What's wrong with my pooch? (doggie sickness)

General Questions
#1

Okay, here’s the story:

Thursday morning I’m leaving for work, and my little Alfred (3.5 year old miniature schnoodle) is doing a little coughing/choking/gagging like he’s trying to bring something up. He doesn’t do it again so I head to work.

Thursday night I get home and he’s doing again, but be’s bringing up streams of phlegm, most of which he just yo-yos up back into his mouth.

Friday around 3am he’s started doing it constantly, and now he’s decorating my carpet. By the end of the night I’ve got about 50 spots that need cleaning.

Friday at 7:30am I’m at the vet delivering him to get him checked out.

Friday at 5:30pm I pick him up. They’ve given him something to settle his stomach, fluids, etc. He seems fine. They also give me some metoclopramide(try to read from the label here) with directions to give it to him if he starts vomiting again.

Friday about 7:00pm he starts up again, so I give him his heart worm chewable with one of the m-pills inside.

Up until this point, since I’d goten him back, he’d acted pretty normally. He’s a very happy, loving, mobile dog.

About 9:30pm we go for a fairly long walk. He is moving very, very slowly and doing a bit of weaving. He’s usually the one tugging me full speed as hard as he can, but now he’s barely keeping up.

Friday before bed I’m giving him a thorough petting since he seems to be so sick or down or something. While rubbing, I hit a point on his stomach just to the left side of his penis that makes him screech one of the most pathetic noises I’ve ever heard.

Saturday morning I’m taking him for a walk and he can’t keep up. Sitting around the house he’ll be in a spot, I’ll come back a few minutes later, and he’ll still be sitting in that exact spot. I don’t mean laying, I mean sitting. Like he’s having trouble moving.

During our walk I notice that he seems to be having some major problems lifting his leg. He used to do the full 120 degree thing, and now he’s doing it just enough to get a little elevation on his whizzes.

Now, I had a virus around the beginning of the year that had a similar effect. I even had to go to the hospital, get IV fluids, and the like. I was sore as hell for days from a good twelve hours of vomiting. I wasn’t moving so well for a while, either.

However, the spot on his stomach has me worried. Is there an organ right in that spot that could be super-sensitive right now that I’m touching when I pet him? Is it an appendix about to burst or somethig?

If it is, keep in mind that when I’m checking now, I’m not even pressing on it. So if it is somehting like that, it is unbelievably sensitive. I’m barely touching the skin, not pressing on something under it.

Any brilliant ideas would be appreciated.

–Joe, worried

#2

Joe, back to the vet (emergency type if that’s all that’s available) NOW. He could have a severe blockage in his intestinal or urinary tract or he could have swallowed something solid and that is causing a blockage (or worse, punture) down there. Either way, hie thee to a vet, pronto!

#3

ohhh please keep us updated…
He stayed at the vet all day and they didn’t see the bump??

#4

Get right back to a vet. Pick a different vet if this vet isn’t going to do something more than give him something to settle his stomach. If he is weaving, and is in pain, there is something wrong with him.

#5

You might want to have Alfred’s stomach Xrayed. I bet that he has swallowed something to cause the vomiting and discomfort in/on his belly.

Even it get’s to his intestines, he may not be able to pass it and that wouldn’t be a nice picture.

Keep us posted.

#6

Yes, it does sound like it could be an obstruction. I would get him to a vet now and not wait for morning if he is in as much pain and distress as you describe. Go to the ER vet.

#7

This thread was accidentally started twice. Both copies had responses, so I have merged the two.

bibliophage
moderator GQ

#8

Thanks for the fix, bibliophage.

Anyways, here’s what happened.

I took him to the ER doc and had him checked out. His stomach was only sensitive from one side, and an x-ray revealed absolutely nothing. Everything looks great.

As near as we could tell, he’s just got a very bad, very deep (but still invisible) bruise. No bug bites, even after he shaved the spot. Not a mark whatsoever.

The vet even asked me if he’d been hit by a car or kicked by a horse! No car, and I don’t know if he’s ever seen a horse, except may from the car window.

So, it looks like he’s getting better all on his own. He’s moving better, but still sore.

I am wondering how he got injured, though. I didn’t do it, and I live alone so it’s not like it was somoene else. The only possiblities are my other dog (who is the same size and would have had to do some sort of full-speed-ahead torpedo thing with her head), or someone at my normal vet, which isn’t a thought that makes me happy.

Anyway, $275, an x-ray and a bunch of drugs later, he’s getting better.

Now, if only I could figure out what my other pup is allergic to. Five steps out the door and she’s doing the gasping choking thing every couple minutes unless she’s on her antihistamine…

-Joe, better

#9

Dogs roughhousing on the stairs? Off the couch on to the coffee table? These wouldn’t necessarily involve any dramatic effort on behalf of the other dog. You know the saying, “If gravity’s not your friend, you’re fucked.”

My dogs scrap ALL the time, (they’re young). I’m surprised that they haven’t gouged each other, or lost eyes. Somehow they seem to stay unscathed. However, they do bonk their heads into furniture pretty hard sometimes. It rarely phases them though. I send out into 'em into the yard when it gets to be too rowdy for me, or when it begins to involve playing ‘chase’ as well.