Homer being sick

[JES72]

We’ve had a few really good days…
Homer hasn’t been well this morning. He regurgitated this morning which is not unusual then vomited up liquid bile. Since then he has been retching and bringing up white foam. He is uncomfortable and nauseous and shivering although he does not appear to have a temperature. I’m taking him to the local vet this morning.

 

[Stacia]

I am so sorry, hate to see a dog being so uncomfortable, hope the local vet can help.

 

[Cath]

Hope Homer goes on alright sending love and lambies

 

[Jennifer]

It’s so horrible when you know they are uncomfortable like that and there’s nothing you can do. I hope the vet can give him something to settle his tummy quickly. Fingers crossed and thinking of you both .

 

[JES72]

Luckily our local vet is round the corner. She gave him an anti nausea injection. Injections work best as we know it’s got to where it needs to go. When we got home he went to sit by his food bowl so I gave him a boiled egg.
His weight has gone down again to 28.7kg which does worry me quite a lot.

 

[Jennifer]

From my experience those anti emetic injections work quickly. Hopefully Homer will be a lot more settled now and be able to keep everything down. It sounds like he was feeling hungry which is always a good sign.

 

[Atemas]

Poor Homer

 

[M.F.]

I’m so sorry. Thinking of you and Homer xxx

 

[Granca]

Poor Homer - get well soon.

 

[Joy]

I wonder if very frequent, very small amounts of food would help to build his weight? I'm thinking a couple of spoonfuls every couple of hours. I know this can't be a long term plan but while you're at home with him it might be worth a try. xx

 

[JES72]

I've done some calculations: The vet said to give him 4 tins of food which is 1504 caolories but he should be getting 5 tins at 1880 colories per day especially if is is going to loose some and that he needs to put on weight. So I'll give him an extra tin at lunch time and also give him an egg and some butternut.

 

[Jacqui-S]

Just an observation, but 5 tins of food is a huge volume, compared to kibble which is more compressed.

 

[JES72]

2 for breakfast, 1 for lunch and 2 for dinner. It is quite a lot. All good if it stays down or at least if most of it stays down.

the tins are washed and taken to the Scout hut. Lots of fun building towers and knocking them down!

 

[JES72]

Thank you to everyone for their weight gain suggestions. I have made goats milk jelly and boiled sweet potato which Homer had as pudding after his tinned food. I have also given him a can at lunch time and some probiotics. His tummy is now full.

I feel really bad that not only was he loosing up to 20% of his food due to regurgitation, I was also under feeding him. No wonder he has barking at me demanding dinner.

The sweet potato and jelly appear to go down a treat and stay down. It's a couple of tablespoons of his tinned food that gets regurgitated.

 

[SwampDonkey]

I had to adopt the approach of what stays in gets fed with Moo. Anything she would and could eat became her food. She had egg and chips some days. Why do you think the sweet potato and jelly stay in? Can you add anything too these things to make them more nutritious?

 

[JES72]

I'm not sure why, the right kind of slipperyness and firmness. It's weird. Spoonful lumps of tinned dog food are a similar consistency but tend to come up more often. Today has been a good one with only small amounts coming up when there was a knock on the door and he got up with a jump. I am being a bit cautious I don't give him too much that may cause tummy upset.

I had the sweetest card through the door from our neighbours behind us asking how he is and hoping he's feeling better, as they haven't heard him bark as much.

 

[JES72]

Phew-wee the farts are smelly! If there’s farts, something must be going in the right direction..

 

[Kelsey]

Yes, good sign!!

 

[Cath]

Better out then in @JES72 well for Homer that is

 

[JES72]

Very big soft poops today. I'll cut down on the sweet potato a bit. I also gave him some salmon oil last night and this morning so will stop that too for a while. So far so good on the regurgitation. Some dogs are on Cerenia (anti nausea) as a regular drug, i think if his rugurgitation gets bad again we could have the injection at regular intervals.