Our 5 yr. old large breed dog, Rosco, is definitely under the weather.
Let me preface this with we have had him since he was three months old, he goes to the vet annually, we feed him Nutro/Natural Choice food, bathe him with all-natural (or as natural as it gets) lavendar and mint dog shampoo, do not feed him any kind of "people" -- except I put an occasional carrot or ground flax seed on his food, and apply topical Frontline flea treatment every three/four weeks.
The current problem started about a month ago when he started scratching constantly, which was driving both me and DH crazy! We took him to the vet, the vet said he had a bacterial skin infection, gave him a cortisone injection to calm the itching and month's supply of antibiotics. All was going well until this past Friday, he started in with the itching. It wasn't as bad as before, so it was easy to overlook.
On Saturday morning DH was cleaning up the poop in the yard and noticed what appeared to be worms in his stool. So, off to the vet we went. Rosco was diagnosed with tapeworms and given an injection of Droncit. Since he was itching again, the vet inspected him more closely and now thinks the skin infection is secondary and that he is having an allergic reaction to fleas (and found one on his tail). We opted for a second cortisone injection to help with the itching and we were to continue the antibiotics (we hadn't quite finished out the prescription yet).
Fast forward to Sunday morning, ca. 5:30 am. Rosco is running around like crazy -- acting very crazy. I finally turned the light on b/c he was rubbing his face on the carpet. DH and I examined his belly and he had very red "inflamed" skin -- and could not stand to be touched b/c he was so itchy (his nose was dry and warm at this point). I headed for the local grocery to get some Benadryl. By the time I got home he was calm and had eaten breakfast. So, he seemed okay. He was sluggish (actually depressed is more like it) all morning, and was outside (DH was in the garage but I was gone most of the day). DH noticed a pile of vomit with what appeared to be charcoal bits in it. By the time I returned home Rosco was up to greet me at the fence, and seemed perky and ready for dinner (ca. 5pm).
We fed him his usual, and an hour later I gave him his antibiotics.
Around 8:30-9:00pm he started running around the house rubbing his face on the carpet. We checked his belly and again it was inflamed. Then he vomitede a rather large amount of partially digested food. I called the emergency vet -- she said it was not likely an allergic reaction to the Droncit -- but it was an allergic reaction and I was to give him Benadryl and if it didn't work in 30 minutes bring him in. Well, the Benadryl worked.
Again this morning he was not his usual -- just no energy or desire to run around. He ate breakfast as normal, and went to work with DH today, which was fine until he vomited around 2 pm. DH called our vet and he seemed perplexed and not really sure what might be going on. He told DH to with hold water and food tonight (we were surprised about the water b/c he has been really thirsty).
DH fed him some food mixed with organic chicken broth (about half his usual dinner -- he was alert and really asking for food), and he has had water tonight. Still not too active though.
So, has anyone had any experience with something like this? Might it be the medicine doing its job and the dying tapeworms are making him not feel good? Could he have had an allergic reaction to the injection? Would it have taken that long to present itself? Why the issues with fleas all of a sudden? He is current on his flea meds, our house (interior and exterior) is serviced quarterly by a pest control service....we just shampooed the carpets last week and we haven't seen any fleas in the house (and trust me I would notice, I am a complete freak about things like that).
Any and all help is appreciated! I just want my sweet Rosco to feel better. I'll even try to post a picture -- he is such a cutie!
TIA....
tanya
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