The Symptoms

Our English Mastiff, Brunson has been throwing up for the past few days. He tried to eat but would throw it up undigested. He eventually wouldn’t even look at water or food. I knew then that something was seriously wrong because this dog loves food.

Baby Brunson at 2 months

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The diagnosis

We hoped it was just a virus but our vet wanted to keep him because he was dehydrated and losing weight. He called 2 hours later after doing x-rays and blood tests. The blood test was fine but the x-rays show a blockage. He apparently ate a toy or something and it is lodged. My guess is rawhide because he loves those things and chews on them constantly.

Our struggle

The vet said we had 2 choices. He could do a series of barriatric treatments and hopefully learn more, which would be $300-$500 with no guarantee or $1,500 - $2,000 for surgery. I wanted to die! We could do the barriatric treatment and if it did not work, money down the drain and off to surgery anyway OR we would go straight to surgery and the vet would find out that it could have been fixed with the barriatric treatment and money down the drain.

The decision

I couldn’t believe I was about to tell the vet to do sugery. I never thought I would spend that kind of money to save a dog until I came face to face with it. It was a life or death decision that we had to make in a matter of 10 minutes. We asked that the vet do the barriatric treatment first and pray that will do the trick. If not, he will go into surgery tomorrow. It was a gamble and it was a hard decision. Money really isn’t an object to save Brunson, yet it is. Our vet is going to call in the morning to let us know if the barriatric treatment worked.

We want him back soon

At just 5 months old, Brunson is already family. We have hours of video and tons of pictures and can’t imagine life without him. Our westie is looking all over for him, even behind the tv. She misses him so much that she went into his kennel and laid on his pillow. We didn’t realize how much we played with him until he wasn’t here. He is such a lover and demands attention, we give it freely. I even noticed when I was in the kitchen that I didn’t have to step over him and we didn’t have to close the bathroom door so that he couldn’t drink out of the toilet : )