# Ellie not well



## Dan_A (Jan 19, 2021)

Greetings V family,

I'd like to know if anyone has any ideas here with what is afflicting Ellie.

She will be 2 in October and started her 2nd heat mid July. This lasted about a month with her vulva swelling going down a lot and bleeding no longer. Then a few weeks later, she started bleeding dark blood with some being fairly sticky. We figured it was just some old blood as her uterus flushes out the lining. Then she started feeling very down and not herself last week. We took her to the emergency vet on Sunday and they ran blood tests, ultrasound, vitals (no fever), etc. The vet was not an ultrasound expert but she said that there wasnt a sign of pyometra but the uterine horns did seem to have some fluid. Blood tests were good besides slightly elevated liver and globulins.

They treated her with an injection of an antibiotic and prescribed amoxcicillin for a week. We then took her to her primary vet for a checkup and she said to basically continue with the antibiotic course as her exam turned up nothing. Ellie continues to feel down, laying down on her blankets on the couch all day. She doesnt seem in pain and will move around just fine, just not her normal crazy V self. She is eating , but not as much, we have her on boiled chicken/rice/kibble mix and are making sure she eats her probiotic powder. She drinks and urinates fine, bowel movements are pretty loose i'm guessing from the antibiotics.

I'm thinking this can be some kind of false pregnancy, where her body is just being hit with a fluctuation of hormones. It aligns perfectly in the 6-8 weeks after her heat started timeframe. She does seem to be "nesting" and appears anxious. The thing is her breasts don't seem to be enlarging, but maybe that doesn't always happen in these cases.

Of course I'm always nervous of a tick born disease. We are fastidious with tick prevention and she wears a Preventic collar. Still always makes me nervous.

She doesn't appear to be getting any worse, but also not any better. I'm thinkin of bringing her back for another blood panel in a few days if this continues or I see signs she's on a downturn. Would love to hear if anyone else has any ideas or has been through a false pregnancy with their V before. Thanks!


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## Gabica (Jan 20, 2018)

poor girl. tick (or vector) born disease is always my first fear as well, just because they seem to spread everywhere, so that panel seem like a logical one to do.
do you have a reproductive specialist vet in your area? they should be able to assess whether any underlying issues which need to be addressed or at least provide with some help to stop the symptoms.


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## lw19 (10 mo ago)

I do not have any advice to offer. Just wanted to say that I'm so sorry and hope that she can get back to her old self soon! Please keep us updated on how things progress.


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## Dan_A (Jan 19, 2021)

Thank you @Gabica and @lw19 . 

I never looked into a vet reproductive specialist , good idea I will check if one is in the area.


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## Sophie01 (12 mo ago)

Our Sophie went into her first heat July 18th. The day before that she had vomiting that would not stop. And that was just the beginning. She had broken out in a rash about five days before this and the vet put her on steroids in an antibiotic. So we stopped those thinking that would help but it didn't. Throughout the next month she was so sick I thought something was seriously wrong with her. She didn't eat much at all, she had chronic loose stools and even some diarrhea, she had no energy. And the rash kept spreading and getting worse. She bled for over two weeks. We also had her on hamburger and rice but nothing helped. We ran some allergy testing but we don't have the results back yet. However, today is August 30th and she is completely back to normal. Her teets are still a little swollen because she won't be out of this destrus period until October 1st. Other than that, she's our old Elsa. My advice is to wait it out. It was horribly painful for us to watch but it did resolve. God bless you!


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## Pupmum99 (Jan 4, 2022)

Dan_A said:


> Greetings V family,
> 
> I'd like to know if anyone has any ideas here with what is afflicting Ellie.
> 
> ...


I had a friend whose went through a phantom and actually her mammary glands didn’t swell. It may be worth looking at it from a behaviourist perspective and get an assessment if you can find someone you trust with experience with pregnancy/pseudo related behaviours. Again like gabica said a reproductive specialist could point you in a good direction themselves or may know of someone. Wishing you all the luck getting to the bottom of it it’s so stressful when you don’t know how to help.


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## Dan_A (Jan 19, 2021)

Thank you @Sophie01 and @Pupmum99 . More signs are pointing to a rocky diestrus / pseudo the more I look into it. There are no rational signs she is in pain or fighting an infection.

I was planning on an ovary sparing spay so she can keep her hormones , but if they are the cause of this we’ll do a full spay.

Vets around here are clueless with this stuff since 95% of dogs are spayed/neutered.


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## Dan_A (Jan 19, 2021)

update: Ellie seemed better today. Well ironically we noticed her licking herself quite a bit in the nether region. I decided to pick up her rear and squeeze and puss was expelled. Back off to the emergency vet. Turns out it is pyometra, the original reason we took her to the ER vet in the first place. Both the ER vet and the next day primary vet had basically ruled it out initially. She went in for emergency surgery. All went well and she is staying overnight. We'll be picking her up in the morning.

Sometimes you can't go by how our dogs are looking/acting, they give other signs that we have to watch out for that can be serious. They are experts at hiding serious problems from us to make us feel better (i'm convinced). This is very unusual for such a young dog. Our plan was to spay her a few months from now after she turned 2.


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

So glad you caught it in time. Your right these dogs know how to hide pain, and you know that had to be very painful for her.
Prayers for a smooth recovery.


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## Bob Engelhardt (Feb 14, 2012)

Dan_A said:


> [...]
> Turns out it is pyometra, the original reason we took her to the ER vet in the first place. Both the ER vet and the next day primary vet had basically ruled it out initially.
> [...]


That's scary - that 2 different vets ruled it out when it was what you thought it was. Also scary how serious it had become. What a relief that you must feel.


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## Mrs M (Jul 21, 2021)

Wishing Ellie a full and speedy recovery ❤


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## DrogoNevets (6 mo ago)

So glad you got to the bottom of it!

As much as my pup is trying me atm, I’d be lost without her! Will be looking out for these symptoms until she is done herself


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## Dan_A (Jan 19, 2021)

Thank you everyone , we are hoping to get her home tomorrow morning.


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

Dan_A said:


> Thank you everyone , we are hoping to get her home tomorrow morning.


Prayers she is doing well enough, to come home today.


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## DrogoNevets (6 mo ago)

Dan_A said:


> Thank you everyone , we are hoping to get her home tomorrow morning.


Do keep us updated!


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## Dan_A (Jan 19, 2021)

Thank you again all , Ellie got home today and is doing really well. Cone of shame for two weeks will be hard. I have an inflatable version coming today.

edit : what wasn’t so nice is the $4000 bill she came home with. Having dog health insurance on her should really help with that!


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## Mrs M (Jul 21, 2021)

Welcome home Ellie ❤


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## Gabica (Jan 20, 2018)

glad she is home safely. and she seems to be too


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## gunnr (Aug 14, 2009)

Awesome!!!!!
I’m so glad she’s on the mend. ❤‍🩹 
You’re both going to really like the inflatable donut collar, versus the cone. It was a godsend for me with Finn. 😀


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## Dan_A (Jan 19, 2021)

Already loving the inflatable donut @gunnr . She does sleep with the plastic cone that we trimmed to fit her better just because I don't trust the donut from coming off while we can't kinda keep an eye on her at night while sleeping.


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## Sumtoc (Sep 20, 2021)

About to have Katy spayed later this month. She had her first heat and seemed to come through it Ok. Full of energy now and seems pretty fit. Really dreading having her deal with that cone but I fear she would come right out of that donut.

Ellie looks like "Sheesh... ". Glad you got it figured out and she's back home.


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

I’ve duct taped the donut to a old collar before. We do all kinds of things to try and keep them safe, and comfortable.


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## gunnr (Aug 14, 2009)

The dog’s collar goes through loops on the inside circumference of the donut. Then there is a Velcro strap on the outer circumference.
I cheated and used my air compressor to pump up the donut, so it was pretty stiff.
Luckily, Finn dealt with it really well and never really went nuts trying to get it off. It gave him back his peripheral vision, and he was much happier. Each poochies will be different.

How long is Ellie scheduled to be in the collar?


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## Dan_A (Jan 19, 2021)

We use the donut during the day but yea it has inner loops to put a collar on as well if you need. Ellie is good and doesn’t try to take it off surprisingly. I think she’ll be done with it in 3-4 days. The nurse said two weeks but that seems much , will check with her primary vet when we take her for her one week post surgery visit.

The surgery she had used an incision like twice the size of a normal spay.

edit: we haven’t really been using the collar much as long as we are with her. She hasn’t shown much interest in her incision surprisingly. If we leave the room we donut her.


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## Dan_A (Jan 19, 2021)

Update :
Ellie is doing great. She seems to still need to pee more frequently and we were concerned of a UTI, but she is on the proper antibiotics for the strain of e.coli involved with the pyometra, obtained via culture.

We are looking for a new primary vet. Ours has been terrible, basically blowing us off not wanting to see Ellie pushing us back to the specialist hospital. Their excuse "to not have too many hands invovled". In other words, they know they missed this big time and now we are seen as a liability customer. This area is chock full of families with kids and dogs so they are already overworked and so busy making $$ with wellness exams, vaccines, and treating the itchies that I guess they don't need us. The specialty hospital tells us that our primary vet needs to take over, but they have been super in helping us through this. We plan on looking a little further out where vets actually need to do real work to keep their customers.

Ellie is excited to get out to play but has been a faithful couch potato. We are taking her on leash walks and getting her outside frequently as well. Next week the parking brake will come off and back into the woods!


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## DrogoNevets (6 mo ago)

So glad she is on the mend!!!!!!
A good vet here in the UK is gold dust in my opinion. ZIva and Badger (our cat) are with the same vets that my cats and dogs were with when i was 3 years old (32 years ago!) The actual people have changed alot, but still run on the same values IMO and still the best in the area!


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

I’m so happy to hear she is doing better, but sad that the vet is doing this to you. Especially in a time, that you would really need them. Specialty hospitals with all the bells, and whistles have their place. I just don’t see paying the higher cost, if it’s time for your regular vet to take over. 

Plus knowing from past experience, all records are sent to the primary vet. My vet has even called and spoken with the ER vet, when one of my dogs was in their care.
A lot of vets are overworked, and work for corporations, or have partners they have to answer to. It’s getting harder, and harder to find vets that own their own practice, and have time to really interact/care about the animals they see.


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## Pupmum99 (Jan 4, 2022)

The trouble will be when you take it off permanently and she voices her upset with the disappearance of her new neck pillow 😂🧡 glad she’s feeling better and you caught it quick.


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## Dan_A (Jan 19, 2021)

Thanks all.

You are correct @texasred , the specialty hospital sent everything to Ellie's primary. Didn't matter. They just didn't seem to care. The specialty hospital sent everything to me, including the culture documentation, etc instead. They were shocked at how we were treated by our primary. Up to this point our primary just did wellness checks and vaccines, seems that is the extent of their capabilities.

Edit: We switched to this vet after our last one had a changeover in ownership and the good vets left. Seems we jumped out of the pan into the fire even with all the "good" reviews.

You know these days you have to be your own doctor and now your own vet!


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