Sick As A Dog

Had to take Addie to the vet today. She's been throwing up for the last two days and hasn't eaten a thing. This is a shot of her after we came back. She's one sick little puppy and so sad... :(

The problem is what the vet calls "Garbage Gut" (if I remember correctly). In Addie's case she chewed up and swallowed some of the kids' plastic toys (which she has always done over the years) but instead of just throwing up once (which is what usually happens) she kept throwing up and was just miserable. This time around the plastic irritated her bowls and it hasn't been getting better. We gave her an x-ray and saw that there was a small piece of plastic still passing through her system.

The interesting thing I learnt from the vet was not to give Addie water for at least eight hours if she throws up like this. He says the water actually makes the condition worse. Instead, give your dog a small amount of Pepto bismol (or something equivalent) and then small amounts of wet dog food at regular intervals (like a tablespoon every 30 minutes for Addie). The wet dog food has water (for some hydration) and helps move things along while their system settles back to normal.

So hopefully Addie will be feeling better by tomorrow. Poor Pooch!

[Used Bibble to process this blip as it did a better job than Lightroom this time.]