I awoke this morning to Blaze chundering once again, this time all over the sheet on the foot of the bed. I phoned her regular vet in California yesterday and he felt if it continued I should get her in to be seen by a vet. My wonderful Garmin GPS unit includes addresses and phone numbers of millions of locations, including vets so I called around until I found one open 24 hours and brought her there.
After a barrage of x-rays, blood and urine tests and an exam the vet on duty believes the problems she is having are related to an enlarged spleen. Hers is two or three times normal size and her red blood cell count is in the average range... meaning something other than red blood cells are partying down there. Since she already has a mast cell tumor under her left eye he believes either it has migrated to the spleen or it may be a separate lymphoma. The size of the spleen causes it to interact with the vessels connecting it to the stomach which are causing her to throw up. We were able to pretty definitively rule out a foreign object causing her problems.
She was given a shot of an anti-nausea drug, some sub-cutaneous Lactated Ringers to help with her hydration and a course of pills to take every eight hours to keep her stomach moving in the right direction.
Treatment options may include a spleenectomy (removal of the spleen) and chemo.
After several hours at the vet we returned to the truck. Blaze puked a celebratory thank you shortly thereafter and went back to bed.
