My eldest dog (near 10 yrs.) came down with an issue in October. Essentially, she looked super, was acting fine – she was in fact energetic, and this was just before she ate in the morning. She went outdoors to do her rounds and came back, lay down and started to look distressed. The condition became worse as I sensed a fever or something, and she was chocking and bringing up bile.
She eats a raw diet since a long time ago and has done very well on it indeed, yet eating this now was out, coupled with the signs, as said above.
With her bile trying to come up I got her outdoors again to monitor if there was anything different in what she brought up; nothing foreign was noted. She then came in and started to shake, feverish, and her eyes were not in great shape – like a narcotic effect as she started to squint her eyes closed. I felt her for damage and pain and could not locate any specific point.
Not good.
Called her vet and was told they were in surgery that day. Again, not good. After monitoring her she was panting and distressed and thus decided to chance it and take her in. In doing so, was lucky to catch the vet between surgeries whereby he noted she had a sore pancreas (she indeed winched when proded there) and decided to take a blood sample for markers. She was also running a fever and infection of some kind was considered likely.
The blood sample turned up negative on the suspected markers – it was +/- in the range, nothing overt.
In the end she came home with me and I started her on an antibiotic and she recovered well and regained her usual self.
Okay, a month later after being away I got home before her dinner, and like the other two dogs she had a small non-cereal well manufactured charcoal bone type cookie; good for the teeth and digestion, apparently. Having been away, she had two. When my partner came home she weaseled in for a third, it was realised later.
The dogs all went out again and were fine and then she came in and refused to eat and she started reaching with bile coming up. Like before, I had worried that she had had mushrooms, yet it had snowed and we were beyond that season. We had also talked about possible problems with the raw food she was on or, was it sickness; the pancreas again, bacteria or viral?
Like before (less a more severe fever) her eyes started to squint narcotic-like and she was despondent. She had chocked bile and swallowed it. Tried to call the vet (after hours line) and all the phone lines were down; odd, so not much I could do.
Tried to cool her down and after being with her for a few hours she started to respond favorably to the point that she seemed recovered. All the while I’m going through the points of time in my mind; raw food, something outside; deer dropping, squirrels etc. and then it hit me that what if these charcoal small little bones were a problem? The other dogs were fine and yet she usually never has these; more often she has chicken feet, necks and sometimes pumpkin cookies or even carrots. She would immediately be cut off so I could find out. The more I thought it through the more I realized that these charcoal cookies could be the problem; but did she have them the first time it happened? I don't know yet it was possible.
Next day she was all good and I let the vet know of the relapse (discussed the pncrease markers from the initial test) and called her pet-food store and made inquiry of my concerns, and immediately was told that those charcoal cookies have peppermint oil infused and that they could cause problems as an opposite to what they can help with in some dogs. Not good. Then it was that the charcoal, although it can aid digestion, can also act as a chelator stripping out nutrients and acting in the digestive track – bile enhanced production was a possibility. Bingo.
Since, she has had none and was back to normal in terms of eating and energy. She also took a trip to see her natural vet (I was not with her) who does Chinese acupressure points and did some realignments; added probiotics, vitamin nutrients (and she has some joint soreness to be sure as a long-legged older dog) and was given a shot of Pentosan Polysulphate (PP) for her joints and a three-seed combination. It took her a couple of days but she is doing really well now (I need to look into the PP).
Also, I have to administer these PP shots on a weekly basis for a couple of months.
So, this is also an awareness experience on one particular type of food that seemed benign when it was clearly toxic for her. Because she ate a few more than usual, it must have hit her in the way it did (or it was an incremental buildup), and likely for her one was one to many. I’m going with the thinking that the first time she was ill she also had the same thing.
That's the outcome, thanks for reading.
She eats a raw diet since a long time ago and has done very well on it indeed, yet eating this now was out, coupled with the signs, as said above.
With her bile trying to come up I got her outdoors again to monitor if there was anything different in what she brought up; nothing foreign was noted. She then came in and started to shake, feverish, and her eyes were not in great shape – like a narcotic effect as she started to squint her eyes closed. I felt her for damage and pain and could not locate any specific point.
Not good.
Called her vet and was told they were in surgery that day. Again, not good. After monitoring her she was panting and distressed and thus decided to chance it and take her in. In doing so, was lucky to catch the vet between surgeries whereby he noted she had a sore pancreas (she indeed winched when proded there) and decided to take a blood sample for markers. She was also running a fever and infection of some kind was considered likely.
The blood sample turned up negative on the suspected markers – it was +/- in the range, nothing overt.
In the end she came home with me and I started her on an antibiotic and she recovered well and regained her usual self.
Okay, a month later after being away I got home before her dinner, and like the other two dogs she had a small non-cereal well manufactured charcoal bone type cookie; good for the teeth and digestion, apparently. Having been away, she had two. When my partner came home she weaseled in for a third, it was realised later.
The dogs all went out again and were fine and then she came in and refused to eat and she started reaching with bile coming up. Like before, I had worried that she had had mushrooms, yet it had snowed and we were beyond that season. We had also talked about possible problems with the raw food she was on or, was it sickness; the pancreas again, bacteria or viral?
Like before (less a more severe fever) her eyes started to squint narcotic-like and she was despondent. She had chocked bile and swallowed it. Tried to call the vet (after hours line) and all the phone lines were down; odd, so not much I could do.
Tried to cool her down and after being with her for a few hours she started to respond favorably to the point that she seemed recovered. All the while I’m going through the points of time in my mind; raw food, something outside; deer dropping, squirrels etc. and then it hit me that what if these charcoal small little bones were a problem? The other dogs were fine and yet she usually never has these; more often she has chicken feet, necks and sometimes pumpkin cookies or even carrots. She would immediately be cut off so I could find out. The more I thought it through the more I realized that these charcoal cookies could be the problem; but did she have them the first time it happened? I don't know yet it was possible.
Next day she was all good and I let the vet know of the relapse (discussed the pncrease markers from the initial test) and called her pet-food store and made inquiry of my concerns, and immediately was told that those charcoal cookies have peppermint oil infused and that they could cause problems as an opposite to what they can help with in some dogs. Not good. Then it was that the charcoal, although it can aid digestion, can also act as a chelator stripping out nutrients and acting in the digestive track – bile enhanced production was a possibility. Bingo.
Since, she has had none and was back to normal in terms of eating and energy. She also took a trip to see her natural vet (I was not with her) who does Chinese acupressure points and did some realignments; added probiotics, vitamin nutrients (and she has some joint soreness to be sure as a long-legged older dog) and was given a shot of Pentosan Polysulphate (PP) for her joints and a three-seed combination. It took her a couple of days but she is doing really well now (I need to look into the PP).
Also, I have to administer these PP shots on a weekly basis for a couple of months.
So, this is also an awareness experience on one particular type of food that seemed benign when it was clearly toxic for her. Because she ate a few more than usual, it must have hit her in the way it did (or it was an incremental buildup), and likely for her one was one to many. I’m going with the thinking that the first time she was ill she also had the same thing.
That's the outcome, thanks for reading.
Also, sorry if I missed it, but did you do an ultrasound examination of the abdominal as well, beside the blood test? If your dog was vomiting (and not simply regurgitating), and the vomit was yellow (with bile), then perhaps it would be prudent to do the ultrasound just in case. 
Perhaps when you'll go to the clinic to do your blood tests again.
