vomiting, diarrhea, blood in stool - if you've tried everything else...

Les_2

Hi,

I've joined this board specifically to make this post on the off chance that it may someday help someone else whose dog is mysteriously ill with the above symptoms.

A while back, our 3 year old male Chihuahua started to get sick. It started with (very) occasional vomiting and diarrhea. Within a few months of us first noticing that he "seemed to be getting sick a lot", his conditioned worsened to the point where every meal resulted in one of these two things. Around this time, he also started to suffer from bloody stools.

No matter what we tried - several visits to the vet, dry food, wet food, prescription food, changing his litter (hey, he's a Chihuahua!) - his condition only seemed to worsen.

And then one day my wife told me she was going to try using a different dog bowl. I told her that she was crazy - we'd bought this bowl at a huge, national retailer and it's a brand you can find in a lot of different stores - but of course she didn't listen and tried it anyway.

There were no other changes made to his environment at this time.

Within a week he was completely better.

This was a few months ago and he hasn't been sick since.

I can't actually prove that it was the bowl that got him sick (without spending $$ to send it to a lab and have it tested God knows what) but I know in my heart that this is what caused it. I believe that his saliva gradually wore down the glaze on the bowl (he has a habit of licking his bowl for long periods of time when it's empty) and that whatever was underneath that initial surface layer was toxic to his system.

Anyway, I wanted to make this post on the off chance that it might help some other person out there who's "tried everything and their dog is still sick".

BTW - I have a degree in mathematics and used to do statistical work for an actuarial firm. I am not some internet conspiracy kook who is prone to seeing causality where none exists. I'm not sure I'd even believe what happened if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

Peace,

(and I hope I posted in the right forum)

Les_2

animalcraker

What kind of bowl were you using? and what kind did you switch to?

Renoman

Thank you for the info. Very useful informative and well worth keeping in mind when shopping for dog supplies.

I use stainless steel bowls for the dogs, cats and the chinchilla. Bacteria has less chance of attaching to and hiding in stainless steel.

So sorry that you had to go through this experience but I'm happy to hear that puppy is now well and thriving.

briteday

If it was a glazed bowl, like a crock bowl, I have to wonder if there was lead in the glaze or underlying paint. We see lead poisoning in medical labs in people who have come to the US from countries where they make there own pottery in there own homes, to eat and cook with.

ACampbell

I'm curious to know too, I use plastic bowls for food and stainless steel for water...I'm trying to get to all stainless, but without ordering them online, I'm stuck with plastic for now (We need a pet shop better than PetsWest here...that place sucks) but I was thinking, if it was painted maybe? They had a HUGE recall on toys made in china (for human children) because the paints contain lead, and children were chewing on them and getting lead poisoning...

The symptoms of chronic lead poisoning include neurological problems, such as reduced cognitive abilities, or nausea, abdominal pain, irritability, insomnia, metal taste in oral cavity, excess lethargy or hyperactivity, headache and, in extreme cases, seizure and coma. There are also associated gastrointestinal problems, such as constipation, diarrhea, vomiting, poor appetite, weight loss, which are common in acute poisoning
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning)
That may have been the problem if using ceramic or a bowl that was painted...just a thought.

Les_2

Sorry, forgot that bit of info: it was a ceramic bowl and we switched over to stainless afterwards.

ACampbell

Wow, guess you have to be really careful if you are dead set on ceramic bowls then, I've heard of ceramics having lead or even the really old ones having uranium in them...I think it was uranium, it was something like that that is radioactive...