There are probably many different reasons why a dog will vomit yellow bile. My dog used to do that occasionally in the morning if I waited too long to feed him. Now I make sure he eats when he wakes up and no more vomit. My son's dog/puppy starting vomiting in the morning - before she ate breakfast. I suggested to my son to feed her a little food before she went to bed each night - and that stopped the vomiting the next morning. If it's frequent, it's best to consult a vet of course. For the stains - I just used a tablespoon of Dawn (has to be Dawn - it works on grease but it's gentle) dish washing soap right on the stain, then swirl with a soft brush. Soak with water on a sponge - really mesh it down and then blot with paper towels. Very sudsy but it worked :)

What happe to the poo smell? i have two medium dogs and we have a dog run/bathroom at the sid eof our house. old house and again at our new house. we had different levels of pebles of diffe sizes to help drainage. we would not leave poo more than a cou hours but usuall picked up as it happend and sealed in a compost container that is meant to keep smell trapped.. but the pee is a probem. we would use baking soda all over and then spray water. Luckily it wasnt near my neighbours used area. But still i felt bad. our garbage was picked up every two weeks but the compost container really sealed the smell. The baking soda worked but needed to bough in bulk. our dogs refused to go pee/poo on their walks. they would save it for the bathroom when they got home. even if they did tinkle when out, they’d go straight to their bathroom when they got home and finish the job. also laying fresh rocks helped but picking up, spraying down and a lot of baking soda is necessary. and you cant have it near a well used area.

Based upon what Prarie love wrote, at least some people do believe that hypothyroid-induced seizures are common. Being hypothyroid and having seizures are not necessarily related, though they certainly can be. Unfortunately being that most animals do not get regular annual (twice yearly for older pets) bloodwork when they are healthy, but most people will get bloodwork done when their pet has a seizure, it is often the case that low T4 is discovered right after an animal has a seizure. But the seizure itself can cause low T4, and once the animal's seizures are controlled the T4 returns to normal- or not if the animal is on phenobarbital. This is euthyroid sick syndrome- normally functioning thyroid that is temporarily suppressed due to another disease. Euthyroid sick syndrome can be caused by any disease, including a disease that causes seizures or the seizures themselves. It doesn't hurt to judiciously supplement thyroid hormone in an emergency while waiting for a full thyroid panel, which takes 1-2 weeks (having just gotten one for my dog) as long as you don't go overboard, as oversupplementing thyroid hormone can be cardiotoxic. But you are not really controlling the seizures, you are actually preventing further seizures. In other words, even if a dog's seizures are caused by hypothyroidism, giving thyroid hormone won't do anything to stop the current seizures (explaination follows). The full thyroid panel can sort out euthyroid sick syndrome from true hypothyroidism if it is done prior to starting phenobarb, usually. Some pets refuse to be classified, like my own dog. I did a LOT of reading on this lately because my pathologists were stumped when I asked how hypothyroidism, which causes decreased cellular activity, could possibly cause seziures, which are caused by increased cellular activity. I would have asked the neurologists, but they were in rounds and then left before I could catch them. But I did find the info myself, and it seems that hyperlipidemia (VERY high serum triglycerides and/or cholesterol) may lead to atherosclerosis and then ischemic encephalopathy (low oxygen to the brain) due to hemorrhage or thrombus, causing seizures or other CNS signs (called a stroke in people). There are many causes for hyperlipidemia, hypothyroidism is one. One study showed that dogs that had atherosclerosis were 51 times more likely to be hypothyroid than dogs who did not have artherosclerosis (they showed similar results for dogs with diabetes mellitus). Hyperlipidemia may also cause hypercoagulable syndrome where an animal throws clots, which can end up anywhere. Clinical signs are referrable to location of clot, so if a dog threw a clot into the brain, that would also cause ischemic encephalopathy and possible CNS signs or seizures. Of course, bloodwork would pick up hyperlipidemia (well, a complete panel would show both cholesterol and triglyceride levels; some in-house machines can't do this), so waiting for a thyroid panel just tells you why the hyperlipidemia is present. Because hyperlipidemia may have causes besides hypothyroidism, it is much more important to include cholesterol and triglycerides in a seizure work-up than to include thyroid testing. You can always go back for a cause of hyperlipidemia if needed. That said, you need to have a full thyroid panel done before a pet is placed on phenobarbital because that drug suppresses thyroid hormone in some animals. It does not always cause clinical disease and may not always need to be treated. Once on phenobarb, it is very difficult to impossible to sort out true hypothyroidism from phenobarb-induced thyroid suppression. Without clinical signs though, there doesn't seem to be a need for treatment. Atherosclerosis appears to be rare in dogs overall, but common in dogs with hypothyroidism and diabetes mellitus. The actual incidence is unknown because you need either MRI, CT, or a necropsy to diagnose it. Most people don't have access to MRI or CT for their pets either because of expense or because it isn't available. And most people refuse necropsy. The unfortunate part about atherosclerosis is that once it is in the brain, you can't get rid of it, even by treating the underlying cause. If you can get the animal to stop having seizures and if there isn't too much permanent damage and if you can treat the underlying cause, you may be able to prevent more seizures depending upon how much of the brain is affected by atherosclerosis. The damage is done, and you have to prevent further atherosclerosis by treating the disease. In some cases, the damage to the brain may be too great and the patient dies despite best efforts, even if the cause was "just" hypothyroidism. Controlling hypothyroidism would also prevent further seizures due to hypercoagulable states caused by hyperlipidemia, but the same "ifs" apply. This is why supplementing thyroid hormone when presented with a seizuring animal isn't really necessary, even if the seizures are caused by hypothyroidism. You do need to control the hypothyroidism, but that can wait until the animal stops seizing and you have at least a clue of whether or not the animal is actually hypothyroid. It appears that the reason hypothyroidism is a rare cause of seizures in dogs is that most cases of hypothyroidism are diagnosed and treated long before a patient develops clincally significant hyperlipidemia and subsequent atherosclerosis. It seems that mild hypothyroidism without clinical signs does not cause the a high degree of hyperlipidemia, so the risk of seizures in this case is very small. I guess if you ignore the clinical signs long enough and don't do screening bloodwork on a regular basis, a dog could have severe hypothyroidism and seizures. BTW, collies are prone to hyperlipidemia without hypothyroidism, so in the case of poor Shelby, testing cholesterol and triglycerides is much more important than thyroid testing. You have to know what is common in certain breeds and ages, otherwise you end up running every test in the book and that is a waste of time, money, and effort.

I also somehow missed that she was sent home on painkillers. While I agree that pain control is most likely needed, keep in mind that some pain medications depend on the liver to be metabolized, and when an animal has significant liver disease the drugs are not properly excreted. This can lead to a dangerous accumulation of the drug in the bloodstream. What medication was your dog put on for pain? There are options that do not require the liver and they work just as well for pain control. I attached an article that explains some of the laboratory workup for liver disease. Right now, because your dog is jaundiced, the bile acids test results are not accurate- we know her serum bile acids are elevated because she is yellow (assuming she isn't suffering from a hemolyzing anemia). I also somehow forgot that Dobies are a breed that commonly get copper storage disease. A liver biopsy is the only way to confirm that, but it is also a good way to confirm other diseases (idiopathic hepatitis, neoplasia, cirrhosis, etc). Ultrasound can also be useful to see if the structure of the liver is normal and to evaluate the gall bladder and bile ducts. It can also show abnormal nodules and help direct aspirates to get a better sample. Ultrasound would also help evaluate the rest of the abdomen, in case there is a mass elsewhere as well as in the liver, and can be done with little risk to the patient compared to exploratory surgery. I would strongly suggest at least ultrasound and guided aspirates if indicated to diagnose her specific disease. "Old age or cancer" is not a diagnosis- it's a wild guess and may be completely off-base, but there is no way to know unless further diagnostics are done. Unless your dog's labwork showed certain indicators of liver failure such as low albumin, low glucose, low BUN, low cholesterol, or decreased clotting function, then liver function was not truly evaluated. These findings suggest 80% or greater loss of liver function and can be described as hepatic failure or end-stage liver. But I've seen dogs do fairly well for at least several months with proper management even when they are at this stage. I've seen others not do so well. It depends on the underlying disease and what, if anything, can be done about it. True end-stage liver disease with significant cirrhosis is irreversible, but other diseases are manageable or even curable if treated properly before significant damage is done. Also the liver is a wonderfully regenerative organ, so acute damage that is stopped quickly allows the liver to heal itself to a point. I hope this article helps explain some of the common tests we use for liver disease, and also shows the need for more information. Good luck. Here is a link that might be useful: article on liver chemistry panel changes, bile acids