(167) Maxie's Goin to the Vet Today

My dog has a security knot. Beeks has taken to carrying around the knots that use to be attached to ropes that he has long since chewed. We’ve been calling them his security knots because he looks for them when he needs something in his mouth. Silly dogs.

Maxie’s going to the Veterinarian for “observation”. Saturday evening we started noticing that Maxie was not pooping anymore but just having blood laced diarrhea Brad made the decision to take him today to see what was going on. I convinced Brad that Max should be put on a bland diet so we opted for the traditional BRAT’s diet. At first Max liked it, then within a few meals he wasn’t eating at all. HE continued to drink lots of water and his energy was(and is) still normal for a Newfie.

So here’s the Maxie update… The Veterinarian that we usually go to was (of course) on vacation. The second vet that we like was (of course) on vacation so we got Dr. Chernok. Besides the fact that Dr. Chernok looked like he was 12 years old, he was knowledgeable enough to take on Maxie. He must have been a first year Veterinarian because Brad said he painfully explained every detail that he also typed out for us to take home with Max. Here I will only give the long story short. Maxie has Clostridial Colitis. Or Colitis for short. Duh! Colitis is the technical term for irritated or infected colon. Max has too much bacteria in his colon and it is irritated to the point of bleeding. The real question is why? There are probably a million reasons that his colon could be irritated but the chances of it being a couple of things are better than others. It could be stress, or worms, or other microbes or parasites, or infection. Further down the line of possibilities is an obstruction which tore the lining and created an infection. Maxie’s physical exam didn’t show anything so basically he’s in good shape. It’s just his colon. Beeker and Chez aren’t ill so I don’t really suspect its something communicable.

Here’s what Dr. Chernok did and what the next steps will be… He took stool samples which came back with the high bacteria levels. He looked for Girardia and it was negative. We are taking in a stool sample tomorrow for the worm check. For now we are to feed Maxie a bland diet (right on Juli!) of rice and chicken and sweet potato. And we are to give Maxie a antibiotic two times a day to protect him against an infection. If the worm sample comes back negative he will then have to do a blood panel to see if its Max’s pancreas or an obstruction (ultrasound). Oh Joy! As you may have already guessed this whole process is not cheap and well, there goes any vacation we had thought about going on in the near future! As Brad left this morning I kiddingly told him just to take his checkbook and hand it to the clinic.

When Brad fed Maxie his antibiotic pill this evening, Max took it in his mouth like a dutiful dog and then spit it out about 6 feet. Brad said he laughed so hard then jammed it down his throat so it would stay down. He's still got his sense of humor.