Glindy and I were just in Long Beach,
CA for an information security conference. All was going well after
our harrowing airport experience, until the poor thing got sick
about halfway through our week-long conference.
Glindy's appetite vanished, but she still seemed reasonably active.
This isn't terribly unusual for her, as she's often self-regulating
and not particularly food-focused to begin with. Also, I've noticed
that her stress level often rises a bit when we're traveling and
working full-time, and that her appetite often drops
accordingly--but never enough to really cause any real health
concerns.
However, a day after she stopped eating, she stopped being
interested in treats and snacks, too. On our next potty break, she
had totally liquid diarrhea, which is rarely a good sign.
Physically, she also seemed to be losing steam, so I was definitely
becoming more concerned.
Now, normally when a dog has short-term diarrhea, the best thing to
do is just limit food intake, keep them drinking water, and wait it
out. A working dog doesn't always have that option, though; there's
nothing quite like the fear of experiencing uncontrollable diarrhea
while halfway up a high-rise hotel to make "better living through
chemistry" sound like a really good idea.
So, after a day of trying to wait it out, I decided to give Glindy
some loperamide hydrochloride (loperamide being the active
ingredient in Immodium and its generic equivalents). The normal
dosage for such things is 0.1mg/kg of body weight, but I've never
been very good at doing metric conversions, so I ended up giving
her too low of a dose, and so the problem continued for yet another
day.
When she was still having trouble, I called my vet back home. He
pointed out my math errors (doh!) and suggested I put her on the
higher dose for one more day, and then see a local vet if the
situation didn't improve.
Meanwhile, Glindy was a real trooper. I skipped a large part of the
(very expensive) conference so that she could rest up in our room,
and I made a point of taking her out more often than usual. What
really impressed me, though, was that despite having projectile
diarrhea when we went outside, she never once had an accident in
the hotel.
I don't know about other human beings, but when
I have
diarrhea, I make a mad dash for the restroom whenever nature calls.
I wouldn't be able to do what Glindy did all week: calmly tell
someone I need to go outside, wait while they get themselves
dressed, stand quietly while getting vested and leashed, sit
patiently while waiting for the elevator, endure the long ride down
to the lobby, and then wait until we're safely outside before
blowing my heaving guts all over the grass. In this regard,
Glindy's performance was superhuman, and quite frankly a little
humbling.
However, after another day without results from the loperamide, I
decided to take Glindy to a veterinarian. I didn't really know the
area, so I called vets at random until one agreed to see her on an
emergency basis, and off we went.
The vet was a little farther away than I expected, and Glindy
didn't quite make it. About two blocks from the vets, she threw up
all over the front seat of the rental car. Now, Glindy
never gets car sick, so this was yet another indication of
how very sick she was. Luckily, she was sitting on a waterproof pet
throw that I often use while traveling to keep the shedding dog
hair down to a minimum, so it wasn't nearly as appalling as it
could have been.
After a short time at the vet, where the vet agreed that we needed
a more rapid-acting intervention for a working service dog--as
opposed to taking some cultures and playing wait-and-see--we headed
back to the hotel armed with some new medications and a seven-day
regimen.
The vet prescribed
metronidazole
(the generic form of Flagyl), which is both an antibiotic and an
antiprotozoal, and may have some anti-inflammatory effects as well
according to the vet--although I couldn't verify that last for
myself. He also prescribed over-the-counter Pepcid AC (
famotidine)
and continued use of
loperamide
until things stabilized. He also suggested that if she would eat at
all, that I switch her to a bland diet with white rice as the
primary component, even though Glindy doesn't really tolerate
carbohydrates well.
So, I dosed her with the various medications, and after she seemed
to get a little relief from them, I gave her some white rice with a
few cubes of cooked filet mignon left over from my dinner that
evening. Normally, carbs of any kind give Glindy intestinal upset,
but I figured that it was the lesser evil at that point, and her
normal raw diet was probably too "hot" for her already-insulted GI
tract.
By the next day, Glindy was definitely on the mend, and back to
eating small amounts of her regular food. The day after, she was
was in good enough shape that I felt comfortable that we could fly
home without incident. This morning, she gets her last dose of
metronidazole, and we can put the whole incident behind us.
I still have no idea why she got sick. Maybe she snagged something
rotten off the ground while I wasn't looking, or perhaps there was
something in the tap water at the hotel. Whatever the reason, I'm
very grateful that there weren't any serious repercussions, that I
received such good care from the vets at both
Baring Boulevard Animal Hospital
and the VCA Los Altos Animal Hospital, and that Glindy is all
better now.