Nope, Still a Mystery

On Saturday, Junebug had an unhappy tummy again. We called the vet. We took her in and got blood work for the suspected pancreatitis. Good news- her liver, kidney AND pancreas values were all good. She does NOT have pancreatitis.

Blood work did indicate a possible infection. X-Rays showed maybe small bits of bones working their way through her intestines. Oh, and gas. There was also gas in her intestines. So basically, she had gastroenteritis.

Because she had a fever on Saturday morning, they wanted to keep her and put her on fluids. We were supposed to be able to pick her up that evening. That night, they were concerned about the bits of bone and wanted to keep her overnight. The next morning, she still had a fever, so wanted to keep her until the afternoon. About 30 hours after we dropped her off, we got to take her home.

What does this really mean? Mostly that my Beagle apparently has an overly sensitive stomach. If we miss her getting into something at the dog park, she will get sick. But here’s the thing, at home, it takes a little over 24 hours to get better. At the vet, on IV fluids, it took her a little over 24 hours to get better.

We know she does not have a chronic condition, so we don’t have to worry about that. We know that it will take her the same amount of time to get better, regardless of whether she’s getting aggressive treatment or just being left alone.

Oh, and we know that different veterinarians are concerned about different things, and that they don’t all read the complete medical record. The night vet was worried about the bits of bone. No one else mentioned them. The Sunday morning vet informed us that they had found swelling in her neck (ie her impacted saliva glands, for which she was first seen at this clinic, almost 2 years ago). And we know that the Saturday morning/Sunday afternoon vet thinks gas in the intestine is worth mentioning, but not bits of bone.

So basically, Junebug is still undiagnosable. My mystery Beagle remains a mystery.