How's Avalanche today?

In great spirits but when I gave him a chopped up piece of chicken breast it came up in about an hour. Medicine should be in the mail tomorrow, at least then he can keep something down, then a round of x-rays Monday. Then we see what Mary has to say.

There are no other vets (that I would go to) without going up to Ft Stockton (175 miles) or Midland (300) and I don't know them at all - there are two other vets in this area but most people have moved over to Mary as their primary vet of choice. She is good and her son now works with her and he just completed Vet school so he's current.

But nothing helps my feeling helpless ...

The medicine ( Cerenia ) arrived yesterday morning's mail - gave him two with lunch, though I had to make a "lunch meat sandwich" they apparently don't taste good.

What I don't understand,  when I have him on the Cerenia, he eats as normally as I'll let him ( still doing chicken and rice ) urinates and defecates, more or less, normally.  More or less is that there isn't the normal "quantity" since rice doesn't have a lot of bulk to pass on.

He doesn't exhibit any signs of being uncomfortable other than sometimes being curled up.  Smiles nicely, wags tail ... seems to be in good humour  (( which *I* definitely am *NOT* if I'm sick!! ))

Still going up Monday MORNING (early Monday morning) for the Barium X-Rays.

Will be waiting for news. I'm stumped on this one.

Just reread my notes from August last that I made when Sasha was sick. Some similarities - they both vomited - but a lot of dissimilarities - Avalanche doesn't show any signs of pain while Sasha was obviously in pain; Avalanche is alert while Sasha was sleepy.

I need to go out with him for a walk, the temps bearable but the winds have been strong gusts (25+) to horrific (50+) He'll let me know when he wants / needs out but then wants back in quickly.

I dropped about 1/4 cup of kibble in with the chicken/rice - he ate most of it.

Something I just ran across - I have a fig tree (Texas Everbearing) in the kitchen, I was going to plant it then we started getting this weird weather ( cold / windy ) so I brought it inside till we warm up a little more. I saw Avalanche testing a leaf after I brought it in, told him "No!" and he hasn't bothered it since, that I know of or can tell. We're now well over a couple of weeks with this vomiting ... I wouldn't expect any long lasting effects from trying a leaf but it's worth mentioning to Mary when I take him up tomorrow.

Is it a newly acquired fig tree? Possible insecticide? We had a cat that had seizures from drinking fertilizer water I soaking plants in while was away. Also, any chance he's eating the potting soil? That frequently has additives.

aljones wrote:

I dropped about 1/4 cup of kibble in with the chicken/rice - he ate most of it.  

Well, that was a fail. He ate it about 1:00PM and upchucked it about 4:00PM Odd, I could see the kibble - because of the color - and I could see the rice but no chicken. Did it get digested that rapidly?? <inquiring minds, etc>

@amymeme It had no leaves on it when I brought it home and has leafed out nicely since. There's one broken branch where he nipped it (or broke it looking out the glass doors?) But I've seen no evidence that he's nibbled on it since that one time (which may not have even been a nibble?!)

Sasha was eating potting soil from the strawberries I have potted - but didn't get sick from it. I was trying to think if that was before or after she was sick. I didn't move the Strawberries inside till we were getting cold - freezing cold so that would have been well after she was sick.

Didn't think it could be something environmental... definitely worth looking into.

I don't think the chicken would have been digested that quickly. Maybe broken down enough where it was hard to distinguish. Our dogs have vomited occasionally and I've noticed food they've eaten hours before still there.

I'm in town, got up at 05:30 to be here at 08:00 and I am not a morning person.

Two sets of xrays down and probably two more to go. So far the barium is moving along just fine; down the esophagus into the stomach; moving out of the stomach. The next set of xrays will show where it goes now.

Mary commented that she expected to see some sort of blockage with the ?pitreal? Valve leading out of the stomach but no such luck(???)

I can wait here or go home but its a three hour drive or a six hour wait ...

I'll update this later as we see what happens.

Pyloric valve?

What's the chance he's developed a food allergy? I don't vomit with mine but I DO get nausea and abdominal fullness, bloated. (however, my barium follow through showed rapid transit, not delayed, which I'm expecting with Avalanche.)

Home at 4:30 PM - tired!!

One more set of x-rays and everything has moved through the intestines and is setting in the colon. Mary commented that it was moving along nicely - quickly.

If it's a food allergy then he's allergic to chicken / beef / rice / ??? I wouldn't think so since this came on so quickly.

Nap time ....

Long time for a follow-up but I've been waiting patiently. Avalanche is back to being his normal (obnoxious) self but I still have no blithering idea what the problem was with either him now or Sasha last August. For some reason they both decided that it was time to start upchucking their food.

One change - though is that I'm now feeding him as I do the other two, twice a day and it's Fromm's Gold Weight Management - partly to keep some of the pounds off Sasha and maybe to add some to Avalanche.

Damn dogs are either going to drive me nuts or bankrupt!!

Were you only feeding once a day? Or free feeding? Ami upchucks clear foamy stuff and won't eat if he goes too long overnight without eating. I fixed that by reserving a handful of food for a bedtime snack.

Avalanche had been getting two cups a day in the evening. I did that after I stopped free feeding him when I added Sky and it seemed to work for him ... at the time. He seems to do fine if he gets his two (plus) cups of food every day (the plus is he often gets extra, I'd really like to put a little more weight on his frame!) I've had a couple of issues with him vomiting bile but rarely.

The last set of X-rays (barium) showed no problems with the food moving through his system ... but of course everything goes right when I have a dog at the vets.

I've talked to Purina and there are no known problems with that batch of food nor was there a change in formula.... and I still have 1.5 bags of the stuff ...

Life's never dull around here.  'Course I'm the worst of the lot.

We've had a stray who's been hanging around the local convenience store - and yesterday and today he's been laying in the traffic lane.  Someone backing out of the store could run over him without even knowing he's there.  So good hearted me, gets him into my car and bring him home with me.

I was going to put a collar on him and a lead but he doesn't want to come to me - in fact walks away when I approach him, but at the same time stays 'close' to the trailer.  

Avalanche has been trying to get him to play but he's having none of it; Sky and he have gone nose to nose with tails wagging and at the moment (11:30 PM) she wants to go out - fat chance, she's had her 'nightly' so she's in for the night.  Avalanche doesn't want to come in and I'm not going to force the issue.  Neither seem like they want to make a fight out of it - so I'll leave well enough alone. Comment, both are males - Avalanche is neutered, the stray isn't - wonder what the dynamics of that are going to turn out to be.

He's traveled - was comfortable in the car when I brought him home; he looked around a little and then curled up on the back deck.  He did have a rope collar on him that someone took off but there was nothing identifying him on the rope ... I'm guessing that he's someone's pet but why would they just drive off and leave him and not make some attempt to get him back?

I'll call the local vet Monday and see if he's gotten in the chip reader he wanted and if so see if the pup has a chip - he's a mongrel so I wouldn't expect to see one, but then who knows.

Since he has no collar and no way for me to restrain him, I'm hoping that the company of the other dogs, along with food, will keep him here.

I need four dogs - like I need another hole in my head.  If I can't find an owner soon, I'll see if someone wants to take him off my hands ....  

I'll see about a picture tomorrow if he's still here.  And he seems comfortable just hanging around ...

 Marshmallow Al

Yep.  I can well imagine you need another dog like a hole in your head.  Just like we needed a persnickety, free with his teeth, antisocial fur butt. Sigh.  We make do.

Hope you find someone to take him.  I don't suppose there are any spay neuter clinics out  there Terlingua boonies?  Nah.  Thought not.  Article in yesterday's paper about the 100,000 relocated rescue through ASPCA homeless animal relocation program.  Just reading it this morning with my coffee while scrolling through my phone.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/abcnews.go.com/amp/US/wireStory/rescued-puppy-named-apple-marks-relocation-milestone-62199741

Al... My niece NYC, who adopted another southern rescue last fall ( the one with the alcoholic boyfriend, now ditched) just took a foster dog a southern transport (BTW, Archer also came north on a southern transport. From Arkansas, I believe) The newest one is a tiny Siberian husky:

Silly puppies!!

Avalanche, whop normally gets along with everyone - human and canine - is being a horses patooti and browbeating the poor pup who only wants to stay out of everyone's way.  Pup came onto the porch and Avalanche "barked" him back onto the ground.

Sky, who is normally more reclusive, is having a good ol' time - when Avalanche leaves them alone.

Sasha, could care less about the whole thing.  Now if I let him inside, it may be a hole different ball of wax.

(Black Puppy) has laid beside the car, under the Jeep, went wandering all over but he seems to be comfortable if everyone - including me - would just leave him alone.

ARGH!!!!!!

No good deed goes unpunished, right??  

I've been given a car - not too expensive but still a nice little car.  It's registered in Canada so we're having to go through hoops to get it title and registered in Texas.  The fellow who owned it died while down here last winter, his nephew, the executor, doesn't want to take the car back to Canada - it'd cost more than the car is worth.  (( 2010 Hyundai standard 4 cyl with no nothing - Blue Book is about $3000 ))

I took the new pup into town with me in part because he followed me about a mile down the road as I was leaving, but more specifically to get him a collar and leash.  Each of the places I stopped, he was great, no noise, no destruction he just patiently waited for me.  The local store had no collars that would fit him .... small towns suck!

Then we headed over to the house of the guy who's giving me the car and we had to wait for him to get there from Canada.  Seriously they were driving in from Dallas which is about an 8 hour drive and time can vary by as much as an hour depending on pit stops / traffic, etc. We figured they'd get there about 8:00 PM and they got there about 9:00 PM

I went into the house to make sure it was ready for the nephew, got back out to the car and the pup had managed to tear the window ribbing loose, chewed a piece of the "upholstery" on the door, other miscellaneous damage I'll look at tomorrow ... in general pissed me off!!

Of course, to add insult to injury I parked the car in reverse which left the backup lights on which ran the battery down which really made my night!  We push started it when they got there (standards are nice that way.) but I'm still pissed.  Gotta come up with a way to keep him here if I have to leave .... hanging from a rafter sounds like a reasonable idea!

Oh no, Al. So very sorry about that. We can't leave Ami unattended in the car, even to fill the gas tank. He find someone the door. Totally wrecked the backseat door panel in the WRX a few years back. Wayne was PISSED! Do they have any slip leads in town? I've MacGivered a slip lead by put the small end through the loop, will that work short term?

So - Al, how are things going on the visiting dog front?

On one hand he's a pleasant dog.  He's gotten used to me and is apt to come up to me when I go outside.  He and the others bark and growl - sometimes it's "Get away from my food bowl! (Even if it is empty ) other times it's free for all play time.

My first guess was that he's in the 3-4 year range, but I think I'll have to drop that back a bit into the 2-3 year old range.  I thought I had a spare collar here but couldn't find it yesterday and looked further today and I still can't find it - either my pre-alzheimer's is showing or I've just plain forgotten!

Even though the others go in and out he hasn't shown more than a passing interest in coming in - and considering he needs bath BADLY that's fine by me.

He runs with the cars but seems smart enough to stay out of their way - he's not like some dogs I've seen who try to snap at the tires.

If I didn't already have three, he'd be a fitting candidate for a keeper - but as I said earlier, I do not need four dogs!

Have you tried contacting the ASPCA to get him on a transport north to a non-kill shelter?

My intention was to hold on to him for a week - ten days that way his owners will have had two weeks to try to contact someone to locate him.  If I don't hear from anyone by the weekend, I'll probably post a "dog available" notice in town and have a friend post it on FB.  

He's actually pretty safe down here.  We have no animal control in the county, if a dog becomes a problem the sheriff gets called and the dog is dispatched but by that time it is such a problem (killing other animals, etc) that dispatching it is probably the best solution.

We're so far out of the modern loop that it isn't funny.  And to answer your question, no I haven't.

Here's a shot of him taken in town.

Handsome dog! So. What's on his neck?