Everything started about two days ago when my dog, Zero, didn't want to eat his dinner. Understandably, Siberians are picky sometimes, and with the heat we've been having lately, I figured he wasn't hungry. I tossed a bit of cheese on top and he ate a bit of his food. In the middle of the night he was restless, and eventually threw up around 3:30 a.m.
I passed off the first throw-up as a typical Siberian cleanse. My other Siberian "tosses his cookies" so to speak every once in a while to clean out his system. I went to work, but came home early around 10:30 in the morning, since I was supposed to head out and bring both dogs to my breeder for a bath and a play date with the other Sibes.
When I got the boys inside, Zero just looked at me and cried. I thought something might be wrong, so we went out to the breeder's anyway for her opinion as well (she knows her dogs, and I value her opinion.) Once there, we realized Zero wasn't drinking any water, and wasn't acting his usual chipper self. We then used a syringe to get some water into him, since his gums were dry and he appeared dehydrated.
The water seemed to rejuvenate him. He ran around with the other Sibes, drank water and seemed happy. I brought him home and he fell asleep. After about an hour's nap, he got up and spewed water everywhere out his mouth. It was like someone dumped a bucket of water all over his pillow.
He vomitted again short after, at which point, I knew something was wrong and called the vet. We decided to give him overnight to see if he improved and would stop vomitting. He didn't vomit again, but by this morning he was lethargic and still refused to eat or drink.
I brought him into the vet, and after an exam, bloodwork and x-rays, and everything pointed to him having a blockage in his guts somewhere (likely intestinal). The x-rays didn't show any foreign objects, but that his colon was swollen with gas, and he seemed quite uncomfortable. The vet said it could be a sock, or some other soft, clothlike object that wasn't picked up on x-ray.
We booked him in for immediate surgery with the other vet in town, since they would be able to watch him in recovery overnight. I just got a call about half an hour ago that he was out of surgery.
The result?
They didn't find anything.
There appears to have been no physical object that caused the blockage, so I'm at a bit of a loss. Has anyone else ever experienced something like this? I've been told that sometimes things can get twisted or folded inside, but then the dog often exhibits other behaviours, like rolling around on the ground in an attempt to untwist it.
If nothing else, thanks for reading my story... I'm pretty upset over the whole ordeal, but it looks like he's going to be ok now. The vet will re-assess him in the morning and I should be able to take him home tomorrow.
