Please pray for Josi

[msjosi]

I just left my local vet the one that I trust a voicemail on his cellphone since he is not at the clinic today. I fed Josi some rice and chicken and ofcourse she gobbled it down, but she has run to the back door twice since then with continued liquid poo. It definitely has some blood in it don't know if it is from her insides or just from the outer circle of her butt from pushing so hard~sorry for the details. She is not crying or seem to be in any pain or discomfort, but she has got to feel awful:( I am assuming this is related to her weak stomach and all the extra's she has been getting, but I always have this fear that it is somehow related to what is going on inside her although this has not happened before. I guess my biggest concern besides hardening up her bowels is that she will get dehydrated and the effects that could have on her. If I don't hear back soon, I think I will give the hospital a call and leave a message for her oncologist or the internist to call me back. I will keep you posted.

 

[sasmeow]

Sorry to hear Ms. Josi is having poo problems. I will be thinking of her. Stay strong, Ms. Josi is a fighter. Thanks for keeping us updated!

 

[liamsmom]

i'm feel so bad that miss josi's belly isn't doing so well. judging by your last post before this one...it really hasn't been that long since you fed her the chicken and rice. is it even possible for the food to have gone thru her that fast?
talk about graphic..........is the blood mixed in with the poop? is it mucousy?
dakota had colitis all his life. his bowels/intestines would be set off by anything stressful, be it good or bad stress (company coming over, a trip to the vet's office, something that excited him one way or the other).
when he would have a colitis attack he would have very runny stool with some blood and sometimes some mucous. with dakota's colitis the vet once told me that if it was 'digested' blood from the stomach or higher up in the intestines that...it wouldn't be so red and that if it was due to the rectum bleeding from straining...it would be red blood. don't know if this helps you at all? or if it would still apply in this case. but i would imagine that since josi is having liquid poo's i really don't know how you would be able to tell the difference.
here i go again telling you something that i'd rather not share but have to tell you anyway...so here goes....
at the end (which it doesn't sound like josi is at, by the way) dakota did develop a 'mass' near his rectum that was blocking his bowel movement from passing thru easily. so he had soft poops. that being said.....his didn't come on suddenly like josi's did. his poops gradually got softer and softer. you said she was having hard poops and then they were suddenly soft. so it doesn't really sound like the same thing to me.
but i would be doing the same thing you are doing. calling the vets and going crazy while waiting for one of them to call me back.
i'm here waiting with you!
-Caroline

 

[Gruntsmom]

Ohhhh, poor Josi :( I'm so sorry about her diarrhea, and think it's good that you're putting a call into her specialists. Fasting her so her digestive tract could get a rest would be the standard way to go - any food could be an irritant, but under her special circumstance, it might be better to hear what her vets would want you to do. Poor baby, it would be so hard to fast her when she's so ravenous from the prednisone. :( Anyway, hoping for a good solution for her diarrhea, and sending out more healing vibes for The Warrior Princess. Hugs.

 

[butlersmom]

Children's Pepto, Metamucil, etc.....

The only reason I know about the chidren's Pepto is that my grandson takes it (he's 5). The Metamucil I know about from when Butler had giardia (whole nuther story) and projectile diarrhea. The vet had me mix some in with his food to absorb the extra fluids in his tummy and firm the poo back up. About the pumpkin, 1 tablespoon per meal will help to firm the bowel movements. More than that will act as a laxative. Weird, huh?

Hope Josi is feeling better soon. It will probably take a while to settle her tummy down.

Don't worry too much about giving her one Pepto. I don't think that one can have too much affect. On the other hand, when Scarlett was sick from the mast cells, we were instructed to give her Pepto everyday. It was the lesser of two evils, and sometimes you just have to do what makes them the most comfortable.

Keep us posted.

 

[Cainsmommy]

I haven't been able to get on the site since Monday. I'm so glad to hear Josi is still with us. But sorry to hear of her tummy troubles. Hope her tummy feels better soon. As I was reading about all the yummy treat Josi has been having. I swear Cain looked at me like "Can I get some of that?"

 

[msjosi]

I just got off the phone with my local vet...he is wonderful. He is prescribing some sort of paste stuff which I forget the name of so I will have to post it when Brian brings it home. He said it is more of an all natural remedy that wont have any of the ingredients that could be especially harmful in Josi's situation. It is a paste in a syringe that I will give her 3 times a day so I guess I will give it twice today. He said if this episode is from dietary reasons, this should fix her up. He said there are other reasons this could be happening which it wouldn't like colitis, a bacterial infection (forgot the name also), etc. He told me to look out for the color of the blood and to see if the is mucous in it and that if she has no improvement by Friday to bring her in. He said to continue with the 2/3rice 1/3chicken in small meals and water and see how that goes. After that he said I do need to tell you something~he said that he will be going out of town to KY. this weekend for an entire week for a family reunion...so ofcourse I started crying and I'm sure made him feel guilty which was wrong of me, but I couldn't help it. I explained to him how we don't have the bond with the other two doctor's, but if I had no choice in the matter that I would have the lady vet help us over the idiot one from today. I know he is not going to slam his colleague, but he knows I don't mince words well when it comes to Josi and he assured me that first he would personally go over Josi's condition and bring them up to speed and secondly make sure that his personal nurse (Belinda-whom we love also) will be my sole point of contact in case of emergency. I asked him if she could handle the process and he said unfortunately that is one of the few things a nurse can not administer. As much as Brian and I would not want to bring her back up to the hospital if need be, we are very comfortable with many of her specialists and talked about bringing her there instead. In the meantime I think I will just have to tell the Warrior Princess she is just going to have to fight somemore is she can...I really don't need to be worrying about these things, but I would rather be somewhat prepared and know the situation we are getting into before something happens and we go into panic mode.

 

[msjosi]

butlersmom~my vet just told me the same thing about pumpkin that you did which I did not know and is weird. He said that it is a fiber so in a tbsp. dosage it will firm things up, but over that it will act in the reverse as a laxative.
Thank you all so much for all the helpful information, sometimes I wonder if BW is the best vet of them all b/c we all pool our info together. Thank you for the continued get well vibes for Josi and Mommy is going to have to toughen up on those puppy dog eyes of hers...I just took Josi's fight in her for granted and went with the doctor's words that she probably had hours to days to live and so I basically figured why not. I should have known better that Warrior Princess doesn't play by the rules and I would have realized that with her weak stomach to begin with, that she would most definitely live on to feel the effects of our splurging. Although I absolutely gave everything in much moderation, I hope she will understand that mommy has to hold back for now.

 

[EAO76]

Another remedy that helped us (one of our fosters had TERRIBLE, and I mean TERRIBLE diarrhea) was just plain russet potatoes boiled and mashed (nothing added and I left about half the skin on them). This worked almost immediately when chicken/rice, pumpkin, and Imodium did not work at all. The potato diet was recommended by a vet.

 

[butlersmom]

The paste stuff, can't remember the name of that either, but Butler has had that as well. It does work, or it did with him - just not in connection with the giardia. Butler has always had a sensitive tummy and any meds, etc would trigger loose bowel movements, and even diarrhea. We have to be careful with the "extra" foods we give him to avoid trouble.

Hope the meds work. I'm sorry to hear your vet is going out of town, but glad to know that you know ahead of time and won't panic should you need to take Josi in for something. Try not to worry. I don't have to tell you this, but you know that she will pick up on your feelings and if she feels you stressing, she will stress also. I have to be really careful with Butler. He is very attuned to my emotions.

Did the vet say you can try the pumpking in conjunction with the paste? I would think it wouldn't hurt anything, and it's never caused any adverse reactions to Butler's tummy issues.

Hugs, and no worry vibes heading your way from Athens, GA. That's where I spend 1/2 my time lately.