[Gpdd] HEALTH: Update on Sylvia

[Victoria Lundy]

Sylvia had recurring diarrhea with no weight loss. We went through this
twice, this second time seem to do the trick. We did a lot of diet
manipulation, too, which didn't seem to make any difference.

The Metranidizole (which apparently is an anti-inflammatory for the gut in
addition to being an antibiotic) treated the symptoms both times but they
came back after the meds were stopped. The second time, I was going to bring
her back for blood work and a more thorough workup to figure it out. She was
having a lot of distress when she was passing waste at this time. The next
day, I put her in a box, took her to the vet, and amazingly, her droppings
in the box were normal. She had recovered, on her own, overnight. The vet
decided to wait and see. It has been a week, and she is still normal for the
first time since early December without drugs.

My husband and I are beginning to suspect that Sylvia managed to get
something caught in her lower digestive tract -- perhaps a small piece of
plastic bag or some other flexible foreign object that couldn't be detected
by an exam. She's one of those GPs who will eat anything. She's bitten a
plastic bag before we could stop her, and chewed on a suction cup we had
inside their habitat (no other GP had ever shown any interest in it.) Maybe
the anti-inflammatory helped her to get it out.  Fingers crossed.