Fraser is fast asleep while he's doing the rapid respiration and it goes on for hours. This morning he didn't touch his food. I put a call into the vet office and he called later in the day and we discussed the overall picture. He's concerned that Fraser is losing weight and that the usual treatment for colitis isn't working. He's leaning toward the possibility that it could be cancer. However, the consultation with the specialist vet is the only way to find out. Maybe a colonoscopy and biopsy is the more useful test to get a grip on what's going on with poor Fraser though he'd been referred for a removal of the polyp. The vet going to phone them and suggest he needs to be evaluated by the internal medicine dept. rather than surgical. In the meantime, I need to keep Fraser going until he can get to his appointment there. In the late afternoon when Fraser's breakfast was still in his bowl untouched, I threw it out and boiled some chicken and rice to see if he would go for that. He scarfed it down, so obviously was hungry, but was done with the hypoallergenic food he's been eating for years. So now the trick is to find out what nutrition I can get into him that doesn't exacerbate his colon, but still gives him enough to keep going. Poor little guy still has a bit of spring in his trot, so has strength, but spends his walkies time crouched over trying to poop every 50' or so. And that's been going on for over a month, constantly. And for whatever perverse reason, he does his pooping at night instead of during the day, so there goes sleep. I guess we'll see how it goes for the next couple of weeks before his specialist appointment and once there, whether they can find out the cause of his decline. Thanks for your supportive comments. I know cocker owners on this board especially know what this process is like since you've gone through it or something like it before. I don't know what the outcome might be, but I'll do everything I can to get him help until it's clear he can't go on.
