My Money Is On The Shitty Greek Yogurt

On Thursday night, I spent several hours in one of the local vet ERs with Archie. He had been vomiting for about 18 hours, and wasn't keeping any food down. He would eat food but he would vomit it right back up. He was also lethargic and not his usual cuddly, interactive self. I had some bloodwork done just to be prudent (although I declined the pancreatic lipase blood test since hanky panky pancreatitis was pretty low on the differential list). All of his bloodwork was totally normal. He got a shot of maropitant (Cerenia) and was back to his usual bouncy hijinks the next morning. He did have some fairly violent, watery diarrhea the following evening but as far as I can tell, it was only that once.

But then Mimi started vomiting yesterday afternoon. She refused to eat any dinner. During the night, she got me up every hour with dry heaves, producing only a little bit of foamy bile every so often. And boy, was she fighting the nausea. Archie just opened his mouth and bleagh! Out came the food and that was that. Mimi made such a production out of it. We got no sleep at all. Mimi's eyes became sunken and she became slightly wobbly and disoriented. She was drooling and groaning in pain when I had to pick her up or move her. She was passing horrific gas all night and had a bit of bloody diarrhea this morning. So off again we went to the vet ER. We waited for over an hour but they had a couple of emergencies come in so they sent us off to another vet ER.

Poor Mimi was not doing well at all by the time we arrived at the second vet ER. I had full bloodwork run on her too, including the pancreatic lipase test. I was actually more worried about acute kidney disease than pancreatitis but all of her bloodwork came back normal. She got a shot of maropitant too, but we all agreed that she was clinically dehydrated so she got a big slug of subQ fluids. She wasn't quite sick enough to warrant an IV catheter and IV fluids although I was considering it.

I declined abdominal imaging (they suggested rads and I would have also requested ultrasound if possible). But if Mimi doesn't get better by the morning, I will probably have to get this imaging to rule out some pretty scary things such as an abdominal mass (GI lymphoma would be at the top of the list). And we'd probably have to do some aspirates of lymph nodes to go along with that. And we'd also have to get chest rads because lymphoma fucking loves to met to the lungs. What a mess.

Mimi definitely became more sick faster than Archie. Several possibilities could explain that--whatever was making her sick was different than what made Archie sick (unlikely, but possible), and she's old and slightly underconditioned so she doesn't have a lot extra to expend in being sick (most likely).

So let's hope she starts feeling better! She's been resting and seems to have stopped the dry heaving, which is a relief.

What could have caused this? If we assume that both terriers got sick from the same thing, then we have to look at environment and diet. With respect to diet, they eat different kibbles, and I brought their kibble with me from Oregon, so that hasn't changed. But I was not able to find a good quality yogurt to add to their morning meal and was giving them a store-brand greek-style yogurt. Personally, I detest greek yogurt. It is too thick and tastes like paste. I like real, full-fat yogurt with live bacteria, and that is what the terriers have been eating for years (Nancy's brand). I've tossed the shitty greek yogurt and am on the hunt for some decent yogurt that they can eat. They could have become sick from some toxin in the yard. If that were the case, I might expect Azza to show some signs of exposure as well, especially since she spends more time out there than the terriers but so far she seems fine. I did learn from the ER vet this morning that campylobacter infections are somewhat common here and can be passed back and forth in a multi-pet household. Nothing in the test results for either dog suggested an infectious agent but that certainly doesn't rule one out. And of course, the dogs were uprooted from their home and dragged out here and they have no idea what's going on. Stressful for all involved. Right now, our presumptive diagnosis for both is acute (hemorrhagic) gastroenteritis of unknown cause. My money is on the shitty greek yogurt.

I start work tomorrow so all of this has been taking place with fairly crappy timing. More stress for everyone!