Labor Day Weekend

When I got home on Friday Husband told me that he'd already taken Barry out to use the bathroom. He said that Barry was by the door and signaling that he needed to go out so out they went. Barry had diarrhea. It's been quite some time since he's had diarrhea. In fact, we have been pretty stoked about how well he's been doing. I think it's in part to a good diet and the probiotics from the kefir. So to hear that he'd had explosive diarrhea was quite upsetting. The only thing I could think of was that he'd eaten too many of the cookie dog treats we brought out on Thursday. Thursday and Friday he'd had quite a lot of these cookies where he wasn't used to eating so many in such a short period of time.

A couple hours later Barry ran full speed to the door, again, letting us know he needed to go. I took him out and he probably went about three times. What came from him was nearly clear, just mostly water. It got me worried that he'd become dehydrated. Before we went back in he attempted to go again. This time nothing was really coming out. He was straining quite a lot. Poor guy.

We got back in and I tried to make him drink a little water but he wasn't having it. He laid down and I prepared some food for him. I thought maybe getting him to eat a little something would make him feel better. He turned his nose away from the food. I figured it was for the best since he was probably not feeling too good. Then he threw up. Threw up all the food he'd eaten that morning.

Later that evening when we took him out again he started straining once again to go but couldn't. Instead I noticed that a red liquid was coming out. Bright red blood. Husband and I freaked out. It was late and the vet was closed so we decided to wait it out until the morning. I cleaned Barry up and he seemed fine other than not being able to go #2. We went to bed and at 5:30 AM Barry needed to go again. Out we went. Again, he strained and the only thing to come out was blood.

We took Barry to the vet thinking the absolute worst. Cancer, surgery, liver failure, etc. He was in rather good spirits, though. He was very excited to get to the vet. It's like he knew he was there to get better. We explained to the vet what the issue was and she told us what she thought then we sat and waited while she examined him. When she came out she gave us the news that it wasn't as bad as we thought. He had no fever and said not to be too concerned with the thin red blood (she let us know what to watch for, though) and that ultimately he was a little imbalanced in the gut, creating acidic stomach, which was why he had diarrhea and threw up in the first place and that caused him to become dehydrated. So she recommended some medication and filled him with fluid to rehydrate him. Now, the fluid thing was kind of interesting. She described it and said he'd look like he had a hunch back. When he came out he did have a hunch back. A squishy hunch back. The vet administered the fluid right into him, between his shoulder blades on his back. The fluid was to rehydrate him and would slowly absorb into him throughout the day.

Happy guy!

These two pictures are the best I could do to show his squishy humpback.
Can you see it? It's on his back just below the top of the harness.
There is a slight bulge. It was jiggling and moving as he walked.

He was as happy as could be! I went to the store to pick up rice, beef, and pumpkin. He was on the rice, beef, and pumpkin diet through Monday. On Sunday he had his first regular #2. It was slightly soft but so much better than before. We started to add in Kefir on Monday evening and tonight he'll be back to a normal diet.

Speaking of a normal diet... We have switched his food again. We did the slow transition again and he had no issues (except for Friday apparently). His new food is Merrick Texas Beef & Sweet Potato. It was recommended to us by a fellow dog blogger. Thanks DZ's Adventures! This stuff has a sort of liver-like smell right off. To me it's kind of gross but Barry LOVES it. He's never loved his food so much. He liked the Blue Buffalo quite a lot and the Honest Kitchen he could take or leave. This Merrick, though, it's his favorite. Not only that the ingredients are really good, this stuff is highly ranked, and the price is so affordable. One bag should last a little over a month.

May I please have some of that food? I promise my belly
won't hurt anymore...

I can't say for sure if the Merrick caused his acidic stomach. In time we may find out. It could be from almost anything. Maybe too much cheese one day, the cookies might have not digested properly causing the gut to become acidic, or it could be the new food.

All in all, our Labor Day weekend was nice. Visiting Grandma is always fun.