She's home!

[debih]

We think it might be the anti biotics that are causing the problem.

Mick ground the tablet up last night (she is just on half a tablet now) and mixed it with water and put it down with a syringe. Within 10 minutes she was pacing the floor and was outside retching (nothing to come up though). When she came back in you could tell from her little eyes that she was in pain.

She's bright enough this morning but not particularly interested in her food.

Mick is going to ring the vet to see if she can have an injection instead. The vet mentioned it yesterday but said that they are pretty expensive (£50 a shot) so to see if we could get the tablets down her ground up in water first. We aren't sure how long the injection will last for though. She's off out for a walk at the moment.

[miasmum]

Deb I presume the antibiotics are for the wound? That is now healing nicely, I think I might ask if you could stop the antibiotics and keep a close eye on the wound.

[debih]

Deb I presume the antibiotics are for the wound? That is now healing nicely, I think I might ask if you could stop the antibiotics and keep a close eye on the wound.

She kept her breakfast down yesterday and that was it - she only wanted 2 other meals (bearing in mind that they are tiny meals supposed to be fed 9 times a day) and they both came back up.

I ended up ringing the vet late afternoon and she was, as ever, lovely. She is happy to change her to an injection of anti biotics. She doesn't want her to stop completely as although the risk of infection is very low it is still there and they don't want to ruin all the hard work to save the leg. So I am taking her up this morning for her jab - which will last two weeks. They should then just need to see us a couple of times a week to change the dressing and the vet would like to monitor her weight - she lost 4 kilos whilst she was ill the other week and for a scrawny little dog that only weighed just under 16 kilos to start with thats quite a lot.

She has had 3 breakfasts this morning and is busy playing with her ball at the moment. I'm taking her into school this morning as the head is desperate to give her a fuss. Then I'm going to take her for a longish walk (I've borrowed a friends retractable lead) before nipping her up to the vets.

Fingers crossed she doesn't react to the injection - the way her luck is going at the moment she probably will.

[Kaz]

Poor Millie - Hope the injection works better for her xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[meriad]

that is quite a bit of weight to have lost; poor sausage. Hopefully the AB injection will do the trick and she soon picks up and keeps her food down.

How did Millie enjoy school today

[debih]

She had a ball at school. I took her in before school opened so it wasn't too busy (the perks of being Chair of Governors - having the code to the door and being able to just wander in at will). The staff made loads of fuss over her and her tail never stopped wagging. She was back in the car by the time parents started arriving though - I think she would have found all the children too overwhelming.

She went for a nice long walk (well short compared to her normal walks but long compared to recent walks) through the woods and then onto the vets. The vet weighed her - she weighed 12.45 kilos - when they weighed her the day after the accident she was 17.25 kilos so she has lost loads. You can't really tell by looking at her but when you stroke her she is just a little bag of bones. She became quite stressed at the vets and was sick - just horrible white foamy stuff but it did mean that the vet got to see her being sick (the pacing and the pawing at the ground) and got to have a good look through it (yuk). She wasn't concerned - she said the pacing and the pawing are because her little tummy hurts and the white froth is the fluid in her stomach - there was no actual food in there.

She had the jab - which obviously stung a little and then when we got home she slept. I went out for my lunch and started to panic that she was going to have a reaction to the jab and I would come home and find her dead on the sofa. Anyway, I got home and she was fine and more than happy to go out for a walk up and down the road. I have borrowed a retractable lead from my friend so she has a little more freedom than just on our short lead.

She has had 3 more bowls of food - only small portions. Two dessert spoons of the ID food (high nutrients) watered down very thin. She ate them and kept them down fine. She can have some more later on this evening. I am going to stick to lots of small portions for a while and slowly start to build up the quantity and the thickness.

The ID food is so expensive - £2 per tin. We need to aim to give her between 1 and 1.5 tins a day (although at the moment she is on about 3/4 to 1 tin a day as I just don't want to overload her little tummy). The vet has said that we can change her to Chappy if we want but as this is a special gastric food I would like to keep her on it for a couple of weeks at least to see how she keeps it down and for her to start putting some weight on.

We don't have to go back until Thursday for the dressing change (the vet never looked at the leg at all today as they are happy with that) and I will ask them to weigh her at the same time. I will try to monitor her weight on the calendar just so I know that it is going up rather than down!

In herself she is fine - she is sprawled out on the sofa watching Tracey Beaker with the girls at the moment.

[Diflower]

Fingers very firmly crossed Debih that she's ok with the injection.
I know she needs the nutrients from the food, but could you add plain brown or white rice to that, or for in between?
And/or plain chicken?
It does sound as though she'll be back to her old self before too long though, poor little thing.

Just thought too, the food Minnie now has is called Berties, not for now but maybe later? It's chicken and rice based, no wheat or cereal, and supposedly completely non-allergenic.
Your vet does seem to be suggesting 'wet' food though, and this is dry

[debih]

Fingers very firmly crossed Debih that she's ok with the injection.
I know she needs the nutrients from the food, but could you add plain brown or white rice to that, or for in between?
And/or plain chicken?
It does sound as though she'll be back to her old self before too long though, poor little thing.

Just thought too, the food Minnie now has is called Berties, not for now but maybe later? It's chicken and rice based, no wheat or cereal, and supposedly completely non-allergenic.
Your vet does seem to be suggesting 'wet' food though, and this is dry

She usually has complete dog food biscuits (usually working dog food) but the vet has said at the moment she pretty much has to have "dog food soup". It really looks like gravy. The actual food is very smooth and when mixed up with water is just brown and gravy like. I will start to slowly add less water to it and will then move her onto a different sort of food - my friend feeds her dogs Wainwrights Best Friend food which have rice in so I will probably try her on those.

Then when she is fighting fit again she will be back on her old dried food. Mick only bought a sack of it a couple of days before the accident!

[Diflower]

Oh gosh yes, it's a different situation isn't it, you'll want her on her old stuff when she can.
It's such a huge relief once they're back to normal, touch wood Minnie is now fine so long as we don't give her anything we might consider a treat - including dog treats lol

[JoM]

Hope the injection makes a difference to her Debbie.

Billy has Arden Grange food, it's hypoallergenic with nothing artificial added. We were given a bag by Dog's Trust when we brought him home, we tried gradually introducing Pedigree as it was so easy to find but even the smallest amount upset his tummy so we've stuck with the Arden Grange, Pets At Home sell it now so it's easier to get hold of.