Dakota stopped eating... :*(

[Dhoey07]

With my dog Abby, she got anti vomitting pills from the vet which are VERY expensive and i had to feed her water with a turkey baster and make her eat jello to stay hydrated.  She didn't enjoy the jello but she needed it.  She was sick for about two weeks but finally came back.  I was getting sooooo close to having to put her down, so don't give up on your dog.  You would be amazed how tough they are 

[TwoSixFourWins]

At least it wasn't a twisted gut. We have had it happen to a hound....same thing....she stopped eating which a hound does not do. Took her to the vet and they opened her up and fixed it but it can kill a dog pretty quick and it's not something a lot of people think of. Just glad it wasn't that. I hope your dog comes out alright.

[wildweeds]

This is very suspicous sounding and sounds exactly like a scenario I had with a dog about 3 years ago,An Xray can confirm or deny cancer all you have to do is look for the mass.My dog had a mass completely surrounding her heart and it was so big that it was decreasing the size of her lung capacity.This dog was bouncing off the kennel and hunting on saturday and 5 days later was hunting on the other side of the rainbow bridge.Look at the dogs gums,pink is good,pale is bad,when you push on the gums they should turn white and then color up real quick,indicates good blood flow.The cancer will almost always give the white gums symptom,in the half dozen dogs Iv'e owned that have succumbed to it.

  What is the energy level like? Lethargic and dull or Vibrant and exciteable,just not eating?

Vet says shes dehydrated (from not drinking for two days) and she has swollen lymph nodes which is usually a sign of infection or possibly cancer. They gave her an anti nausea medication and took some blood. Said that they are going to run blood tests to see if they can get more information and will get back to me tomorrow. She drank quite a bit of water when we got home which makes me feel a bit better, but she's still not interested in any food. She won't even take the chicken now and that's just not normal... Hopefully it's all nothing but I can't help but worry

[Birdguy]

Sorry to hear about your dog, maybe this will help?
We had something similar happen to one of our labs several years ago. One day she stopped eating and drinking, we tried the canned food, with no luck, took her to the vet, said she was dehydrated wanted to keep her overnight give her IV fluids, runs some blood work, do some x-rays ....about $1500 worth and maybe they could tell us something in a few days. We did not have that kind of money (not even close) so we had them do the blood work, and took her home figuring if she was not going to make it we would be with her. The next day at work the Wife mentioned  to one of her coworkers, she said that they had a dog eat/swallow a golf ball and had the same symptoms and that the "country" vet they took the dog to told them to force baby food down the dogs throat. Within a day the dog passed to ball and all was well. The Wife called me and I got the syringe and baby food and when she got home we forced a bottle down, a few hours later did it again. By morning she was eating the baby food from the jar, that night ate some caned dog food and was back to 100% in two days. We never saw her pass anything, and she live a happy life for 8 more years until last December when we lost her at 14. You may want to give it a try, it sure worked for us.

[Camo Queen]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. She is still very lethargic. The only thing she will get up for is her tennis ball. Other than that she'll hardly lift her head off the floor. The vet called me tonight but I missed her call. She left a message to tell me the lab work done on the lymph nodes came back inconclusive. There are cells that "look like they could be something to worry about" but they weren't able to tell "absolutely" with the samples they collected yesterday. Her bloodwork came back and showed "changes to the kidneys and increased/high calcium levels." After $330.00 yesterday for the testing, they want us to come back in and get new lymph node samples to test "at a reduced cost." Kinda B.S. that they didn't take enough of a sample, but I have to RE pay for the testing... We'll be having a chat about that tomorrow. ..
Anyways, I couldn't bear that she hadn't eaten in 4 days now, so I loaded a syringe with canned "Critical Care" food thinned out with a little beef broth), and squirted it in the back of her mouth. She resisted and certainly wasn't happy about it, but she managed to eat a small 5.5 oz can which is better than nothing. After not eating for 4 days I didn't want to push it...So far she hasn't puked it back up and I'm really hoping she doesn't. Everything I'm finding on the internet is pointing towards lymphoma.Trying hard not to be negative and think the worst, but it's not working...   Going to call the vet back tomorrow.

Thanks again for all the support. Hardest thing ever to see her feel so horrible, and breaking my heart thinking that I might lose her. I've had her since she was just 4 weeks old... She's my baby 


"In direct answer to your question : A needle aspiration biopsy will be a much better way of diagnosing cancer than an x-ray. The x-ray may just show you what you already know which is that you have swollen lymph glands which could be caused by a number of things. The needle biopsy will show you what the cell types in the lymph nodes look like, normal cells or to be blunt cancer cells.

The high blood calcium levels will not on their own be diagnostic but in some cases may be indicative of a cancer somewhere in the body.

The disease you should be most concerned about is lymphoma"

[Camo Queen]

Ain't she purdy <3

[Camo Queen]

I've posted this one before but it's my favorite

[Camo Queen]

She's on the left. . . Was just a pup

[wildweeds]

How old is this dog queen?

[Ellensburg]

This thread is sad


Any updates?

[Hornseeker]

we also had a couple hounds get a flipped stomach...not what your girl has...as they become VERY uncomfortable and there abdomen gets rock hard as nothing can pass through. Brutal. Spent a alot of money working on them dogs!

Good Luck Camo Queen... she is a great looking dog! If it comes to the worst, just remember... time heals... and a new pup can absorb all your emotions and become all the dog and companion that she was...    

Best Wishes!

[Camo Queen]

@ Wildweeds: she is only 6

[Grizzly95]

I just remembered one of my Springers, about 10 years ago, got a deli sandwich off the table. Didn't think much of it until a few days later and noticed him very lethargic. Took him to the vet and the sandwich had a toothpick in it that went went through his stomach and spleen if I remember right. A $500 surgery later and a week and he was awesome. Still have the tooth pick in a baggy somewhere.

[Camo Queen]

Well, we went back to the vet today so they could take more samples of her lymph nodes. The Vet reiterated that her symptoms are pointing towards lymphoma. Does anyone have any experience dealing with chemo treatments for dogs? I was upset and I forgot to even ask what the cost for something like that would be. .. I'm just trying to go into this prepared

[ICEMAN]

Wow, what a hard time for you. A prayer sent your way for you and your beloved dog.