weight over the weekend. I have put her back on the James Wellbeloved and letting her have some chicken, which she loves.

The vets are at a total loss, she is having all of her test rerun on monday and after that they are referring her to UCD as her immune system seems to be shot.

So my saga continues, medication is a complete pain, she hides the tablets in her mouth and i find them later on. Have started to crush up some of them and am giving her them with a couple of table spoons of actimel. Any other ideas:bang::bang::bang:

One day i will come on here with good news. We are off on hols at the end of August and she will be going to Kennels so i want some piece of mind before i go. Not concerned about the kennels, she has been there before and they guy who runs it has breed Cavailiers for years. He will probably fatten her up for me:xfngr:
 
I am sorry that you have all this worry overy Poppy, poor little thing as been through a lot, bless her :flwr:.

Jasper is quite fussy what he eats and it can be hard for him take tablets and medicine, what I do is mix them with the puppy milk you can buy in tesco (he is 3 and a half) and he laps it all up ignorant of the fact there is any medication it it :).

Best wishes, I hope all Poppy's health problems get resolved quickly :flwr:.
 
Have you tried pill pockets (made by Greenies)? They come in chicken and beef flavor for dogs and salmon flavor for cats. I give Riley one of her pills in the cat pill pocket because it is so much smaller. I combine two of them in the smaller dog size. She absolutely LOVES them and they're small enough to just swallow without chewing. They are very soft and maleable and you can close it right around the pill so it's not sticking out. Worth a try if you're still having trouble getting pills down.
 
I'd second Pill Pockets. When our Julie stopped eating, Pill pockets were one of the very few things she'd eat. They're pricey, but worth a try if you can find them.

My guys love to eat so I have no trouble with pills ... I usually make a little ball of creme cheese and put the pill and the middle. Sounds like Poppy might be a little too smart for that though ...

Hope Poppy is better soon.
 
hi, i know u said ur sorted with the kennel, but if ur stuck or u think ur cav needs extra tlc...i can take care of him for ya no prob, i live in mayo and have a completely secure area ...live close to beach and woods, i am up and down to dublin/ meath regularly, so dont be stuck..only an option :)
hope things work out okay
 
I'm really glad that in general she has been doing better and a cause was found for some of her problems. :) Going by your description, you may have an immune compromised dog that is going to just be like this, which may pose an o going challenge (and I'd inform the breeder). On the other hand perhaps she will just pull through this phase and these various illnesses -- sometimes sickly dogs get a lot better in adulthood when their immune system strengthens. She is still terribly small though.

One thing you might need to seriously consider -- if the kennel guy (I am pretty sure I know who this is) is actually able to get her to eat with no problem -- is that much of her refusal to eat is behavioural and is primarily something she does for attention and occasional interesting tidbits from you, even to the extent of weight loss and putting her well-being at risk.

This could well be a possibility given how you regularly are rotating foods and trying to lure her to eat, and the fact that she will suddenly eat a new food, then stop again. This is pretty classic behaviour when there's a learned behaviour issue going on. The difficulty is how to tell.

If she eats when kennelled it will be because she knows she gets her food and that's it and she can't create any interesting attention around the event. There's no one to play up to and no one inadvertantly rewarding this very unwanted behaviour.

I'd have a read about this issue here and follow the directions to a T if she comes back with the report of 'no problems eating'. This is a really common problem and very rarely a dog will carry it to real extremes.

http://board.cavaliertalk.com/showthread.php?t=24168

It may be that it would be better to have your husband feed her or whoever feeds her least, to cut the association with not eating and any possible game-playing.

Also like Lani I am still a bit concerned that the vets didn't order these tests and other long delays in seeing some of the things you have been describing. It isn't your job to have to demand tests be done -- they should be identifying and eliminating all possibilities and this type of test to me would have been one of the very first things I'd have done as well as giardia --these are vet basics, not things clients are supposed to be asking for. I'd be inclined to get a fresh pair of eyes and a second opinion. Made some suggestions when we spoke, or PM me for further detail again. I'd do that before UCD.

Finally: I would definitely not leave an ill dog in kennels. She sounds from your posts like she is truly just barely surviving and has been at death's door only recently -- and has several quite serious issues and is on a lot of medication. A kennel is a serious slam to a weak dog's immune system and she is barely larger than a 2 month old puppy. Many kennels will not accept an ill dog as well -- as a risk to everyone else's dogs. It isn't the issue of how good the kennel is; it's that in such an environment she will be exposed to lots of potential illness from lots of dogs that could be carrying anything. A healthy dog would be OK (yet even with healthy dogs, kennels are a common source of illness!); an ill dog should definitely not be left in a kennel. I would home board or have someone you know mind her or if a vet's does boarding I'd leave her at a vet practice for daily care.
 
Thanks for all of the comments. My neighbour, gave me a something that she uses for her cats to give them the tables, its like a syringe, worked this morning. She has started to have proper poohs now thank god, you know the auld saying be carefuly what you wish for, my god, how can something so small make something so big:w*w:
She has had bloods taken and the pooh sample is being sent off to be tested again to see if the camplyobacter infection has gone. The vet did say that maybe as she gets older she will be able to fit the infection better. She did mention immune compromised. I have been given a contact in UCD who has been made aware of Poppys case, hoping to get an appointment end of next week. We need to get the current test results back first.
She is a million times better than a month ago when i honestly thought i would find her dead in the morning. When she eats she looks great, even the vet noticed, the difference in her with a full belly. She has gotten taller and is very bouncy and other than being tiny she looks great. People are always complimenting her on her shiny coat.
She has had to wear a thing on her head because of her eye, just in case she starts to scratch it. Hopefully that will clear up in a week. I am taking one thing at a time. Got her food sorted, sticking to James Wellbeloved and some chicken on occasion. She seems to like the actimel so going to keep giving that to her. I'll try and figure out how to get a picture of her with her bonnet:):)
 
Great to see an update, good that you feel she is getting on better but a pitty about all the set backs. Keep 'em coming and look forward to seeing some pics (y)
 
Just reading this thread now. Poor Poppy - I'm so glad she's doing better at the moment. When we first got Sally she wouldn't eat and I kept changing her food thinking she didn't like it. I wormed her and she had a long 'spaghetti' like worm come out in her poo :grnyuk:. The vet said the wormer had worked if it had come out. After this Sally started to pick up and I eventually settled her on James Wellbeloved dry food with some of a JWB wet pouch on top. She couldn't eat the food quick enough. I know it sounds simple but has Poppy been wormed regularly? Perhaps try JWB dry topped with a bit of JWB wet. Keep us updated and I hope Poppy is better soon.
 
Just saw this thread now...So sad you and Poppy had to go through this :(
Hope Poppy will continue to improve ...:flwr:
 
Poppy is heading to UCD on Monday. She has started to put on weight thankfully but her latest set of bloods have shown another infection. Her proteins levels are up but she is still anemic.
UCD has been given the run down on her problems to date, they will run various test so one way or another we should know within a couple of weeks exactly what is wrong with her. It really is taking all of the godness out of having a dog for the first time. Getting really feb up with it all now, in the vets every couple of days, the total bill for the last 5 weeks is up on €1000 and thats before we go to UCD.
 
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