Wait or Spend more money at the vet?

Hi -
My Lab/Pit mix named Milo has been having some ups and downs the past 6 days. He has been feeling alternatively sick to his stomach; refusing to eat; lethargic... and then the next day he's back to normal. I took him for an emergency visit at the local animal hospital on Friday nite because his symptoms were concerning and I had to leave the next morning for an urgent family situation. Here are the symptoms:

1) Not eating/drinking much (unusual for Milo)
2) Lethargic, sleeping all day and not greeting me/roommates when we come home
3) Shivering
4) Snoring loudly more frequently / breathing heavily
5) Drooling more for no apparent reason

Poop and all else are the same. I've been feeding him rice/chicken lately rather than his regular "sensitive stomach" food.

The vet did all blood tests, urinalysis, etc. No fever, nothing. The diagnosis: nothing was wrong with Milo except he was probably picking up on my stress and somaticizing. Hmmm... I was partially relieved, but didn't completely buy it. AND $350 of my money that I don't have to tell me it's "stress."

I went away for 2 nights. My trusted roommate and dog walker watched over Milo while I was dealing with the family crisis. Came back today. Learned that Milo had puked two days ago; was fine the next day; and then refused to eat today. He ate dinner for me, but it's clear he still doesn't feel well. He's shivering like crazy and I have him wrapped up in a blanket, which normally he wouldn't tolerate, but it's helping his shivering.

I'm wondering whether maybe he ingested something and maybe it's stuck in his digestive track. Although I didn't see anything, this would kind of make sense with his symptoms. Here's the long-awaited question (applause!). Do I go spend more hundreds of dollars that I really do not have on x-rays -OR- do I wait things out to see if anything passes or if he starts to feel better?

Thanks!

 

Did they do a parvo test?

 

Don't know about a parvo test. here's what the invoice says:

HCT/TS
CBC
General Profile (I think this was blood tests)
Urinalysis
NOVA Trauma Panel

 

It might have been included in the gen. profile, call and ask. Those symptoms sound alot like parvo to me.

 

before spending a lot of money with this vet, i would suggest getting a second opinion. if it is something serious, then you will regret not pursuing it when you DO find out what it actually is. money shouldn't be an obstacle in keeping your companion animal healthy.

it sounds like it could be parvo, but that should be one of the first things a vet should check for with those symptoms. but you said his BM is normal, dogs with parvo usually have diarreah(sp) and find it difficult to eat. (you said he ate for you, right?). and after 6 days of having parvo, your dog's condition would most likely be much worse than you describe.

it could just be nothing...a stomach virus or something, but i would check with another vet just to be certain. most of that stuff sounds like it could be from some kind of virus, but the lethargy and shivering i would be concerned with.

 

^^NP is right.

You might also watch him closely without him knowing you are watching him, maybe he is finding something to eat somewhere around your place that you don't know about, mouse poison, a dropped and open bottle of human medication, etc, something like that. Even marijuana or mushrooms, if you have some around. Look around for obvious stuff like that, if you don't see anything, then watch him very closely all day long especially on his "good" days that he is eating but do it so he doesn't know you are watching him, and see if he goes to some sort of hidden stash of goodies somewhere. He could also be eating something that's outside, so watch him when he's outside too to see where he goes and what he does. To me, it sounds like it could be that he's got a stash of something somewhere, and that is why he's sick every other day but fine in between (eats the bad-for-him goodies on his good days then is sick for a day over it then goes back to eating it again when he feels better)

 

Oh and one more thing, it COULD possibly be the chicken and or rice. Many dogs do well on chicken and rice when they are having these problems but for some it actually makes it worse. Try feeding just the chicken or just the rice and see if that helps. If that doesn't work, try ground cooked beef.

 

Sorry for the late reply. I'm waiting for the vet to call me back about whether he tested for parvo.

 

Hi NP -
Thanks for your advice. I agree that $ shouldn't be an obstacle. I just don't want to overreact and spend more money for them to tell me it's Milo reacting to my stress -- which, by the way, is greatly reduced now that the family crisis is over.

Here is an upate on Milo's symptoms:
1) His appetite has returned now and he is less lethargic -- good news and this points to the theory that his symptoms were "stress"
2) However, Milo is having problems eating. He'll eat a mouthful of food, will start choking and looks like he can't breathe for a few seconds (scary!), then coughs all the food back up. He'll do this a few times until the entire mouthful is coughed up. Then will proceed to try to eat this again (gross!) This is how he ate dinner last night and breakfast this morning.
3) He did vomit one time on Sat night, but not since then.
4) Milo's BM's changed from normal. He didn't poop all day yesterday, which is unusual since he's a 2-3 poop/per day dog. This morning, his BM was multi-colored and very soft. Orangey, reddish, don't think there was any blood in it. Lovely.
5) He is still shivering, but less so and his overall spirit and energy has improved.

 

Hey Lilyrayne -
thanks for your replies. Yeah, could definitely be finding some goodies around the house, although (unless my roommate is hiding some) we don't have mouse poison or schrooms, etc in the house and we don't have any meds accessible to Mr. Milo. He more likley picked something out of the trash (no grapes, raisins, chocolate, etc that I know of in the trash as of late) or ate something on one of his walks. He does eat things on his walk, some of which I can get out of his mouth, other times they're gone before I can say no. Mostly food items (like chicken bones, which I know are bad news) that people have tossed. I'll keep a close eye of him around the house though. )

 

Switch back to the sensitive stomach food.