Pickle is Still Baffling Us

So, Pickle saw the vet yesterday, and basically all we got were a list of things that are NOT wrong with her, after an examination, ultrasound and full blood panel.

It’s not…

a heart defect
pyloric stenosis
pneumonia
a cleft palate
a liver shunt (as best we can tell, with the tools available and her age, and her lack of specific symptoms)

Her blood levels are all normal, although she is underweight, lacking muscle tone and her protein levels are a bit low.

So, looks like she’s just anorexic… or else it really is a mystery condition.

She got a shot of Convenia, on the basis that:

a) it can’t hurt
b) her lungs were a little bit raspy…

So, now we wait and see. She’s on a/d, along with some balls of ground hamburger, which she eats willingly in tiny portions (but even that is a start).

Thanks SO much to everyone who has phoned or emailed with suggestions. We appreciate them all – ok, maybe not the veterinarian. I’m not sure he was prepared for a client who pulled out a list of questions, suggestions, and print outs from the internet.

After a moment of baffled silence, I said to him “This must be every vet’s worst nightmare – a pushy dog breeder with access to google and a mailing list with 600 other breeders on it”. He coughed politely, but did NOT disagree. Then we spent ten minutes debating if Convenia was still off label for respiratory conditions, with him swearing it wasn’t, and me swearing it WAS. He coughed politely once again when a look at the packaging materials proved I was right, and then said “I think from now on I’ll be better prepared when you breeders come in for appointments”.

He was very nice about, considering I’d never met him before. Well, until I mentioned that we feed raw food, but that’s another story. Let’s just say we agreed to disagree.

Pickle gained almost 20 grams overnight, so yay for that, even though a/d is not my go to food of choice. Apparently, though, if I feed her raw the vet is convinced aliens will explode from her chest.