I took my dog (Lilly) to the kennel at her vet when I went to the Outer Banks. She was there from Wednesday the 2nd through Monday the 7th. When I picked her up on the 7th, I noticed she was snorting, sniffling, and sneezing. Here's a timeline of what happened next.

Tuesday the 8th
She vomited twice overnight and her bowels were very loose. I made appointment with the vet for Thursday.

Wednesday the 9th
She did not vomit anymore, but her bowels were still loose.

Thursday the 10th
The vet did a full exam. She was diagnosed with a respiratory infection and given an antibiotic along with medicine for her bowels.

Friday the 11th
Mom picked her up to watch her during my trip to Kansas City.

Saturday the 12th
She began vomiting a lot. Mom took her back to her vet. Mom told them that when she is vomiting and snorting, she is making the same noise she made when she swallowed something a few years ago. The vet said they do not believe she swallowed anything, but think that she is having a reaction to the antibiotics. They gave her a stomach settler injection, a steroid injection, and hydrated her. They put her on a very bland diet. They wanted to reevaluate her on Monday.

Sunday the 13th
She vomited overnight several times and again in the morning. Mom took her to the emergency vet center that morning. They evaluated her, and said that she was completely dehydrated. They gave her some IV's. The vet asked if it was possible that she swallowed something. They completed bloodwork, which all came back normal. They wanted to do some x-rays. They said that if they saw anything in the x-ray, they were going to wait a few hours and re-x-ray to see if it has moved to show she was passing it.

Mom left Lilly there, then went back later that afternoon to look at the x-rays with the vet. The x-rays showed a foreign object in her small bowel, which appeared to be round. They re-x-rayed a few hours later. These x-rays showed that it has not moved, so the vet called Mom to say that they really think they should do the surgery. She gave them the go-ahead. They called around 10:00pm to say that they found a five foot long piece of string that ran from back of her tongue all the way to her small intestines where it was beginning to gather. They said that the string would have never passed on its own and that she probably wouldn't have lived more than a few days if they hadn't performed the surgery.

When Mom told me about the string they found, I remembered that one day during the week after the kenneling I came home from work to find a long string coming out of the floor mat at my front door. I didn't think anything of it at the time, because from time to time her nails will pull some of the threads. I'm guessing that she wasn't feeling well and tried to make herself throw up by eating at the mat and ended up eating five feet of it.

They also said that when they went in for surgery, her pancreas was very inflamed, so they flushed it. She was put on medicines through IV. They said that as soon as she could swallow a pill, she could come home.

Wednesday the 16th
Mom picked her up in the morning. She was doing better.

Friday the 18th
She was acting completely like normal - almost back to her ole' self.

Saturday the 19th
She was acting a bit mopey. She wanted to lay around. That evening, she tried to jump over a gate they had put up to block her from the living room. Her external incision opened up. Mom took her back to the emergency vet. The vet said that she could be rejecting the stitches. They took her back for surgery to restitch and added some staples. They said that she had some scar tissue around the incisions. They said that everything internal looks great. There is no scar tissue or adhesions. They said that although it is still early, everything looks really good at this point. They decided to keep her overnight, since surgery took longer than expected.

Sunday the 20th
Mom picked her up in the morning. She is currently on pain medicine and antibiotics.

She did well overnight and is looking good so far this morning.

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I got home from Kansas City last night. Since Mom works from home and can watch her around the clock, Lilly is going to stay there until she is completely healed and 100% back to normal. I really want to see her, but I know that she will get upset when I leave.

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///Michelle


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fingers crossed.

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Awwww, poor Lilly!!! I have my fingers crossed that she gets back to full health very soon.

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My dog is named Lilly also! Sounds like a close call, but that she will be fine now. Dogs recover very quickly.

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Glad she's doing better. I'm sure she'll be back to her old self in no time. Just have to keep an eye on those incisions and give her lots of love. When you first started describing what was wrong, it sounded like she had a case of kennel cough... but to get a string stuck. How on earth does that happen while boarding??????

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When a string comes loose from a blanket or something. Speedy Recovery, Lilly

Thanks, guys.

When I first picked her up from the kennel, I googled her symptoms and they matched the exact symptoms of kennel cough, but she has the vaccine for it back in October. So the vet treated herfor a respiratory infection.

All I know is that she was sick after staying at the kennel...which was before she ate the string at my house. It's all very strange.

Aww, been there, done that, my dog is my child and it's a terrible feeling, best of luck M

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Poor Pup - I know how you care alot about the little one. Especially, all the trials for you to get her to a nice home (yours). Glad that your mom is looking out for her and will keep my fingers crossed too. Just let us know her progress and yours too...

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