changing things up ... step 1

So yesterday we cut out the Sucralfate at the advice of my vet.

No regurgitating, I slept like a baby last night, and was also quite pleased that I didn't have to set my alarm for 2am to give him the med!

sleep? what's that?

Sleepless nights in Seattle. Err, Ottawa. Last night Preston threw up over and over ... three times in my bed, and about four times on the floor. No sooner would I drift off to sleep than I'd hear BLEUGHHH!!

I sit at work in a daze. I was toasting my bagel earlier and fell asleep standing up in the kitchen. I want to go home!

the way we once were ...

Preston threw up three times yesterday. Twice this morning. Once was right after he ate, and he brought it up right on my bed while I was lying in it - raw food coated in a smelly brown goop. Yum. That got me up earlier than I had envisioned.

The second time he just exploded a bunch of liquid onto the floor of the kitchen. Totally clear except for a few specks of white, I haven't seen any regurgitations like this before. Maybe because his stomach was so empty he was only able to share his saliva.

My mum has brought Brittain and Hemi to the vet to get their nails clipped. She'll be mentioning to him that Preston is back to his old ways ... We'll see what he says.

a day of barium xrays

So the vet did a series of barium xrays all day yesterday. Preston's stomach emptied properly and quickly, so it's not what they were thinking. It's also not hiatal hernia ... Apparently the specialist looked for that before.

So this is good news and bad news. The good news is, we're holding off on surgery for now, and waiting to see if this is transient, and if we can keep him from vomiting for 4-6 weeks. I've lowered his level of exercise and excitement which seemed to bring stuff up.

The bad news is we still don't know what's wrong, and thus cannot fix it. The vets (two specialists and my own) have all agreed that we've kind of exhausted our supply of medications and testing - nothing new to try.

So all I can do is hope it mends itself, for now!

As a side note, the vet tech said she can see why I would be okay with spending so much money on Preston ... She said he's a total doll and sweetie! I think Preston has an admirer! ;)

i have an addiction...

I think I'm addicted to collars. No, I know I'm addicted to collars. I buy most of my collars from Randi of Zoe's Collection - and boy, do I ever buy a lot!

Preston just got a new shipment of collars and matching leashes in :) weeeee!!

ice, ice baby!

Food on ice, that is. Frozen food... RAW food. I did some researching yesterday and spoke with other dog owners and decided RAW was the way to go! Some people even said their dog's problems completely cleared up after switching them to raw food.

I went to Global Petfoods yesterday and bought Nature's Variety in Venison, which is supposed to be the most easily digested. I got a big bag of the patties, and a smaller bag of the medallions. Preston will be eating about half a patty and one medallion per day. I also bought some Activia yogurt which has probiotics. I'll feed him a spoonful of that a day. The big bag cost $28.99 and the small bag $15.99. With about 15 patties and 30-odd medallions, that will last a month. More costly than the Eagle Pack kibble I had been buying, but less costly than the Eagle Pack canned food, I think this is a happy medium and I'm also quite pleased that he's on an all-natural diet. I feel very strongly that dogs need meat, veggies, NO GRAINS, and need to eat like their wolf brethren.

I will buy another bag of a different meat in a week or two, and mix them up for some variety.

THIS MAY BE THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF THE PROBLEMS! If his problems clear up without surgery or lengthy medicating ... it will be due to the food and I will promote it EVERYWHERE!

change of pace

Well - Preston has been regurgitating again. He lasted all of about two weeks before he started throwing up his medications. We cut out the Gaviscon in case it was hindering the other meds and got a new medication, Metoclopramide, to help move the food along and reduce nausea. We also changed the schedule so that the day kind of went like this:

6:00: Sucralfate
8:00: Cisapride / Metoclopramide
8:30: breakfast
4:15: Sucralfate
5:15: Cisapride / Metoclopramide
5:45: dinner
9:45: Sucralfate
10:45: Cisapride / Metoclopramide / Omeprazole

Fastforward a week. Preston starts regurgitating with exercise or excitement. We picked up the renewal prescription on Saturday and he threw up three times after during our romp in the woods. Yesterday, Sunday, he didn't throw up the entire Boston Terrier meet but did right after arriving home and jumping out of the van, and then again in the house.

I phoned the vet this morning and we are changing the schedule again. He thought perhaps the Sucralfate is working so well that it's hindering all the other meds. So we're going to switch the timing around, in order to be giving that AFTER.

6:15: Cisapride / Metoclopramide
6:45: breakfast
8:45: Sucralfate
4:15: Cisapride / Metoclopramide
4:45: dinner
6:45: Sucralfate
9:45: Cisapride / Metoclopramide / Omeprazole
10:45: Sucralfate

We will have to see if this works. I am going to buy some highly digestible food for him tonight. The vet wanted IAMS special formula for puppies ... But I hate IAMS and refuse to feed that to my dog. Only the best. I'm conferring with other Boston owners and will update!

update

Preston hasn't brought anything up in 42 hours! This is amazing since it had gotten so bad he was regurgitating huge amounts about 3 times an hour. Cross your fingers for him!

gave us a scare ...

Preston has been regurgitating his food for the past week and a half. At our regular vet clinic he had an x-ray done which showed a strange pouch above the heart, just below his neck. The vet seemed to think that the food was getting stuck there and never getting to his stomach. He sent the x-ray off to an internal/cardiac specialist who then set up an appointment with me for Preston. He first wanted to do a CT scan ($1500) to confirm his suspicions, and if that failed, an endoscopy ($1500) to check out another suspicion.


He did a barium x-ray before the CT scan just to make sure that the pouch was still there. Strangely, it had disappeared. But Preston had been regurgitating way more often than the past few days, so something was definitely wrong. He also had lost 0.4lbs in a week, and a puppy of 7 months should be gaining weight, not losing it. The specialist, Dr. de Madron, said if he didn't get this fixed he would either die of malnutrition or of pneumonia. Obviously, the costs are secondary to his health, so we forged ahead to find the real problem.

A barium scope told the tale. His esophagus had all reddening around the sphincter joining the esophagus and the stomach, which was caused from the fluids in the belly leaking back into the esophagus. The sphincter, which normally is closed, was open, so that was the problem.

The vet decided he has esophagitis, derived from vomiting due to gastric reflux. He gave us a bunch of medications to take for a month ... So we'll see how that goes.

Generally, in the car, Preston does not relax. He's always having a look at passing cars, pedestrians, or licking the window. Tonight, though, on the way home, he lay on the seat and whimpered softly. My poor little man!