Questions for the vet

May 13, 2008 at 1:01 pm Leave a comment

Posted Date: : May 13, 2008 1:09 PM

Warning: Icky stuff in this blog post. If you are not a dog-owner some of this may gross you out.

I have been pretty stressed and anxious this week. We are booked in for a vet visit on Thursday because Boogie is due for a Bortedella shot but now it looks like I will have a LOT more to discuss with the vet.

Once again Boogie has been vomiting, and to not risk aggravating his tummy any further, I took him off the California Natural and he is now back on 100% Hills i/d. The vomiting has been less frequent but his little body heaves from time to time, like he is experiencing nausea. This happens at random times of the day. Nothing comes up but it looks like he is about to puke and he swallows and licks his mouth afterwards. His poop has also been softer than usual. And I am starting to worry if Boogie might have some sort of stomach disease like IBD or IBS that will require an endoscopy or biopsy to diagnose (ie, the traumatic and expensive procedure of sticking a tube into his stomach). It doesn’t help that I am paranoid by nature.

The other thing that worries me is that when I took Boogie to the groomer’s last week, I was told that there was “thick stuff” coming out of his anal glands. I asked if this was normal and the groomer said “sometimes”. I asked if I should be concerned and he said “No”. (The guy wasn’t much help at all & frankly I didn’t trust him)

In any case, Boogie has been obsessively licking his butt everyday this week – more often than usual – and I am now worried that he has an infection back there.

And then last night when we were out for a walk, all of a sudden, he started limping. He had a hard time putting weight on one of his back legs. Immediately I freaked out because I was reminded of Rocky (who had brain/neurological issues) who had sudden episodes of limping, that would come and go, just like that.

I have no idea what the problem was with Boogie. Back home he licked his back paw for ages. Wes and I scrutinized the paw but couldn’t find any splinters or glass or anything that might’ve been caught in there. A few minutes later he was back on all four feet and fine.

And then he vomitted again.
And then he was furiously licking his butt.
(All this was taking place on the bed. ICK!)

So here is my list of questions and issues for Dr Reina:
– Bortedella shot
– Check ingredients of foods with Dr. – get his thoughts
– Can we rule out e-coli or giardia? (bring fecal samples)
– Is IBD or IBS possible?
– Do we need to do a biopsy?
– Limping: check leg.
– Anal glands: is there an infection?
– Should I add more fiber to his diet to enable anal gland self-expression?
– Glands: how can I tell when they are full? (gross as this is going to be, I want to know. Boogie’s glands seem to be filling up really fast. He only got them done a week ago!)
– Could the nausea/vomiting be related to the licking of impacted/infected anal glands?

I better write all this stuff down.