This is my very spoiled dog, Willow. Not sure how spoiled she is from the above photo? Here’s one from yesterday:
Because we love her so much, she is spoiled, that’s for sure, but her being spoiled isn’t the topic of this post. Her causing us night after night of alarm and worry because we love her is the topic.
Let’s go back in time a bit.
Late on Thanksgiving evening, this past November, Willow suddenly started heaving in the kitchen and making gagging noises. This was great cause for alarm because it’s no fun when a big dog pukes all over the floor, but it was also very alarming because she seemed to be really choking on something. Finally, though, she managed to regurgitate whatever was causing her distress.
In the midst of the slime that came up with it was a fist-sized plastic or rubber ball — one that had been squishy enough for her to have swallowed virtually intact. It was partially chewed on one side, and there was enough of the ball missing to make me wonder if there were still pieces of it inside of her or if the pieces were somewhere in the house or the backyard — wherever she’d found this particular ball that to this day I still don’t know where it came from.
At the time, we assumed that she had found and eaten the ball earlier that day or even just a short time before she threw it back up, but it was very puzzling because she’d been nearby all day — we’d hosted Thanksgiving, and she stayed close to the food or to anyone who just might slip her some.
After she puked up the ball remnant, she seemed totally fine, and there wasn’t any evidence of any problems from it — until a week ago.
At 4:30 a.m. this past Saturday, we were awakened by the unmistakable and horrifying sounds of a dog puking — well, doing those heaving and gagging noises that precede the puking. It was Willow, and she gagged up two small piles of greenish bile onto the bedroom carpet — that stuff does a great job of staining carpet, that’s for sure.
We didn’t think too much of it because she’s done that on a few other rare occasions; however, at 4:30 a.m. the next day, she did it again.
Now, we were worried.
I did some Google doctoring and read that dogs will sometimes puke up bile in the wee early hours of the day when they have empty stomachs. Okay. So, that night we gave her half a cup of dog food shortly before bed.
At 4:30 a.m., she puked up what was left of that dog food, AND two small pieces of plastic which I recognized immediately as being from that ball she’d eaten almost two months ago. It’s possible she may have eaten the ball even months prior to when she puked it up, too — since stomachs don’t break down plastic, it could have been in there a while because it was definitely too large to pass through her.
However, the two pieces of plastic that came up on Monday morning were small enough to pass through her, so I don’t understand how or why they stayed in her stomach this whole time. But they did, and then they came up on the bedroom carpet along with a handful off mushy dog kibble.
All right. Thinking that was probably that, I hoped for a good night’s sleep Monday night and into Tuesday morning. Nope. At 4:00 a.m. on Tuesday, she was puking again.
This time it was two small dabs of clear liquid. Time for more Google doctoring. Apparently, if there is an irritation, a dog’s drool can pool in her stomach and cause puking. It made sense that her throat and stomach were probably irritated, but I suggested we take her to the vet for an X-ray to be sure there wasn’t something else in her stomach.
The vet got us in that day, but I wish she hadn’t.
The X-ray showed nothing definitive because it can’t pick up anything as small as those plastic pieces, and if we want to make sure there isn’t anything else in there, then we would have to take her to Omaha for an ultrasound. Good grief.
To err on the side of caution and rule out her food as being the culprit, though, the vet wanted us to give her this bland canned food for a few days. She eats dry 4Health brand food normally. The vet also gave us an antinausea pill and some meds for acid reflux.
All of this I found unnecessary because we just wanted to know if there was something else in her stomach causing the puking, but we took the cans of food home anyway.
On Tuesday night at her suppertime, we gave her what we’d been told — 2 cans. I looked at the sticky mess of bland canned food in her bowl, and said, “That’s way too much food. This is wrong.” But Kim wanted to listen to the vet, and we put the antinausea pill in the food, too.
Willow started eating, if eating is what one could call it. She essentially smacked her jaws together around each sticky mouthful and managed to get it all down, but then I noticed how full she looked and once again expressed my complete doubt that this food and this amount of food was right for her.
Soon, she let us know that it wasn’t right for her at all.
She started pacing and licking her lips and panting, and I said, “She’s going to throw up.” I immediately envisioned all that gross food regurgitated all over the carpets.
We put her outside, and she went right to the end of the deck and threw everything she’d just eaten right back up — like I knew she was going to do.
Then, she felt fine.
Kim went out and scooped it all up in the dustpan, making gagging noises himself as he did it, and brought it inside in a plastic bag for me to look through it for any signs of the antinausea pill or for any more pieces of plastic. I found neither. I truly believe that the handful of food she threw up brought those last pieces out with it, and if there had been any more plastic in her stomach, then it surely would have adhered to the glue-like consistency of the “bland” canned food and come up with it.
I said, “She’s not eating any more of that damn food. This wasn’t about her food, for f____’s sake, anyway.”
Kim called the vet the next day to make sure they’d reimburse him for the unopened cans of food, and they said they will. We’ve continued to give her the medicine to help with acid reflux just to make sure her stomach is fully healed from the trauma of puking and having plastic in it for months on end. But she’s been eating her own food, and she’s been fine.
After those few nights in which I barely slept due to being someone who falls asleep late and then I was wakened very early by a puking dog and then I didn’t sleep much for a couple more nights because I was on edge worrying about her and wondering if she was going to puke more, I was hoping to get a good night’s sleep last night.
But then my good friend called Insomnia decided to come hang out with me, so I’m now going on a full week of maybe an average of four hours of sleep each night. Thus, I’m tired.
Maybe tonight will be the night in which I get a full night’s sleep. A gal can hope, right?
I could really use some solid sleep, though, so I can get my mind focused back on what it needs to be focused — my writing. During one of these sleepless nights, though, I had an idea for a story, and I started writing it. It’s included beyond the paywall for paying subscribers. If you’d like to become one, here’s where to do that:
Until next time. If you have a dog or dogs, love them and spoil them. They really are the best. Now, I’m off to take my other one, Blaze, to her regular vet for a couple booster shots and to see what can be done, if anything, about her cataracts.
Tammy Marshall
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