exploratory surgery

Question
have a 2 yr old maltese. it's been 2wks, visited one vet 3 different times. Tested for pancreatitis, neg. intestinal parasites, neg. Prescribed flagyl & reglan and i/d canine can food. Still no improvment. Took to another vet, overal exam was good. Did x-rays, found mass, but not specific on what was seen on digital xrays. Performed exploratory surgery, found no obvious foreign object found. However, they did find about 6" of colon impacted with very dry, hard as a rock bowel. Removed some, have given several enemas, is on iv fluids, calcium & potassium. She is very weak, she not out of the woods yet and her survival rate is questionable. She had surgery Tuesday the 24th. Any other possibilities for diagnosis of something else? Please help, very distraught and worried. She's still weak, vomiting, not eating, if she drinks,she throws it up and she did pass a little of that dried bm today after enema.

Answer
It sounds as though the veterinarian has been very thorough. The only thing that I would try would be to fast the dog with no food or water for 24-48 hours... just IV fluids and injectible meds until she stops vomiting. Her gut needs to recover.

After she has stopped vomiting, I would give her an ice cube every hour, and if she is still not vomiting, I would try her with a small amount of water in her bowl once she starts leaving water in the dish. Keep checking her for dehydration by pulling up on the skin on the back of her neck. Hydrated skin will go back down very quickly, while dehydrated will go down much slower.

Go out and buy a jar or two of Gerber Strained Chicken... the plain stuff, not the doctored-up one with onions, etc. (yes, the baby food). Make up a bowl of plain rice and mix a *small* amount of the strained chicken in it for flavor, and then start offering it to her 1/2 teaspoonful at a time. (Usually I say one tsp., but this is a small dog...) Don't offer any more until you are sure that she is keeping that feeding down. Initially feed frequently.... every couple hours or so.... and as she keeps that feeding down, you can gradually start increasing the amount a teaspoonful or so as the day progresses. (Don't increase too soon initially.) As the amount of each feeding increases, lengthen the time between the feedings, but continue to keep the feedings on the smaller, rather than normal, side for a time.

If things are progressing well by the second day (maybe third day in your case), start adding kibble (or in this case, i/d) a couple pieces at a time to the rice mixture. Take your time in getting her back to her normal diet. And backpeddle at the first sign of vomiting.

I once had a sick dog that took me two weeks to get back onto a normal diet, but generally the time is much shorter than that.

Karen