Maids Day but at the house

With Dax on a hunger strike, I'm working from the house on this Maids Day instead of heading to the condo, because we're either taking him to the regular vet if we can get an appointment today, or to the emergency vet -- maybe to the emergency vet anyway.  So I'm ready to be holed up in my bedroom while they're here.

Yesterday Dax was vomiting and shivering all afternoon & evening after I returned home.  He did not vomit overnight, and isn't shivering this morning, but he's still not interested in food this morning.

Hopefully this will pass, but it seems to have become a more frequent or chronic problem -- similar to his shoulder problem that popped up repeatedly a while back, but that was solved by no longer taking him running.  All I've got to go on here is that twice now I've come back to the house to a dog that seemed fine when I left but stopped eating while I was away.  Perhaps eating stuff he shouldn't when T takes him on hikes?  That's my only clue, if it isn't a deeper health issue.  Maybe his body isn't up for these long hikes anymore and T is wearing him out while I'm away -- trying to force Dax to be more active than he can take, so we don't have to admit he's in decline.  I dunno.  Pets are tough to figure out because they can't tell you what's wrong.  And in the case of Dax he's been getting more indiscriminate about what he puts in his mouth.  Putting a muzzle on him when he take him out feels extreme but possibly necessary?

We'll see how the day goes.  It feels like all this stuff began when we put him on the antibiotics, supposedly as a way to fix his liver.  We don't know whether that worked or not, because the vet had left for the day on Friday when we took Dax in for his blood test.  We should learn more today.

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Sounds like we're bringing him in now.

Dax is back home, with three new meds

Dax's liver was not fixed by the course of antibiotics prescribed last month, the liver enzymes are just as high as before.  It's not clear what is causing this problem, but first the vet wants to fix the more urgent problems:

Dax has a urinary tract infection -- bacteria in his urine, elevated white blood cell count -- so he's starting an additional course of antibiotics.  It had seemed all these appetite problems began with the first course of antibiotics, so I'm not thrilled about this, but the infection needs to be addressed.

The tummy problems were diagnosed as gastroenteritis, for which he's getting an antacid and antiemetic.  So far his appetite has not returned to normal, which is my biggest worry.  Doctor said give it a few days for his tummy to settle down.  If needed, we can put Dax on an appetite stimulant.

So, we have a sick dog, and he's undergoing medical treatment.  Doesn't seem to be an emergency at the moment, but ... the reduced appetite cannot go on forever.