2 year old bordie collie lab mix

Question
QUESTION: Our family dog Mariah has been sick for a month....we took her to the vet because she was collapsing, $300.00 later all we found out she was dehydrated and anemic....she was put on antibiotics...and iron liquid...and Pepcid A/C. She hasn't been eating..shes lost a lot of weight...and is lethargic...her eyes don't have the sparkle in them like they used to...when you look in her eyes you can tell something wrong with her....it wasn't like this before we got our new puppy Dakota...PLEASE someone help me....Our family would be devastated if we lost her.

ANSWER: I'm certainly no veterinarian, but you don't say what testing was done to her. I would have her checked for parasites (some worms, such as whipworms, can be hard to detect so require more than one test), and checked for the various tick-borne diseases such as ehrlichiosis. Something is certainly causing the anemia.... and maybe a referral to a specialist, such as might be found at a University Veterinary Hospital, is in order.

If the dog has been refusing to eat, immediate action must be taken or you will lose her. I have found in instances such as this that raw hamburger can help. If she will not eat it on her own, little "meatballs" of the raw hamburger are fairly easy to shove down the throat. Start out with small amounts, but offer/feed every couple of hours. If she is not drinking, you must get that in her, also. With my small dogs, I use a syringe, but you could probably use something a bit larger for yours. If she does start eating the hamburger on her own, gradually start adding her normal diet to it. Gerber Strained Chicken, the baby food, might also be helpful. Do whatever it takes to get food into that dog!

Good luck with this...
Karen

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for answering so quickly! They just ran a white and red blood cell test...and a kidney test....I have been doing a lot of research online and some of the symptoms that she has been having related to lime diesea...I just got off the phone with the Vet and asked them if she was tested for lyme disease and they didn't.....I'm having my mom take her in monday so she can get tested....We tried giving her raw hamburger last night but she didn't eat it...tried sausage and chicken....I even made homemade dog food as one of my friends recommended it.All I was able to get in her was a few pieces of sausage...and one fish stick from my daughters TV dinner.  



In her nose I noticed dried crusty snot in her nose...I went online to get some ideas on how to get rid of it....so yesterday afternoon...I put her in my room with a vaporizer to loosen the snot from her nose...then gave her some nasal spray as the website recommended.....hope she can get through this weekend.

Answer
It is good that you got her to eat a little bit, but you must keep getting some sort of food into her, even if you have to force-feed her like you would with a pill (shoving the food down her throat). Once dogs stop eating for several days due to certain illnesses, they totally lose their appetites, and you must keep stimulating this. Also I find that some eat more willingly off of a plate or off the floor that they do out of a bowl.

Karen

Karen