3210. A 12-year-old Shih Tzu stopped eating for 3 days. Why?

Jul 21, 2018

"You have seen him as a puppy," the owner was very worried about his exercise companion.  "He has not eaten for 3 days."

 So many years have passed. I have not seen him during his growing up years. Now the dog is old and is sick. What happened to him?

 BKTP

BLOOD INFECTIONS IN AN OLD SHIH TZU



SETTING - Images to be used for beginning and ending

Singapore is a small country... sq. km? Hot and humid. The residents live mainly in apartments. The neighbourhood has amenities and there is practically no need to go downtown to shop. For example, the Seletar Mall has a supermarket, cinemas, food and beverage and retail shops.

VIDEO OF SELETAR MALL

 
Examination showed no fever or abnormal heart, lungs and abdomen, except for a thickened wall bladder with some 20 ml of urine. The urine was collected by catheterisation while the dog was sedated (Zoletil 100 at 0.2 ml IM and atropine 0.3 ml IM to reduce neck rigidity upwards and backwards).

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July 23, 2018
Day 3 of in-patient treatment. In the morning of July 23, the dog had recovered fully as evident by his loud barking episodes and eating the canned A/D diet voraciously. I felt a great joy to see him in good health after treatment. See videos.

Despite being so thin and blinded by cataracts, his loud barking seemed to be his way of saying "thank you" for treating me. He was seen by me as a puppy and that was 12 years ago. All these years, I had not seen him. 




We brought him out to exercise. He peed a lot but swelling of penis and prepuce was much less as the penile head is now inside the prepuce.

Outcome
Aug 11, 2018.
The dog has recovered from infections and eating as normal.
Early veterinary treatment of infections prevent irreversible septic infections of the blood.
BLOOD TEST RESULTS
Photocopy of actual report and interpretation

Video interpretation as follow:




FINAL VIDEO