Alice went in for an exploratory laparotomy and gastrotomy yesterday. Her Doctor and Martha decided to go straight to surgery and bypass the endoscopy procedure we discussed on Wednesday. This makes good sense to me, and Martha and I discussed the pros and cons before she gave her consent.
Turns out there was no foreign body present but lots of inflammation in the stomach and evidence of inflammation in the small intestine. The surgeon described thickened loops of small bowel. He took biopsies from several sites in both the stomach and upper small intestine.
Alice will spend the weekend in the hospital receiving IV fluids with electrolytes, vitamins and dextrose. She won't be getting anything by mouth to give the stomach and bowel several days to heal. In addition she'll be receiving corticosteroids to reduce the inflammation in her GI tract.
We'll follow up with everyone early next week on the biopsy results and a more definitive diagnosis and treatment plan. Maybe it's time for a post on IBD or inflammatory bowel disease.
With all the scary political ads on TV I'd almost forgotten that it was Halloween. I promised Yvonne I'd do a piece on Halloween and Pet Pitfalls.
OK, so assuming you are a devil worshiping liberal like me and you will indeed be celebrating Halloween there are a few watch outs if you have a devil worshiping dog or cat at home. I guess that's redundant since cats are by definition at least devil sympathizers, right?
First of all, be really careful with the door when you open it to redistribute the wealth of treats. More dogs and cats escape the house on Halloween than any other holiday. Unless your pet is well trained it would probably be a really good idea to crate them or put them in a safe location like your bedroom, for the evening.
If your pet has a door opening/visitor associated behavior problem or is aggressive with strangers you are way too late to do anything about it other than confinement somewhere away from the action. You might consider a tranquilizer too, if you have time to get to the vet's office this afternoon.
You should also be careful with the candy. We had more than a few sick dogs and some sick cats show up on All Saints Day at our vet clinic in Montana. Dark chocolate especially can be pretty darn toxic. Don't leave the stash on the floor when you are doling it out and make sure your own goblins protect their stuff from the critters when they get home. It's a real double whammy for a parent when the dog eats the kid's Halloween plunder. Sick dog, angry kid, not good.
If you follow a few simple precautions you and your pets should make it through Halloween safe and sound. As far as what to do with all the loot, I'm in the eat it as fast as you can camp. I could never understand those kids, like my sisters, that would hoard their candy and still be bringing it out at Thanksgiving. If only they had not been so good at hiding stuff.
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