My GSD has seen better days - help please - Page 4

I agree Amy, this vet sounds like a hack.

Tom have your female tested (at a reputable vet) for any renal problems once she is feeling better and getting around easier. Good job reaserching foods here and I agree with you about TOTW and Diamond. I feed a cat of mine TOTW still but am trying to find something else that doesn't cost $10 more per 17lb bag. My cat seems to be urrinating way too much since being fed TOTW.

 

 

 amysavesjacks,

I made a mistake. When we got her to the ER they said her temp was 95 not 85. Still, I am upset by the low temp. If he brought her out without a blanket, that tells me she did not have a blanket on her out back. You would think if he was concerned, he would have her covered and let us bring whatever back to him the next day. I am not happy about this whole thing. He gave us no other options at the time - never mentioned the Barium series and never mentioned an ultrasound. I find out about all this and the need to keep warm later. When he called my wife, he seemed to think that it was urgent to do the surgery. He seemed confident that it was a sock. We have two small children so it was reasonable that she could have picked up a small sock.

If I could go back in time I  would have a bunch of questions starting with - can we wait for a while? What could happen if we don't operate today? She had diarrhea that morning - would this be possible with a blockage? He did mention the possibility of a partial blockage - I would ask if there was a way to clear this without surgery. The list goes on. I hope this will be a learning experience for those never faced with this. It is something that we should be prepared to deal with and there is no time to research this sort of thing when your vet calls you and says "I think we need to do this now, I am worried"


He did do blood tests and found nothing.  I have not called him since leaving that day - he called once to see how she was - I did not call him back. I am not sure how she was stitched and when that needs to be addressed - the wound looks fine - no infection.

I have an e-friend who raises Cardis. One of them was a diehard rock eater. He had surgery twice to remove rocks. After that, the vet said, "We can't keep opening him up like this!"

So, now when, despite her best efforts at rock-proofing his dog yard, he starts showing the tell-tale signs, she puts him on heavy-duty laxatives until the rocks pass. So far, it's worked.

i certainly do not want to alarm you but my daughter dog ( 7 yr old lab) vomited blood Monday & he only eats Wellness food. She is feeding cihcken & rice and he is doing better. Sorry I've been consumed lately
Mike

Sitasmom, backs and necks are very high fat content, and that commonly causes diarrhea. Not a good choice. Go with leg/thigh quarters. Cheap at Walmart, although some people would tell you not to use them because they contain broth. I personally can't afford organic free-range chickens, but Walmart chickens are a heck of a lot higher quality than what they put in dog food. Also, dogs just swallow necks whole, which makes them pointless. No chewing, no meat, just fat and bone. Pointless, unless you are also feeding large quantities of boneless meat, such as beef heart or pork roasts, which are also pretty cheap.

Jyl, the original post said the vet recommended surgery, and then said there was no blockage. It didn't say they discovered the lack of blockage surgically. The thing is, I'm fairly surprised that the dog's owner expected recovery from such a horrifying surgery to come quickly.

Tomfmal, you think it could have waited...but if I had waited a few more hours, my dog would be dead. Hindsight is 20/20. You should be glad you paid what you did for a less horrifying outcome. You could have paid twice that. You cannot second guess these things, unfortunately, so you have to risk the money rather than the dog. Or anyway, that's my philosophy. If you hadn't done it and the dog had died, I don't think you'd feel very good about yourself right now.

 My other two dogs are still eating the Super 5 with no troubles, so I don't see any problem with the Wellness at this time. I still think that my Shepherd got into the fertilizer, which set this whole thing off. Since she is on just rice and burger and will be for a while, I find this is my opportunity to introduce a new food. My only problem with Wellness is the frequent loose stools.
Wellness is made by Old Mother Hubbard - but - I wonder if Diamond has a connection there too???

Anyway, I have been searching through all the posts here and I can't believe the wealth of information shared. The more I read the more I am concerned about the Diamond company. TOTW seems to have many supporters but I still worry about the Diamond connection. I still have not read a bad story about Fromm - but I am still reading and I will read and research for the next week to help me with this decision. Origen isstill a high consideration as well .

My only worry is that with all my research, I'll finally come to a decision and Prudence won't do well with it. Oh well - just doing the best I can for my family!

VomMarischal next week we will be out camping with our dogs for 10 days, I was thinking of once again trying to feed raw while wer're out in the middle of nature and not home where they can once again stink up the house. I will purchase some leg quarters and see what heppens..........if they get the runs, its ok, they have lots of wide open space to shoot ther poop.

if after a week they do not get used to the raw food, then I'll give them each a few cans of sicence diet a/d and put them back on their regular diet.........hopefully they will firm up before we get home.

tomfmal, I'm glad to hear your dog is doing much better. Does she pee on command? Mine do and it is very handy. If she doesn't you could try to teach it, although it will take a while. 

And yes, Diamond has its paws into a lot of foods. It's expensive to run your own food plant and so dog food makers contract with Diamond to make their food. Here's another site for your dog food reviewing research:
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/index.php 
You'll have to cut and paste the link.

I feed TOTW and haven't had any problems, except the dog that is on it had a low zinc level at one time. I put him on a vitamin/mineral supplement and he's fine now. I shouldn't have to supplement, but he may just be one of those dogs that needs a higher level than he gets in his food. 

I can think of ways that camping/raw dog food experiment could go wrong, Sitasmom. I hope you are sleeping in a camper without the dogs.

 This thing about Diamond involved with so many brand names reminds me of the funeral homes in Florida. I am not from Florida and I don't know how many states do this but: 90% of the homes send their bodies to ONE crematorium. With that much business and confusion how do we know we are really getting our loved one back? We did alot of research and found a home that has their own crematorium - they even walked us back to see it and we met the person who works at the controls.   I don't trust any conglomerate and to me it seems like their is a much higher margin for error and mix ups.

Does Diamond welcome a factory tour? I am going to guess no, but I could be wrong. When we bought our camper from Sunline, they welcomed visitors to their factory as they were proud of it. 

I did already look at the dogfoodanalysis site. I will continue to research and welcome all of your great advice. 

Prudence is doing well, just not pooping much (probably not much waste with rice and burger) and again still not urinating often. My wife thinks that is just one of her peculiaritys. She is pretty special.