… welcome to the life …

three weeks ago, hailey fell very, very ill.  it started very suddenly at 4am – she was heaving and throwing up onto the carpet.  we bolted awake and cleaned up, then figured she must have eaten something bad before going to bed and went back to sleep.  then at 8am, she threw up again.  this time it was clear — just bile and water.  still, i thought it might just be residual, and shrugged it off.  but at 11am, she was throwing up nearly every 15 minutes… and it was no longer bile, it was becoming slightly pink.  after calling mr.sparkle and our vet to discuss the situation, we all decided to wait another hour before rushing her to the vet.  within 1 minute of getting off the phone with mr.sparkle, she threw up again, and this time there were chunks of what looked like blood and some of her lining.  that was a deal breaker for me — i threw her into the car and off we went!

when i got to my vet, they said that they wouldn’t be able to see her since they just booked up.  they sent me to another vet further down the way.  as we were driving there, hailey puked again in the car… and then again while we were waiting to be seen.

long story short, from the time we arrived at the vet to the time we left, we spent 4 hours talking to the vet, running tests and discussing possibilities for why she had fallen ill.  when we left, there were still no answers.  the vet gave her an injection to treat the symptoms and to rehydrate her.  after forking over a lot of money for more meds to give her at home… we were off!

in addition to my home grown apothecary — i had to crush up pills, create a slush and syringe it into hailey’s mouth &  shove pills down her throat — we were supposed to monitor her liquid intake.  in the first 24 hours, there was no intake.  she wouldn’t go near water.  at all.  after the 24 hours were up, she was supposed to start drinking water again, and do so without throwing up.  well… that didn’t happen.  she still wouldn’t go near it.

around the 36 hour mark, i started to worry.  thanks to the wonderful world of google and other message boards, i learned that (obviously) i’m not the only one who’s had a dog with this problem before!  so i’ll share some tips here, and what worked for me to get hailey to drink water again (a LOT of it!) and get her back to normal.

- add some sugar: this wasn’t very successful, she would see me adding something to her water and was curious, but after sniffing it and even taking a sip, she would walk away.

- add some gatorade: this was only a little bit more effective than the sugar.  she noticed the color change but didn’t want to go near it beyond a few sips.

- add a dash of milk: this is what did the trick for hailey.  in addition to the color change, i think the milk changed the consistency of what she was drinking.  she lapped up her entire bowl almost immediately.  RELIEF!!

if your dog experienced similar symptoms, you probably get them to eat right away either.  so here were some things i found useful:

- it is nearly impossible to go from not eating or drinking back to dry food.  our vet recommended baby food.  i did not like this option because it made her poop very soft and VERY smelly.  it was.. gross.  some other options include chicken and rice (no seasoning – just bland) and perhaps cottage cheese (zero fat).

- even after they go back to their regular food, in hailey’s case she eats dry food, i continued to add water to it so that it was moist and easier to take down.

hope this helps!!