The Mystery

Dear Readers,

I'm sorry for the late post; I started typing this post on 17th Jan, but only managed to complete it today. I am such a slow blogger. Sighs.

Anyway, I know many of you are concern abou't Sugar and Posh's condition and is anxious to know how they are. In general, Posh seems to recover pretty well while Sugar's diarrhoea seems to be getting worse.

I just realised that I did not mention Sugar's condition in the previous posts.

On Sunday, when we discharged Posh from the clinic for a night, we brought Sugar to see the doctor too. The doctor diagnosed that Sugar was most probably suffering from gastritis, and we were instructed to monitor her condition, just in case it deteriorates and that could possibly mean that there are other reasons being her throwing up.

We brought her home and fed her with medicine. All else looks fine until .................... she started having diarrhoea on It's been a 'on off' thing and we're monitoring her condition while feeding her with charcoal. Recently, Sugar's been releasing quite a lot of gas too (farting). I hope that is an indication of recovery.

However, I decided to bring her to the doctor yesterday after she diarrhoeaed continuously thrice. The doctor poked Sugar's anus with a thermometer and took it out with traces of her feaces. Sugar's temperature was within normal range and after checking the feaces under the microscope, the doctor found the presence of a bacteria (I can't remember the name of the bacteria).

The bacteria is present in contamined water or soil and Sugar probably picked it up when she licked off the ground (without our notice) or from the sea water when we brought her out for swimming.

I started feeding her medication last night but she still continued to diarrhoea more frequently today. We're (still) monitoring her condition and hopefully it improves in due time.


Back to Posh.


For days, we've been guessing what could Posh have possibly consumed that upset digestive system so much. We had guessed squeaker toys as she had puked some rubber like items while she was hospitalised. After the ultrasound scan report mentioned that cloth or tissue like material was detected, we guessed soft toys as Posh is very fond of gnawing soft toys, even after the thread breaks. At times, she'll chew on the fibre and will only stop if we caught notice of it.

Make a guess what Posh swallowed?

The packet of stomach content stank so much that we could smell it through 3 plastic bags and 1 container.

Least did we expect Posh to swallow ............................

YARN

WOOL

My family and I do not have the slightest idea where did Posh get the yarn from, because nobody in the family knits. Even though we have a few balls of yarn, they are well kept in a container beyond the reach of dogs.

The one and only ball of yarn that was not kept in the container, was thrown into the bin by my mum last year. Since Posh has this bad habit of raiding the bin, we highly suspect that she stole it from the bin and slurp it down, imagining she was eating spaghetti.

The original colour of the wool was not brown. The colour was 'dyed' by Posh's GI tract.

We were told by the veterinarian that the ball of yarn was lodged at the back of her tongue (towards the opening of Posh's throat), all the way through her oesophagus, duodenum, illeum and colon. The tension of the wool pulling was so strong that Posh's intestine were held together, like an accordian. In order to remove the wool, the doctor had to made 4 separte incisions on 4 different areas of Posh's small intestine. Posh's vet also commented that if surgery was delayed, gangrene would have occured in Posh's digestive tract. Phew! How lucky Posh was admidst the unluckiness.

It looks more like a pile of poo. It smells like one too.

Another picture of the yarn stuck in Posh's GI tract (gastrointestinal tract). From the colour difference of the yarn, one can likely guess which part of the yarn was stuck at which part of the GI tract. The bottom part of the yarn where it looks like feaces is in the midst of being form, is probably taken out from the colon. And that probably explains why it stinks!

Posh was shaved further for the surgery.

The first two days after her surgery, Posh was pretty listless. By the third day, when Posh started to feel better, she jumped around excitedly appoint seeing us. We were so worried that her stitches would 'burst'!

Posh was discharged 4 days after her surgery, after the staff at the clinic ensured that Posh could drink and eat without vomiting.

The very long incision.

Posh was made to wear the elizabethan collar, until her surgery wound recovers fully. Just in case she decides to chew on her wound when it itches. The last thing we would want is to have her internal organs spilling all over the ground. Gross!

Posh was also instructed to have cage rest, so that she doesn't overly exert herself. Being a typical beagle, she started to whine/bark/howl after some time. The little bout of energy simply refuses to be caged up!

Posh's first review is due today in the evening. I will update on her progress in due time.

When will she ever learn?

Regards,
Rane
(Owner of Sugar & Posh)