Medical Adventures

And why are we looking at x-rays? And whose interior is this? Just guess... Poor Lil' Robin started looking green on Wednesday evening and then spent the night throwing up. Needless to say, Bob and I got very little sleep what with cleaning up doggie barf and pulling on pants and running outside. Just as we'd drowse off, Robin would need to go out again. Thursday she seemed okay early on. She ate her meals- not with much enthusiasm, but she ate. And pooped. (That's always important!) We went on our walk and she was alert and inquisitive; but when we returned home, she curled up in a small ball and slept most of the day. Friday morning, Robin just looked so under the weather that I skipped out of work and took her to the doctor. Robin had no temperature and she didn't seem in pain when her stomach was pressed, but her vet suggested x-rays. We all began to suspect she had eaten something that was lodged in her interior... like that damned new rawhide chew bone that I had given her on Wednesday and that was mysteriously devoured and gone almost immediately. Sure enough, the vet thinks a darkish circular area is probably that stupid piece of rawhide!*
So while Robin is still eating (small, simple meals of rice and organic low salt chicken broth and a bit of chicken) she doesn't seem to be eliminating much. I keep hoping that she'll just puke up that rawhide fragment or her stomach acids will break it down. She's running around, albeit not as actively as is usual for her and isn't really uncomfortable but it can't feel good.
Another view:

 So we're left, during a holiday weekend no less, with the fact that if she doesn't eat or can't poop that they may have to go in, do surgery and physically remove the obstruction. I've always heard these nightmare stories of dogs that swallow bones or corncobs or rocks that have to be surgically removed. Our good friends Don and Elizabeth (who visited this weekend with their dog Romeo) told us a funny but dreadful story of a dog that ate a billiard ball. They thought the dog was a goner because the vet assured them that it would never pass through their dog and they weren't prepared to pay the several thousand dollars the surgery would require.(!!?!?!?!!) But a few nights after this death sentence, their dog threw up the ball... in the middle of a dinner party and without the colored coating. (Apparently the dog's stomach acid had removed the finish on the ball!) So we can keep our fingers crossed!


*The dilemma is what exactly to give to a dog like Robin who loves to chew. She's a serious chewer! She doesn't like Nylabones, she consumes Kongs so fast that it's like an Olympic contest and most other treats just don't hold her attention or hold up under her powerful mastication. I used to give Robin hard sticks (thinking "all natural") but several friends warned  me about them with horror stories of how the get stuck in dog's guts. The irony! The vet recommended antlers and marrow bones so we'll try those.