Diagnosis: full of shit

Gigi doesn't like going to the vet, but the plain
white walls of the exam rooms are the perfect
background for photos of her.

We've been pampering Gigi, feeding her chicken and rice, with antacids, and she had been keeping it down this past week.  I had been slowly adding her regular food back in and we were back to the 50/50 point.  I thought everything was going well and then yesterday she barfed it up out in the dog yard. 




I'm not the kind of person who runs to the vet every time a dog barfs, but this was a problem we had been dealing with for a week or more and she was losing weight.  Maybe I am the kind of person who runs to the vet every time my girl barfs because we went again today.  To her credit, the vet really didn't push blood work and xrays but I wanted them and we had them.  Nothing was really abnormal so I got a bag of ID dog food (easily digested) and we'll continue feeding her chicken, rice, and antacids and move towards the ID food slowly.




The only thing the xrays actually showed was that the dog was full of poop.  That's not too surprising because she has been spending very little time outdoors for the past few days, not a minute more than absolutely necessary.  The best thing I know for low intestinal motility is exercise so we went for a walk in town along the Rivanna River Trail.  I parked near Free Bridge and we walked to Riverview Park and back, about 3.5 miles. 

It was warmer today but there were
still frozen ice falls where water had
been running off the hillside.

This was a new experience for Gigi and she really didn't know what to make of it.  I'm accustomed to walking with the dog out front, leading the way and generally dragging me along.  Gigi walked beside me or behind me most of the time, I hardly even saw her.  When we met other people she'd get off the trail beside me, not interested in making friends.  Two joggers told me how pretty she was as they passed, but she wasn't interested in meeting new friends, human or canine.  We didn't break any speed records and she didn't poop on the walk but she did once we got back home. 

Gigi was not impressed.

After she ate she went directly upstairs and curled up on the bed.  I'll be lucky to get her out again before bedtime. 

I thought I was going to have to
carry her across the ice; she even
feigned a slip and fall.

Our route today, 3.5 miles

She was happiest when we got back to the car.