Argh.....Bentley is my 11 year old Heeler mix. He's been a healthy, happy dog most of his life, except for a brief blip that was cancer. It was on the tissue that surrounded his prepuce, so they removed most of his prepuce and it's like it never happened (unless you're looking down there). If you don't know what the prepuce is, you probably don't want to know
. It never came back and he's not had any other major or minor events other than a torn dew claw here and there. Oh, he had a partially collapsed lung when I adopted him at 16 weeks old from untreated pneumonia. Treatment cleared it up, but it took several weeks because the pneumonia was resistant to the first three antibiotics the vet tried. No other colds since then.
A few weeks ago, I found a yellowish stain on the carpet that could only be doggie bile (vomit). I cleaned it up, but since I have two dogs, couldn't determine who the culprit was. I didn't worry about it since it was a small spot with no undigested matter in it and both dogs seemed fine. About three days later, I saw Bentley throw up. It was just bile. I thought to myself, well he's acting fine, so if it happens again, I'll take him in. About seven or eight days later, I found another spot on the carpet but it was dried and in the guest bedroom which I'm not in very often, so I couldn't be sure I hadn't missed it from before. That same day, Bentley threw up again. I called the vet and made an appointment. They couldn't see him until the next day and didn't think it was an emergency since he had no other symptoms. Later that night, he threw up again. By this time, I was pretty worried. He was acting fine and I know some dogs have sensitive stomachs that cause them to occassionally throw up, but not Bentley. He has an iron stomach. If he throws up, it's because he got in the bathroom trash and ate too much tissue and it needed to come up.
We went to the vet and they told me what I already knew. Vomitting is a pretty vague symptom and with no other symptoms it's going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack. They started out with bloodwork, which looked fine. His liver values were a tad high, but nothing to worry about for a dog his age. They did an abdominal x-ray which looked fine. She did mention his liver is a little odd shaped, but doesn't appear to be enlarged. No fever, heart sounds fine. Breathing sounds fine. They did x-rays of his neck & chest to check his lungs and his trachea. She mentioned there were some spots on his lungs that she'd like the radiologist to look at but that as dogs age, lungs can start to look like 'old dog lungs', so it's probably nothing,especially since he could have scarring from the pneumonia battle as a pup.
$500 worth of testing and no clues. She said it could be acid reflux. An endoscopy would give more clues if it was digestion based, but that requires putting him under. So she sent us home with pepcid and said to try that for two weeks before we proceed with more invasive tests. The radiologist was coming in for a different consult this week and she would have her go over his chest x-rays.
Got the call yesterday that the radiologist looked over his chest x-rays and the spots are lesions, not scarring. Small ones, but they "look like pneumonia lesions". She said it's a little odd that he has no symptoms of pneumonia, but it does happen occassionally. They prescribed Baytril & Amoxicillian for two weeks. We go back afterwards for another chest x-ray. He is to continue with the Pepcid also.
They can't say whether he was getting sick because of pneumonia or whether he aspirated when he was getting sick and it caused pneumonia. It could be either, so we still know nothing. I'm actually concerned that the lesions aren't pneumonia, but something else......especially since the term 'look like pneumonia lesions' was used and not 'he has pneumonia'.
I hope the medicine clears everything up and he's fine, but I know there's a possibility it's not pneumonia or if it is, there's also something else going on. He's acting fine, as always. Hasn't gotten sick since Monday night, but he wasn't getting sick regularly enough to gauge anyway. It's just he never gets sick, so I thought we should get it checked out. I'm concerned. My previous dog was diagnosed with CHF at 11 years old and it's a touchy age for me now. I guess all we can do is wait the two weeks and get more x-rays done. Just wanted to vent.
. It never came back and he's not had any other major or minor events other than a torn dew claw here and there. Oh, he had a partially collapsed lung when I adopted him at 16 weeks old from untreated pneumonia. Treatment cleared it up, but it took several weeks because the pneumonia was resistant to the first three antibiotics the vet tried. No other colds since then.A few weeks ago, I found a yellowish stain on the carpet that could only be doggie bile (vomit). I cleaned it up, but since I have two dogs, couldn't determine who the culprit was. I didn't worry about it since it was a small spot with no undigested matter in it and both dogs seemed fine. About three days later, I saw Bentley throw up. It was just bile. I thought to myself, well he's acting fine, so if it happens again, I'll take him in. About seven or eight days later, I found another spot on the carpet but it was dried and in the guest bedroom which I'm not in very often, so I couldn't be sure I hadn't missed it from before. That same day, Bentley threw up again. I called the vet and made an appointment. They couldn't see him until the next day and didn't think it was an emergency since he had no other symptoms. Later that night, he threw up again. By this time, I was pretty worried. He was acting fine and I know some dogs have sensitive stomachs that cause them to occassionally throw up, but not Bentley. He has an iron stomach. If he throws up, it's because he got in the bathroom trash and ate too much tissue and it needed to come up.
We went to the vet and they told me what I already knew. Vomitting is a pretty vague symptom and with no other symptoms it's going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack. They started out with bloodwork, which looked fine. His liver values were a tad high, but nothing to worry about for a dog his age. They did an abdominal x-ray which looked fine. She did mention his liver is a little odd shaped, but doesn't appear to be enlarged. No fever, heart sounds fine. Breathing sounds fine. They did x-rays of his neck & chest to check his lungs and his trachea. She mentioned there were some spots on his lungs that she'd like the radiologist to look at but that as dogs age, lungs can start to look like 'old dog lungs', so it's probably nothing,especially since he could have scarring from the pneumonia battle as a pup.
$500 worth of testing and no clues. She said it could be acid reflux. An endoscopy would give more clues if it was digestion based, but that requires putting him under. So she sent us home with pepcid and said to try that for two weeks before we proceed with more invasive tests. The radiologist was coming in for a different consult this week and she would have her go over his chest x-rays.
Got the call yesterday that the radiologist looked over his chest x-rays and the spots are lesions, not scarring. Small ones, but they "look like pneumonia lesions". She said it's a little odd that he has no symptoms of pneumonia, but it does happen occassionally. They prescribed Baytril & Amoxicillian for two weeks. We go back afterwards for another chest x-ray. He is to continue with the Pepcid also.
They can't say whether he was getting sick because of pneumonia or whether he aspirated when he was getting sick and it caused pneumonia. It could be either, so we still know nothing. I'm actually concerned that the lesions aren't pneumonia, but something else......especially since the term 'look like pneumonia lesions' was used and not 'he has pneumonia'.
I hope the medicine clears everything up and he's fine, but I know there's a possibility it's not pneumonia or if it is, there's also something else going on. He's acting fine, as always. Hasn't gotten sick since Monday night, but he wasn't getting sick regularly enough to gauge anyway. It's just he never gets sick, so I thought we should get it checked out. I'm concerned. My previous dog was diagnosed with CHF at 11 years old and it's a touchy age for me now. I guess all we can do is wait the two weeks and get more x-rays done. Just wanted to vent.
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. He's 11, but all his blood values are fine and organs look fine so they don't think there's any greater risk than if he were younger. They don't have staff throughout the night, so he'll have to be transported to the emergency clinic to spend the night there tomorrow 
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