Coco’s belly

baby coco, first day home!

Ever since we first got this cute little poop machine, she has had tummy problems. The worst part is that we NEVER know if she is actually not feeling well! Happy dog problems, I suppose.

The first few times she felt bad, it was parasites (whoopee!) and we cleared those up and prevent them with...a particular type of medicine that I won't mention because not everyone likes it.

Then something weird happened, and she got sick {vomit on the rug, anyone?} and more sick {let’s not go there}. Some antibiotics, and she was off on her labby ways.

It happened again {right on the freshly cleaned carpet} and we went through the cycle again. Was it the food? We were feeding her chicken and rice for puppies, so I switched to lamb and oatmeal for puppies and more antibiotics. The vet recommended maybe doing a test to see if she has a food irritation {food allergies don’t exist for dogs, there are simply irritants}. I declined, surely that was unnecessary and she didn't need it.

Once she was no longer a puppy, but still acted like one, she went to fish and sweet potato. Stinky, but she liked it!

Again, two weeks ago, she got sick {yes, on the brand new wedding gifted rug!}. This time it seemed worse, and after she started trying to lay down while still getting sick I started to panic. Seriously, getting a dog is the perfect precursor to children. I immediately turned to my dear husband, what are we supposed to do? We packed up, and got to the emergency vet as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, that “getting there as soon as possible” included going to the wrong vet, and then remembering I did transfer myself to the emergency hotline. Panic does wonders to your brain, just scrambles it!

happy to see the vet

She was so happy to see the ER vet, I mean, whole body wiggling happy! So after more antibiotics from the ER vet, I made an appointment with our normal vet. She’s had the food irritant blood test done, which is really just to see if she has either lymphoma or irritable bowel disease (IBD) based on how her liver is processing, etc. Both came back negative, but she has low B12. That doesn't necessarily mean anything, but has been known to cause upset tummies.

Low B12 can be due to malabsorption, which can be assisted with shots and a probiotic. We're testing the probiotic now! Should things not improve in a few months...we'll do some B12 shots. But I'm not looking forward to that. 

Until then, we’re back to lamb and potato and grain free and a probiotic. I’m hoping that helps her belly, and she hasn't been burping recently. She had the worst smelling burps, they smelt like poop. Happy side effect? No, her gut is definitely not happy and we’re struggling to find out why. It’s going to be a while til’ we find the right combo for her tummy, but we are hoping this is it for our little rescue fur ball!