Monday 16 November 2015

on the special diet again, sigh...

Penny had been well for the last couple of weeks, after her hospital visit for gastroenteritis, and I had even reintroduced some aspects of her normal diet.

But... last Friday she was to go to the vet to be sedated so he could look down her throat to check out her strange puffy breathing. He says he can hear 'congestion'.

So, no food after 10 pm. But in the morning she was desperate to go outside to eat grass. I took her on a street walk, but she was searching for grass. What could I do? She obviously felt ill, and there was no point in letting her be sedated if she was unwell. So out to the back yard to act like a sheep and mow the long grass.

My garden always has at least one patch of yummy grass, just in case!

She pooed out the strangest thing. (Apologies if you hate the next two photos, but I always look around on the Net when I'm worried about Penny, so I thought these photos might help someone else to understand their own dog.)



Wow! That sure didn't look good. And then she threw up white froth. (You can see some still hanging from her mouth.)


Off to the vet to explain that we didn't want the sedation and to ask for help. He gave her three injections:
anti-nausea (cerenia);
anti-inflammatory - just a little, I think- (dexadreson);
penicillin (benacillin) -in case there's an infection.

She's been good ever since, except for the worrying coughing/sneezing, which is on the back burner until she recovers from this set-back. But we're back to eating the Royal Canin Gastro Intestinal Low Fat diet. In looking for the link to add here, I notice the advice that this is a diet for management of a condition, not necessarily a long-term feeding product. (I must ask the vet about that.) It says to monitor your dog's weight. Penny has been losing weight over the last six weeks of illness, so I'll keep an eye on that.

But at least, as far as I know, it's a diet that gives her everything she needs in terms of nutrition. We're also finishing off the boiled rice and boiled chicken that I cooked up.


4 comments:

Molly the Airedale said...

We're sending lots of AireZen and POTP, Penny. We hope you're back to 100% soon!

Love ya lots♥
Mitch and Molly

parlance said...

Thanks, Mitch and Molly. We are also thinking of you and sending you the very best wishes for good health.

proud womon said...

poor penny hasn't definitely been having a hard time of late parlance... a worrying time for all... but what a beautiful, tranquil place you have found for her to recuperate...

parlance said...

proud womon, it's such a responsibility, looking after another living creature that we have taken into our home. If she could talk and tell us how she feels, it would make life easier, haha, but I guess she'd never stop telling us to take her for a walk or to give her nicer treats!