Taking Jim to Vet Today

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

Jim, as some of you may remember, is Carly's litter mate.  Will turn 13 end of October.  We had him scheduled for his annual this morning. 

Yesterday he was off his feed.  I could hear that his stomach was "gurgly" but he was in good spirits, was fired up for his walks, wanted attention, etc.

I slept on the couch last night because my back has been killing me and I like the support when it gets like this.

4AM I woke up to hear a dog hurling.  Turned on the light and Jim was in the kitchen puking.  Just bile.  Found a small mess on a throw rug in the living room with maybe 3 pieces of kibble in it.  Went for our walk and he was fine until we hit the 3 blocks from home mark.  Wasn't sure I was going to get him home as he retched and retched and then vomited 2 nasty looking piles of greenish bile.

Bob's showering right now so we can both go in and talk to Doc Radny to see what her recommendation is for the boy.  Should also add that his stool is nice and firm so don't think it's like a 24 hour flu bug.

Virginia

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

Back already.

Jim is running a slight temp, not in the danger area.  Heart sounds great, externally he looks good other than catteracts forming which is to be expected in a 13 year old dog. 

Got his rabies shots, toe nails clipped, left ear canal cleaned out (yuck) and sent us home with some pills to take one twice a day for 7 days.  If his symptoms continue or get worse, then we will talk about a blood panel to see how things check out internally.

Vet said it is very unusual for a dog of his size to be so healthy at his age.  Only thing (other than his puking) is that he's lost 4 pounds in the last year but a lot of people lose weight when they age as well.

Virginia

[kodydog]

My young girl went through a week of severe diarrhea. We switched her dog food and added rice and supplements to her kibble. later when she was better we reintroduced the dog food back and she was fine. Only thing we could figure was it must have been something she ate. Lizard? Bug?

Hope old Jim is doing better soon.

[Darren Henry]

Hope ole' Jim is feeling better and eating some now. I had to do what Ed suggests for Buddy one time. Same symptoms---a few days on hamburger and rice * with the pills my vet prescribed and he was himself again.

* She suggested liver. I gag on liver and Buddy wouldn't eat it. He did really enjoy the batch of freezer burned venison & rice I boiled up for variety, mind you.

Before some one calls the SPCA---It was judiciously trimmed and slow simmered. Heck if it hadn't been pay week I'd of put salt in my half and shared it with him. LOL

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

So far so good.  He's had a day's dose of the meds.  Gulped down a couple of milk bones today and I'm pretty sure I heard him chowing down at the food dishes.

He was full of vim and vigor on our evening walk.  Tail going about a million circles a minuted. ; )

Hoping just a minor bump in the road but at his age we expect anything.

Virginia

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

May have to take Jim back in on Monday as he threw up twice when I took he and Jim out first time this morning.  He seemed to enjoy his walk and has been fine since then so we'll just keep an eye on him and see what shakes out.

Virginia

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

Jim had only that one other episode of vomiting.  Has been off of meds for over a week now (I think) and is back to normal, if not better.  Energy much better, appetite is voracious, loving his walks, like I can hear him a block away when Joe and I are on our way back.  Only issue I see know is that is back left hip seems to be bothering him.  But like Bob said, Joe may have knocked into him with too much force or he may just have faltered on our new wood floors.  At any rate, his is about 7 weeks shy of being 13 so I can't get too freaked out over the hip issues.

We are now catless.  As you may recall, the little darlings were NOT thrilled about Joe's arrival.  I was afraid it would be that way when we caved and returned Stevie.  Just gave the cats more power than I thought they needed.  Well, we've had Joe a little over 7 months.  He's settled down big time since we got both side yards enclosed.  He gets his morning walk (22 blocks) and his evening walk (20) blocks.  After I get back from walking Jim, Joe and I go out and I throw him rapid-fire tennis balls.  I've collected or been gifted with at least 10 this summer so every night, I collect all of them and then start throwing them.  Joe burns up tons of energy doing that.  I throw at least 10 minutes and try to maintain for at least 20 but on nights like tonight it is just too darn hot for the boy.  Just barely got 10 minutes tonight before his tongue was dragging.

So, he's no longer a horrible pest to the cats.  No matter.  I had still been getting woke up at least once a night by a cat screaming bloody murder, if Joe walked into the dining room when Michelle was on one of the dining room chairs she would hiss and moan and groan like nobody's business.  Cass hasn't been upstairs for months, mostly hanging out in the furnace room (where their food dishes and litter boxes were).  We've been having issues with one of the cats pooping behind the credenza in the living room where the tv and electronic equipment is set up on.  Joe was always great about alerting us to it so it got cleaned up promptly.  Bob & I talked and decided to let things ride until the new flooring got put in.  Once that happened, we decided that if we had any further accidents, it would be the end of the road for the cats.  We spent way too much money on that floor to have it start smelling like cat pee.  Sunday, Bob asked if we had gotten the final bill on the fencing.  I went over to our bill box behind the tv and everything in it was soaking wet.  I smelled it and it reeked of cat pee.  Bob groaned and said that was it and the cats needed to be put down.  Monday morning on his way out to walk, he asked me if I was going to call the vet.  I got an appointment for 11 Monday morning and we dropped them off.  It's been very interesting since we returned from the vets.  Joe has looked around for them a time or two but Jim has not shown any interest whatsoever.  But Joe is much calmer.  Probably a combination of not having the cats stirring him up all the time and not getting yelled at for p*ssing the cats off or to "leave it".

Anyway, we are going to lay low on cats until Joe is a little older and then go to the Humane Society and pick out a couple of cuties and see how it goes.  I know Joe would love to be able to play with a cat.  I'm thinking we'll wait until we don't have Jim either since he's never seen cats as an essential element of life.

Virginia