Minnie - Tuesday's update

[Diflower]

Here we are
Cautiously pleased, I think would be about right.
Vet has taken more blood, and may ring later with the results but might not unless the count's gone down, which we don't think it will have.
It's a long, long haul and could still go either way. She will need regular blood checks etc., and the drugs adjusted accordingly - hopefully downwards.

On the plus side, she's now had 3 tins of food since Saturday night, not a lot considering a dog her size would be on 3 tins a day, but good going. Partly it's difficult as we have to get the food in her while she's awake enough to eat, plus go outside for a drink and wee, etc. We are literally having to wake her up to do those things.
We've bought a case of 12 tins of the ID food for now, I'm going to try researching what else to feed her but until she shows any sign of being tempted by anything else we'll just keep feeding her that.

She's still collapsing all the time, but did walk a short way with only a little wobble at the vets.
The drugs will really only just be starting to take effect, so it's good that she hasn't gone downhill more than she did.

Unless we need to go before, next appointment is next Monday morning.
Thank you all again so much
Di and Minnie
x

[meriad]

that definitely sounds a lot more promising Di. As you say cautiously pleased and optimistic.

Hopefully now that the meds should start kicking in it'll be a case of onwards and upwards and an improvement, however small, every day.

As a matter of interest; do you know if this is potentially a lifelong thing or once the meds are working and she's back to normal she should be fine?

[Kaz]

That does sound more promising Di Let's hope things start to improve even more now the meds should be taking hold - come on Minnie!!!!!

[JoM]

That does sound promising Di, fingers crossed her bloods are as expected and that she'll start to show some more improvement now the meds start doing their jobs xxx
Come on Minnie!!!
(((((Di)))))

[Diflower]

Thank you xx

Meriad there's no way of knowing. The only positive really is that since Saturday she's been holding her own and not going further downhill.
The idea is to check the blood count regularly, and as it goes up so the drugs go down. Some dogs do seem able to stop them altogether after a few months. Some seem to get a little bit better but not a lot, others do a bit better, but unfortunately tales of complete recovery are few and far between. And relapses are common...we'll just have to wait and see and hope that she's lucky.

[debih]

Thats really positive news Di. And really good that the vet feels confident in not seeing you again until next week.

With regards to the food, a friend of mine has two dogs both with very poor digestive systems and they were on ID. However, they are massive German Shepherds so she knew that was going to cost her a fortune so she researched alternatives and told us about it when Millie started having her problems.

We took the food in to show our vet and he was happy that once Millie has stopped the regurgitating we can change her to this other one as the ingredients are very similar, although the other food isn't quite as calorific as the ID.

The food is from Pets at Home and is called Wainwrights. It comes in small plastic trays and for a dog between 12kg and 20kg they would need between 1/3 and 3/4 of a tray a day. They come in a variety of flavours and are (I think) 75p each or 12 for £9.99.

They are not quite as smooth as the ID (they have bits of rice in) but when we have tried Millie on it we have just added a little water to make it slightly smoother.

[Diflower]

Thanks Debih that's definitely worth looking into, obviously I'd check with the vet first too, but she's only on the ID as she wouldn't even look at anything else. It does cost a lot doesn't it!
If she'd eat chicken/turkey/fish with rice in between it would be ok too, but it's early days yet.

[debih]

It does cost a lot doesn't it!

A complete rip off! We are paying £2 per tin for them and she is having 2 tins a day, plus 2 tins of the AD (we haven't paid for the AD yet as the vet gave it to us so I have no idea how much that costs).

I had started to change her to the Wainwrights but Dan said he wanted her to stay on very high calorie stuff until she starts to gain more weight - she still has another 6 kg to go - and he gave us 12 tins of the ID and 12 of the AD.

And you can't buy it from any old shop - only the vets sell it around here.

[meriad]

Debih and Di - have either of you considered raw feeding? There is a company called Honeys which does raw food for working dogs and if you think about it - raw meat is what dogs / wolves would eat in the wild and would probably be a lot more natural (and healtheier?) for both Millie and Minne when the time comes that they both are back to normal eating?

it may take a bit to move them both over but in time they'd need less food to keep them fuller for longer and it'll be all 100% natural.



Which reminds me to tell Shaz to try a totally raw food diet for Candy....

[Diflower]

Debih I think we've been charged £27-odd for 12 tins but that could be more tins, the bill's not broken down properly for the stuff from Saturday & yesterday.
It's not available from shops, but there's an online company called Viovet that I've just been looking at, they do it for £21.17 for 12 tins, p&p is free for orders over £29.

We're happy to pay for it for now but obviously in the longer term will need something else. The Wainwrights wet food in the trays does seem well thought of, but not something I can nip out for one of to try, the nearest branch is about 13 miles or so away.

Meriad I would consider it yes, but again not for now. Debih probably feels the same, at the moment the battle is just with getting her to eat, and just now she won't even look at anything else, so without the Hills we'd have been in real trouble. Today she's happily eating it but still won't look at anything else. I'd probably have spent at least as much trying other things so don't mind.

I know with raw food you have to make very sure you know what you're doing but am aware there are quite a lot of websites and forums to go to, as well as lovely people like you. I don't have the energy for absorbing info at the moment though!