Well, we ended up putting Dacia to sleep today. She hadn't eaten in about 3 days, at least nothing substantial. She had lost so much weight in the last few weeks, she looked emaciated. She was officially diagnosed with lymphosarcoma. The vet said he'd never seen this in a dog so young. He reinforced our decision though by indicating the longer we waited, the worse it would get. Today is a sad day in our home…
Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers.
I don't post here too often, mostly just a browser, but I had to share my story.
We've been having some GI issues with Dacia (day-sha) off and on for quite some time. She is going to be 3 years old in December. She's been on prescription food for 1 to 1 1/2 years now due to excessive bowel movements (4-6 times daily) and diarrhea. Periodically she will have these incidents of diarrhea with blood in the stools. The vet prescribes Metronidazole and within a few days she improves.
Four weeks ago, we had another one of these episodes. After a day or two on medication she became very lethargic and didn't want to move. The cat even pounced on her head and she didn't budge! The vet felt a mass in her stomach. He put her on antibiotics and antacids, continuing the Metronidazole, and performed a barium test. The dog swallows a radioactive dye and then xrays are taken every hour to see how it passes through their digestive tract. The vet noticed a void (or shadow) in the stomach that the barium did not fill. The two possibilites were that it was either a foreign body that she swallowed or a mass. Due to her young age, they felt it was a foreign body.
By the end of the day, she still hadn't passed the barium all the way through her system, so we brought her back the next day for more xrays. This was a Saturday and the barium was through by then. By Monday, when our regular vet was back in the office, she was back to her old self, full of energy, tormenting the cat! The doctor thought she must have passed the foreign object (even though we never saw anything) and we agreed to keep an eye on her.
About a week ago, she had another episode with diarrhea. We just asked the doctor for a prescription without bringing her in since we'd been through this so many times before. After the 5 day cycle of medicine, she wasn't any better. I brought her to the vet on Monday and he felt another mass in her abdomen. This time it was farther down the digestive tract, into the intestines. Again, we thought, 'what did she get into'. I thought I'd taken all procautions to keep things away from her.
This time we decided to do exploratory surgery. The surgery would remove the foreign object and while in there, the vet would take a biopsy to test for Intestional Bowel Disorder, similar to Krohn's disease. He called yesterday after surgery to say they found a massive tumor that is inoperable; it's just too extensive. He said that he was shocked the barium from the previous incident made it through her system based on the intensity of the tumor.
I'm now waiting to find out when I can bring her home from the vet. The biopsy results will be back in another day or two and we'll determine what our options are, if there are any. I'm not optimistic, just hoping for as much time with her as I can get.
This is so awesome! When I was watching the show, I was wondering if you were on this forum! I got so excited when I was watching the show!
My B absolutely loves to counter surf. She generally can't reach anything on the kitchen counter, but she sure tries. Anyone have tips on how to stop this behavior? I've tried the squirt bottle (but she hears me coming and gets down before I squirt her). Scolding doesn't seem to work. We have a "time out" kennel in our living room set up. She gets about five minutes in there if she's bad. That helps some, but she's back up to her old tricks in short time.
Thanks in advance for your advice!
My B loves stuffed toys, but I'm always afraid that when she rips them apart and tries to eat the stuffing that it will hurt her. Is this bad for her? Any suggestions?
Congrats on the new foster. Bs can be a lot of work, but it is so rewarding to have them. This is a great forum. There are some great people with some great advice. Sounds like you're doing pretty good so far though! Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the link! Glad to see I'm feeding my dogs one of the good ones. We've been using Solid Gold for years and we've really liked it.
Welcome! This is a wonderful forum that I'm sure you'll enjoy. 
Too funny! I have to push Dacia outside when its raining (or the grass is wet). She'll freeze in the middle of the yard like she's physically unable to move until you call her back inside.
Also when the snow started to melt, she was scared of the grass…like she'd never seen it before! She would only pee on the snow!