In the previous post, I wrote about Misha surviving my herself alone at home.  Now, I’ll tell you all about how it went downhill from there.

Some time in July she began throwing up at night.  Nothing to worry about.  Every couple of days, mostly bile.  It was almost always at the same time of the morning: 3 am. She had no other symptoms.   Her appetite was fine and everything else was working properly.

I tried different things.  Perhaps it was empty gut syndrome.  I gave her more to eat before bedtime.  I thought maybe I was given her medication to late.  I thought one of her treats went bad, so I dumped them.

At the beginning of August the 3 am vomiting stopped.  She went almost 2 weeks without an incident.  I decided that whatever it was she got it out of her system.

I was wrong.

She threw up on a Tuesday night.  Then, the next night, there was something in her stool that shouldn’t have been there.  An object.  I have no idea what it was.  It didn’t look like anything I had seen before.  It was night time.  I couldn’t identify it.  The next day she had a little discharge, but she was fine, so I figured we had dodged that one.

Wrong again.

The next day she had diarrhea and then the runs.  What an awful day that was!  Around 10 at night she settled down.  The next morning was a little better.  The runs were over, but her stool wasn’t right.  I nursed her with bland food, cottage cheese, and no treats.   It took a week, but she finally got back to normal.  Through it all, she ate as if nothing was wrong.

I didn’t realize it until about a week later that she had lost weight.  I could see her ribs.  I was afraid to weigh her.  I begin feeding her more, which she loved.  Weighed her the next week and she was 8 lbs.  She normally weighs between 10-11 lbs.  So, at her worst, she was probably only 7 lbs.  3-4 lbs. may not seem a lot but it is when you are so very small.

Anyway, I’m kind of used to stomach problems because of my previous dog.  So, I helped Misha along as best I knew home.  Eventually, she had a full recovery.

It sure was scary though!  Once I realized it was an object and not a virus or food, I thought about all the “could haves”.  She might have needed surgery…she might not have made it.  Phew!  I’m glad everything worked  out.

She is the type of dog that will eat anything.  When I first moved it was tan bark and carpeting yarn.  I really have to keep an eye on her.  A big dog can get away with a lot.  A small dog cannot.   This was scarier because most of the time I know what she has eaten and I wait and watch.  Knowing she got something I had no clue about makes me realize that no matter how vigilant I am, something can still slip by.

Well, at least it wasn’t 40 socks like that dog on the news.