by Rosy
(Houston, TX)
Our beloved, 6-yr old male rottweiler, Achilles, is on a raw diet, was neutered last year, has never liked being examined, and he will put up a fight, which makes it difficult for vets to handle him.
He started having loose stools, then about a week later he threw up after eating his morning meal. We took him to the vet, the vet said he had pancreatitis and gave him fluids subcutaneously. He gave us antibiotics and pills for nausea and vomiting and sent us on our way. The next day Achilles still hadn’t eaten, no medicine taken because he will only take pills in food, and he was regurgitating water after he drank it. That evening, we decided to take him to the hospital where they did a battery of tests and ruled out pancreatitis, along with several other ailments, but were unable to diagnose what the illness is.
They kept him overnight and gave him everything intravenously (fluids, antibiotics, and drugs for regurgitation and diarrhea). The next day, we were told by the hospital vet that they did not know what was making him ill, he would not eat, walking wobbly, and there was nothing else they could do except keep him on fluids, and broached the subject of euthanasia.
We told them he hadn’t eaten in four days and it is difficult to support a 135 lb. frame without nourishment and want to give him a fighting chance. She said they would keep him on the fluids one more night, which they did, and called us to pick him up the next day. We have him home, he will only eat Nutri-Vet biscuits for dogs.
We have tried his raw, dry, and canned foods, cooked ground beef, scrambled eggs, raw eggs, and bacon. Just anything to get him to eat. He sniffs everything, turns away, and will only eat the biscuits. He drinks plenty of water but, his second day home, he started regurgitating some of the water and sometimes small pieces of the biscuits. He urinates often and he finally had a bowel movement his second day home (loose stools).
Does anyone have any idea what this could be and what we can do to get him to eat? We are so worried about him and it seems no one knows what to do for him, including us. (Sorry this is so long, but we want to include everything.) Thank you.
Hi Rosy. Sorry I didn’t see this submission sooner 🙁 I hope and pray your Achilles managed to make a recovery from what sounds like very serious, and scary, symptoms.
Personally I wouldn’t accept that there is no diagnosis, a veterinarian is a professional expert and has at his/her disposal enough knowledge and diagnostic tools to figure out what is going wrong. Suggesting euthanasia also seems well out of line to me.
When a big dog like this won’t/can’t eat he is going to become weak quickly and you were absolutely right to say he needs a chance to recover. However he also needs a diagnosis and treatment, a second veterinary opinion or even a third would be in order.
There is a supplement called NutriCal which is calorie and nutrition dense and can help give quickly digested sustenance to a dog when needed. Making rice water (boil a cup of white rice in four cups of water, then drain rice, cool water and feed to dog) is a good source of liquid which contains electrolytes.
I am so sorry for your difficulties and again apologize for this submission slipping past me. My prayers are with you all and perhaps someone else here has input or experience of something similar and can help out. All the best to you. ~ Sue
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