Update on Bourbon

After spending over $4000 to find no explanation for the vomitting and GI bleeding, Bourbon seems to be doing better. After he started vomitting again on Sunday, we witheld all food and water for almost 3 days (we gave him subcuntaeous fluids at home), and now we are very slowly increasing his food and water. He's still on a bunch of different meds, and it's gettting harder and harder to fool him into taking them. He now sucks the liverworst off the pills and spits the pills out.

But his PCV was up to 30% on Wednesday (from his low of 17%; normal range is 37-55%), so the GI bleeding may have stopped. I took him in for another shot of Cerenia on Wednesday to stop the vomitting, and he's been on oral Cerenia since then. It seems to be working.

He's mostly on a diet of rice and egg whites (a quarter cup at a time), and I'm a little afraid to introduce real dog food too soon. If he goes a few more days without vomitting I might sneak a little dog food into his diet and see what happens. Since we don't know what is wrong in the first place, we don't know if it will get better or worse.

So we'll just wait and see.

Bourbon

This is an old picture, but it shows Bourbon at a happier time.

About 2 weeks ago he began vomiting, and having blood in his stool. It is likely that he has an upper GI bleed of some kind, but no cause can be found. He has had x-rays, ultrasound, and an endoscopy, and his PCV continues to drop. At this point his PCV is 17% (his baseline value at his last check-up was 44%). Today they gave him a transfusion but there is nothing else we can do.

We are picking him up from the critical care center tonight, and bringing him home. We are not planning to pursue it further. He is on a few medications for ulcers and upper GI diseases, even though we don't know if he has an actual disease, or got "into something" around the house that is not showing up on the tests.

And, as if that's not enough, the vet confirmed yesterday that Bourbon has progressive retinal atrophy, a genetic condition that causes complete blindness in a matter of weeks or months. It strikes between the ages of 1 and 6 - in the prime of adulthood. If Bourbon survives this mysterious bleeding, he will be blind.

I don't even have the words to describe how very sad we are. Bourbon, however, is happily licking and cuddling up to everyone he meets. He is the sweetest dog, oblivious to his future.

To a dog, today is all that matters. Sometimes we could learn a thing or two from a dog.