Hi,
Well I have just had a week from hell. ASorry that this is long.
My 14 y/o Border Collie X Misty got an upset tummy a week ago yesterday, her stools were a bit runny, but she was okay in herself, then on Saturday she was off her food, so I went to the vets at the pet shop and got some recovery food for her as when she has had a bad tummy in the past the recovery food got her back to normal quickly.
She ate a tin of that, but on Sunday did not eat at all, but was running around the garden and seemed happy enough.
I came home around midnight on Sunday and let her out for a pee, that was fine, but I decided to sleep on the sofa that night as in the past few nights she had been waking us up to go to the toilet and I thought it would be easier.
She had me up 5 times in the night, which was fine, but when my husband got up, instead of jumping out of her bed to see him and fetching her frisbee for a walk, she just lay there looking listless. My husband finally coaxed out the front door but it was obvious she did not want walkies, so we brought her indoors and she went back to her bed.
Throughout the day she got more and more listless so we took her to an emergency vets 25 miles away as it was a public holiday and the local vets were all shut.
By the time we arrived at the vets she was drooling and her gums were almost white. They admitted her but said that the prognosis did not look good. My husband and I sobbed our hearts out all the way home.
The vets called later to say her blood results were back and that her liver was showing as the problem, her enzyme reading should be around 100, but hers was 4000! He said that it could be due to anything from an infection to cancer, but at her age he feared the worst. He was keeping her on a drip and antibiotics overnight then she would be transferred to my local vets in the morning for further tests and possibly an ultrasound on her liver.
My husband and I came off the phone and literally howled the house down with our tears, we were so afraid and could barely sleep all night.
Next morning the vets said that she did not need to be on the drip for the journey so we could take her to the local vets instead of the pet ambulance if we wanted to, which we did and we wanted to spend time with her.
Our local vet got her back on the drip and said they would call later. They called that afternoon to say her bloods had been re-run, including her liver and it was all normal!! We were so pleased. He said that provided they could get her to try and eat a little then we could take her home that night as she would probably recover better at home.
We got her home, she did not want the prescribed recovery food, but managed a little boiled chicken and was taking her antibiotics(Synulox) but she still seemed very miserable and unsteady on her feet. I slept on the floor with her for part of the night as she was so sad, she put her paw in my hand and settled after that.
Since then and is still drinking tons of water, but is still not interested in toys or walks, she is eating a little bit more as each day goes (Boiled chicken, pasta and carrots.) and taking her antibiotics, but she still has no energy and walks like she is drunk sometimes, very unsteady.
Her progress just seems slow and I am still worrying about her, can it really take a long time to recover from an infection like this? Or is she still wobbly and weak as she has not been eating much perhaps?
She had her bloods re-done yesterday and the liver reading is higher than before, it's actually now off the scale. 
( Her temp is up to 105 to, it was 103 before... Vet didn't seem too worried though, he just thiks that the anti-biotics she was on wasn't right. So he has changed her antibiotics to Oxytetracycline and also prescribed Hepatosyl to aid her liver function. We can't help but worry, however.
She has days where she seems to do something that is a big improvement, like walk out to the garden without prompting or any help, then she can just come back in and lay in bed looking sad without moving for five hours. It's very much two steps forward and one step back.
What else can I do to help my baby get better quicker? We have taken all this week off work to be with her and it just feels like such slow progress.
Any advice or answers greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Bradders.
