What’s on the inside of a dog? Turns out this:
Here’s Ike’s x-rays after swallowing contrast dye. The doctor is trying to determine what is causing Ike’s stomach upset and occasional vomiting/regurgitation. Having had Upper GI series with barium myself, my first question was, how are you going to get Ike to drink all that barium? The answer was that she used a syringe to squirt the barium down his throat. I don’t think Ike enjoyed that too much, because he came back with barium all over his mouth, neck and legs. She then took a series of x-rays, every 10 or 15 minutes, following the barium’s journey along Ike’s digestive track. I love how the intestines look like a plate of spaghetti!
(I have to add that the x-rays aren’t cheap–$270. We’d already had another series of x-rays without the barium, and a lot of blood work. There’s talk of ultrasounds, scopes, and other procedures which may or may not give us the answer. Even though finances are tight for everyone, taking good care of Ike’s health is part of what we signed on for when we adopted him, so I can’t complain.)
The good news is that the x-rays didn’t show anything significantly wrong with Ike. yay! The bad news is that we still don’t have a diagnosis as to what is wrong with Ike. It may be food allergies. May be Inflammatory Bowel Disease. It may be something else. For now, we’re trying diet changes and medication for acid reflux. Hopefully soon the mystery will be solved and Ike will be on the mend!
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