Daisy in hospital tonight

[Tania]

I went through this with Molly once, I was sitting outside with her most of the night,
she was totally obsessed with eating grass, it was really weird she was quite poorly but it has never happened again .
I hope Daisy recovers, sending you and Daisy our best wishes and healing thoughts.

[arasara]

thank God she's back home! I actually just had an incident not too long ago with kosmo where he would eat grass like crazy. He ended up having colitis but the grass thing was almost ravenous! Is her tummy talking loudly? That's what always precipitated Kosmo's grass eating. It was quite an ordeal with him, but he's finally doing better now. I hope she gets over this soon and she's back to 100%!

[Daisy's Mom]

thank God she's back home! I actually just had an incident not too long ago with kosmo where he would eat grass like crazy. He ended up having colitis but the grass thing was almost ravenous! Is her tummy talking loudly? That's what always precipitated Kosmo's grass eating. It was quite an ordeal with him, but he's finally doing better now. I hope she gets over this soon and she's back to 100%!

What did they do to treat his colitis? I'll look up the symptoms online and see if they match what's going on with Daisy.

I wish I had better news to report on Daisy, but now she is on a total eating strike. I now have complete deja vu from 3 years ago at almost this exact time of year when she would not eat anything at all for several days. She ended up being at the vets for several days and they never did know what was wrong with her after all kinds of expensive testing. This is now a different vet, who did 2 of the same tests (so far) with the same conclusion -- they don't know what is going on but they are calling it gastroenteritis.

She is mopey and she literally will not even look at food now at all. Last time when this happened, I ended up making Satin Balls and got her to eat them and was rejoicing over it because the vet said the next step was force-feeding her. I just made the recipe and took a little bit over to her and she wouldn't even touch it. I guess I will call the vet tomorrow and see what he recommends now that she's moved on to this new symptom. She could stand to lose about 5 pounds so a little while without eating isn't a huge deal perhaps, but I know we will need to see some signs that she has decided to eat again in the near future.

And she is still absolutely obsessed with grass. I'm really wondering now if it is something in the environment that is making this happen again. I don't remember all the vomiting from 3 years ago, but I do recall the grass eating and I most definitely recall the anorexia. I walked her down the street this afternoon instead of letting her out in our backyard, just in case it was something in our grass that was attracting her and/or making her sick. She pulled like crazy to get her face in every yard that we passed so she could eat grass. I am at my wits' end.

If anyone remembers details of their dogs' similar episodes, please share what finally ended the problem! Was it just time? Medicine? Daisy's on anti-nausea medicine, an antibiotic, and an acid reducer. I really hoped the Satin balls would do the trick, but maybe it's just too soon for her to decide to eat anything yet. Maybe last time I used them, she was just at the time where her appetite was starting to come back.

[Teresa]

How awful for you and Daisy!!

I've been there with Barney (four times!!)and all that worked was starving for up to 72 hours the same meds as Daisy is on, a drip plus strong antibiotics.

She's listening to her body at the moment - vets seem to say gastroenteritis when they have no clues for anything else.

Barney started eating after around three and a half days, he must have been feeling bad as he is a complete food addict usually - ill or not!!

Sending you a big hug as I know I needed one whe Barney was ill!!

[Daisy's Mom]

How awful for you and Daisy!!

I've been there with Barney (four times!!)and all that worked was starving for up to 72 hours the same meds as Daisy is on, a drip plus strong antibiotics.

She's listening to her body at the moment - vets seem to say gastroenteritis when they have no clues for anything else.

Barney started eating after around three and a half days, he must have been feeling bad as he is a complete food addict usually - ill or not!!

Sending you a big hug as I know I needed one whe Barney was ill!!

That does sound like Daisy! Even the food addict part. I'm trying my best not to get too panic-stricken yet so it helps to hear that other dogs had this type of thing and then started eating again after a few days. One thing that is increasing my anxiety, though, is that we were planning a trip to see family this weekend in another state. My husband's niece is graduating from HS and then we were going to go to my parents' house for Memorial Day. My parents will be very, very disappointed if we don't go, as we haven't seen them since Christmas. They don't get to see our kids that much and they are elderly, so I always feel pretty guilty about that. I was praying that Daisy would get better by Sat morning when we are supposed to leave. What to do, what to do?

[Teresa]

Stressful eh?? Two years ago Barney spent four days at the vets and came home the day before we were going to Suffolk for a week looking very fragile (but much better than he was!!). We took the decision to leave him with Kevins Mum and Dad for a quiet week rather than a six hour drive and a change of scene. It was hard as he comes everywhere with me but he loves them and is familiar with their house.

We came home after the week away to a totally recovered bouncy Barney

[Karlin]

I wouldn't worry too much about not eating -- and I'd ignore her totally when feeding and just lift the food uneaten til the next scheduled meal, at least for the next day or two, not try to cajole her into eating. Unless she is emaciated and badly needing food -- on the vet's direct advice -- I'd follow the advice in the Caring for your Cavalier forum for finicky dogs. Wild canids only eat every few days and a domestic dog's digestive system is designed to follow this as well. Some people actually skip feeding days to more closely simulate natural feeding patterns with their dogs! So a few days of not eating generally is no big deal unless you definitely have a sick dog (as opposed to a recovering dog). Also dogs may choose not to eat when they have had an upset stomach and will start when they feel hungry -- much like people do when they have had a vomiting bug or bad tummy upset. She may just not feel like food. It is always best never to try and lure a dog to eat though unless there are definite medical reasons to do so. But: if she ate the treats and not her food, I truly think your problem is a finicky dog holding out for attention/interesting new choices that may be more the equivalent of tasty junk food rather than what she needs to be eating. She is definitely eating if she will eat the treats! I would also say your vet didn't ring mostly because it really doesn't matter much whether she was eating or not, to be honest. Sometimes they wait til a dog starts to eat before releasing one from colitis, but often not if the dog was otherwise looking OK.

However, that said: has your vet done blood tests for pancreatitis? This could possibly be the problem and would require a special diet and potentially medication. It is very helpful to identify this condition early as it can become serious if left untreated and the dog is fed on normal food and treats. It is generally progressive. There is a significant rate of this health problem in cavaliers. Satin balls would be a definite no no - and indeed actually could cause a serious crisis for a dog -- if this was the issue as they have a high fat content from oils etc and this triggers pancreatitis flare ups (why it often occurs during US eating holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving when people give their dogs fatty turkey skin and leftovers!). Flare ups can cause a serious crash where you get symptoms as you did and the dog ends up on a drip. It can be fatal if not caught early. That's why doing a test if you have a dog that has repeat digestive problems may well be in order. Many vets do not know that this is seen a lot in cavaliers.

[Karlin]

Pancreatitis in cavaliers:

http://cavaliercampaign.com/other-he...m#pancreatitis

http://www.cavalierhealth.org/pancreatitis.htm

Symptoms:

Classic signs of chronic pancreatitis include abdominal pain, vomiting, and loss of appetite. The pain can be severe and may cause the dog to take a “praying” position. The affected dog may also pass diarrhea or voluminous feces, with small amounts of fresh blood and/or mucous.

The clinical signs of pancreatitis will vary with the severity of the disease. Low-grade cases may not show all of the classic symptoms and may be confused with inflammatory bowel disease. In severe cases, the dog may become dehydrated, may collapse, be in shock, and may even suffer renal shutdown and distressed breathing.

[Daisy's Mom]

He is definitely concerned about pancreatitis and in fact gave me a handout about it. He did do the blood test but it came back normal. She is not eating anything, not treats or anything else. Yesterday, she did eat a couple of liver treats when I went to the vet to see if she would eat, but nothing at all now. I will call the vet back tomorrow and tell him what's going on. And I definitely won't try any drastic measures to get her to eat.

She did not have any abdominal sensitivity, so that's good. He really felt around pretty thoroughly on her abdomen the day I first brought her in. He said her intestines felt thickened, which the x-ray confirmed. He said that we may have done the blood test a little too early in the process to completely rule out pancreatitis, so I suspect that if she doesn't feel better soon, he will re-do it.

Right now she doesn't seem uncomfortable, but she's just lethargic and won't eat. Plus, of course the annoying grass obsession.

I agree that the not-eating thing isn't a big deal yet, as it's only been most of the day yesterday, and all of today so far where she wouldn't eat. I'll read about the pancreatitis in more detail.

[Daisy's Mom]

Quick update: Daisy ate almost nothing Tuesday, nothing Wednesday, nothing Thursday and nothing today until this afternoon when she finally decided to rejoin the living. Yeahhh!! I was never so happy to see a dog eat, let me tell you.

She's still a little tired, and she has very weird, extremely smelly stools, but I definitely feel like she has turned the corner towards getting well. I assume that when she gets some food moving through her, her stool will firm up. She is still nibbling grass occasionally today, but compared to the ravenous gulping of it the last few days, I'm very happy.

Thanks, everyone for your concern and advice. Next time this happens, I am going to try very hard not to overreact. (I admit I'm the same way when my kids are sick. Small beings like that just seem so fragile.) I guess she'll be going with us on our trip now. A few hours in the car might be good for her. She always sleeps really well in the car. Hopefully the change in routine won't set her back. My only other option would be to leave her with the vet, but after hearing some of the coughing dogs in there this week, I feel safer with her going with us.

She lost 1.2 pounds during her fast, as close as I can tell.