On Monday morning, I called the vet to report that Alice is still only eating half to 3/4 of her food, and she won’t eat on her own and needs to be hand fed. And that Felix was the same way.
Felix is probably like this because he’s on antibiotics, so I asked for an anti-nausea med for him.
Alice, on the other hand, is a mystery. They had me bring her in and talk with a different vet in the practice, who was great. She spent a really long time touching Alice all over and listening to her with the stethoscope in lots of different places.
She decided the best course of action would be a barium study where they give her barium and watch it move through her digestive tract. I had to leave her at the vet all day for this to happen. Alice was in good spirits, though, and everyone at the vet LOVES her! Here is a picture I got of me holding her on my lap while waiting for the vet. She is a sable and white Japanese Chin and I look a mess in a pink dress as I had just woken up and not showered or anything.
While Alice was at the vet, I had to go to my eye doctor. I needed to double check my prescription, as my dad offered to buy the glasses I really liked!
I was on the fence if I should take Felix since he hasn’t been eating well, which means he’s not feeling well. But as I was getting ready to leave, he went wild with excitement about potentially leaving the house, so I could tell he wanted to work. I figured it was a short outing, so I’d let him come with me.
Normally when I go to the eye doctor, I take someone with me who holds Felix during the exam. But this time I had to go alone. So I just put Felix on the floor next to my chair.
He couldn’t be on my lap because the eye equipment takes up a lot of my lap and there wouldn’t be room for him. So floor it was! He did great! He laid next to the chair (or as next to it as he could get because of equipment in the way!) really nicely.
I took a picture from my POV, but after the exam was finished, I asked the optometrist to take a picture. Of course Felix got up when the optometrist did! So that picture isn’t actually where he was lying the whole time. But it is a good picture, and that’s all that matters LOL!
I am waring a multicolored dress with the primary color of teal and Felix the Japanese Chin is wearing a turquoise vest.
While I was ordering my glasses, the vet called. Luckily the optician had some paperwork to do, so I was able to step out and talk to the vet real quick.
While it was hard to tell because Alice is SO small and they couldn’t get a lot of barium in her, it seems like she has an esophageal diversion, which is basically like a little pouch in her esophagus. They thought that might be irritating her throat, and that might be making her not want to eat. They had to keep her until the study was totally done, which would be almost 6PM, though.
So I finished up ordering my glasses, and headed home where when I had left, Brad was working on a clogged toilet.
The toilet was unable to be unclogged by Brad, and our kitchen sink was draining slow, so we called the plumber to come out and see what was going on.
Just as she arrived, I went to pick up Alice. Tam handled the plumber.
The vet gave us Slippery Elm for Alice to take which should increase the mucous in her system and make things slide down easier.
Back at home, the plumber unclogged the toilet, and found loads of dog hair in the sink drain. Which is weird because I ALWAYS put the sink strainers in when I’m washing the dogs in the sink. But from now on, I’m only allowed to wash the dogs in the shower, because we have a more effective way of catching hair there.
It was a very long long day! I definitely overdid it, as overnight that night, I had some serious health issues.
By the next day, which was yesterday, Alice still wasn’t eating more than half to three quarters of her food even with the Slippery Elm and the appetite stimulant she’s on. And Felix is only eating about half or maybe a little less. So I will be calling the vet again today to see what they advise. Fun fun.
At least this morning (Wednesday) I’m feeling better physically! Now we just need the dogs to get into line and feel better! Here’s hoping!