ARGH
Atticus has gotten into something else. He spent the night at the emergency vet clinic (luckily, we live just a highway exit away from Michigan State University vet clinic)under close observation.
Yesterday, he started vomiting EVERYWHERE. HUGE puddles. Then the diarrhea started. Atticus was SO mortified and sorry. He would vomit, then go hang his head by the back door. By the second hour of this, I was packing him into the car. I thought he had either raided the trash, eaten one of my son's plastic dinosaurs, or munched enough mulch to make a cork. The on-call vet thought it must be an obstruction, did xrays, blood panels, and fed him barium to get a good look at his upper GI.
The vet called last night to say that everything was inconclusive and she wanted to know how aggressive I wanted her to be. I told her that she was NOT to cut him open and root around in there unless she had definitive information that he was blocked up. Good thing I said that. She called early this morning and said that new xrays showed he was improving and that there was no obstruction. She's keeping him for the rest of the day to see how he eats and I can pick up my boy this evening.
Now to figure out what he ate to make him so sick. I'm thinking it might have been some dead rhododendron leaves that dropped off the plant in the mulch he was munching on. I didn't see any dead leaves, or mulch, in the gallons he puked up, but I'm moving the shrubs to the front yard where he doesn't get to hang out. Last night, the kids and I cleaned the yard of any small objects and hosed the yard down since Atticus made such a mess back there.
Do any of you have any ideas about what else could have caused this? What causes violent vomiting and diarrhea in a dog besides blockage or plant poisoning? A bad batch of dog food maybe? I just opened a new bag.
Yesterday, he started vomiting EVERYWHERE. HUGE puddles. Then the diarrhea started. Atticus was SO mortified and sorry. He would vomit, then go hang his head by the back door. By the second hour of this, I was packing him into the car. I thought he had either raided the trash, eaten one of my son's plastic dinosaurs, or munched enough mulch to make a cork. The on-call vet thought it must be an obstruction, did xrays, blood panels, and fed him barium to get a good look at his upper GI.
The vet called last night to say that everything was inconclusive and she wanted to know how aggressive I wanted her to be. I told her that she was NOT to cut him open and root around in there unless she had definitive information that he was blocked up. Good thing I said that. She called early this morning and said that new xrays showed he was improving and that there was no obstruction. She's keeping him for the rest of the day to see how he eats and I can pick up my boy this evening.
Now to figure out what he ate to make him so sick. I'm thinking it might have been some dead rhododendron leaves that dropped off the plant in the mulch he was munching on. I didn't see any dead leaves, or mulch, in the gallons he puked up, but I'm moving the shrubs to the front yard where he doesn't get to hang out. Last night, the kids and I cleaned the yard of any small objects and hosed the yard down since Atticus made such a mess back there.
Do any of you have any ideas about what else could have caused this? What causes violent vomiting and diarrhea in a dog besides blockage or plant poisoning? A bad batch of dog food maybe? I just opened a new bag.
