I have a weird pet problem

[notoriousmkg]

Our dog had been having a weird allergic reaction to something.  Lots of scratching and then it seemed like he might have gotten an infection - not serious, though.  Anyway, we took him in to the vet, they gave him two injections - one for an allergy, and one antibiotic.  Then, they gave us pills to administer from home.

Over the next 24 hours, our dog completely lost his appetite and became dehydrated.  He was acting dizzy and stumbling.  We took him back in to the vet and they rehydrated him, and said to discontinue his antibiotics.

So, it's been a couple days, and he is drinking water, and acting more normal, but still has no interest in eating.  We are feeding him via syringe.  I just don't get it.  Has anyone ever been through this before?

[HWBL]

Hi Mo,

No, fortunately have not had problems like you described with our dogs. How old is your dog? Our oldest, 12 years now, suddenly developed a food allergy at the age of 6 for the food she'd been eating without any problems until then. She started licking and chewing her paws, vomiting on a regular basis, and have bouts of diarrhea every now and then, plus she'd not eat 2 or 3 days a month, each month. It was an oddly regular cycle. Several years followed of finding the right food and since about 4 years she's on anallergenic/hyperallergenic food and seems to be doing fine on that.
Our pup, just 6 months old a few days ago, had diarrhea for about a month, but that was from a virus. Since then we've been feeding her special gastrointestinal food for puppies and she's caught up fine with her siblings on that.

I hope you'll find out what's wrong and that your furbaby will soon feel better.

[notoriousmkg]

Thanks, HWBL. I think our dog is either 9 or 10. Definitely was scratching himself and licking his paws excessively. Also was getting small sores on the side of his face. Has rarely if ever vomited and never had diarrhea. For some reason, I don't think the vet had mentioned his main food as the culprit. that being said, we used to give him some leftover scrambled egg in the morning and our daughter read somewhere that dogs can be mildly allergic to it.

Right now, though, I think the biggest concern is just the whole general lack of interest in eating. This is a dog that would previously eat almost anything. He does not appear to have sores in his mouth. Or any lingering tenderness in his stomach. He has been off the antibiotics for 3 days now, I think

[trixie]

My older Aussie has had a lot of allergy symptoms and has been on the meds hydroxyzine (antihistimine) and prednisolone (steroid) also took her in for an allergy shot a few months ago. I try to give the steroid sparingly because of the side effects, and supposedly the symptoms are seasonal so should be subsiding as winter approaches. We switched to a grain-free food which our vet says should help. No appetite issues, the steroids do make them drink water excessively so we have to make sure the toilet seats are down.

[burnt_toast]

I had a beautiful English Mastiff that developed a pretty severe corn allergy. Once we got her stabilized she also had a little trouble eating, it was almost as though she didn't trust food anymore. Does he have any interest in eating at all? I had to coax ours into eating again with cottage cheese and chicken broth. That combo was good enough that she wanted to engage with it and didn't cause her any issues. In time I was able to mix those both into her regular food and then wean her off the cheese/broth additive over the course of a few weeks. It was slow going but did seem to get her past that conditioned fear of food.

[notoriousmkg]

Hi, burnt_toast. Still no interest in food. I have fed him by syringe twice today. His ability to walk is tentative but he can walk. This is a dog that can normally run full out - as recent as two weeks ago. I am really starting to think this is a bad reaction (in the liver) to the antibiotics. We have stabilized his weight, but need to get him back in for a blood test. For some reason the vet who has been treating him this entire time thinks there might be some kind of mass in his digestive tract (based on a quick ultrasound, which she admitted is not her forte). I really, REALLY am starting to think this is a liver thing. Three years ago, he had a liver problem and need medication to get through it. I feel like we need to see a different staff vet.

[mrsfawlty]

notoriousmkg
Hey, Mo, I only just noticed your thread. I think you should take your dog to another vet. 
We had a similar problem with our old dog, when I was a teen. He was scratching, rubbing the sides of his face and off his food. He wasn't in pain but wouldn't eat. We had to syringe liquidised(yes!!) beef steaks and water into his mouth. He was given antibiotics and steroids and sent home- the vet thought it was a dental problem although his teeth weren't in need of extraction. 
Two days later he was no better and was getting weaker. We took him back because his back legs stopped working. A different vet saw him and took him into surgery. They found a ball in his stomach! A small rubber ball that was smaller than a golf ball but bigger than a ping-pong ball! He recovered well and lived to 22 years of age.
I hope your furbaby gets better soon.xx

[MsDark]

Mo I am just now seeing this too. We went through a recent bout with Elvira about middle of October. The only thing I could think of that *might* have caused it was her getting into some rotten food in a compost container I had outside. When I caught her I had no idea how much she'd consumed, so watched her closely. But after about 48 hours went by, and she was eating and drinking and seemed to have no problems, figured we were in the clear. I figured if something like this was going to adversely affect her surely it would have by then.

It was probably not til almost a full 10 days after this incident that she started to have problems. In fact, so much time had passed since the compost incident that I didn't even think of it immediately.  Noticed her bowl wasn't emptying like usual.  Still drinking water about as much.  Didn't appear to be in any pain or distress.  But wasn't as energetic.  Jr and I agreed to keep an eye on her and if no change, planned on a visit to the vets that weekend.

Jr called me at work on the afternoon of what would have been 12 days (post compost) because she'd suddenly had an explosive bout of uncontrollable diarrhea.  There was so much I had to help him clean up when I got home an hour later.  She had 2 more smaller bouts of those by that evening.  We put a plastic tarp down in the main room of the house with an old ass blanket on top of it to provide an easier to clean up "accident area" for her to lie down.  By evening, I don't think she had anything left in her to come out.  She wasn't eating but at least was still drinking water.  Made vet plans for the next afternoon.

However, early the morning of, when I took her outside, she vomited what looked like bile.  So screw waiting to the afternoon, I called in to work and took her straight to the vet. They hydrated with IV fluids, gave her a zofran shot for nausea, some antibiotic. Did bloodwork and xrays and diagnosed with severe gastroenteritis.  I could think of nothing else that would have caused this but the compost.  They were skeptical because of the time lapse, but did admit that the rotten compost could have screwed up her gut balance and made her more susceptible to something she might have ordinarily tolerated sending her over the edge.  We took her home with antibiotics, probiotic chews from the vet (which are not cheap) and bland diet orders.

It took a good 2-3 weeks AFTER the vet visit to get her gut back to normal.  She had 5 probiotic chews at a time for twice a day, then once a day.  I fed her a mix of shredded chicken and rice (boiled the chicken, used the strained broth from that to cook the rice in, rinsed the rice grains really good ahead of cooking to get as much starch off the surface). The first few days I only fed her about a half cup at a time, every 3-4 hours. Gradually increased amounts. But it was a relief to finally see her even wanting to eat. I started mixing her chicken and rice with her dry food and gradually increased the amount of dry food. Now she's back to dry. But good Lord she misses that chicken and rice! I actually made her some more recently, but only give a little to her every now and then.

Seriously though, her stools were watery and frequent for about 2 WEEKS. But at least after the visit to the vet and starting the meds and probiotics she was able to make it outside with no accidents in the house. It was the longest 2 weeks ever. I felt like I was hosing her off outside/cleaning her butt before she could come back inside forever. We were excited when she finally had a solid stool.

Those probiotics were awesome. But since we've been done with them, which has been about 4 weeks, I've noticed she's started itching and gnawing on her paws and had more days requiring benadryl. I just ordered her some more probiotics online because I got a good black friday deal. Those obviously help with a lot of things. I just wish they weren't so damned expensive.

I hope it's just a gastro thing. But know that if it is sometimes it can take weeks to get them back to normal. When we took Elvira to the vet she'd lost about 5-6#. Even for a dog as big as her, that was a lot. Fortunately she needed to lose weight anyway, as she'd gained about that much since we had the emergency hysterectomy last year. 

Between the hysterectomy, a surgery for an ear hematoma (as a result of shaking her head excessively with an ear infection) and then this bout with gastro, I have spent quite a bit of $ on her in the last year.  But I can't say she is not worth it.  

[notoriousmkg]

Thanks, Ms Dark. We just lost him. He died in our son's arms about 45 minutes ago. I think he was overmedicated. Mrs Mo wants another vet to look at him and see what happened.

[sputnik]

omg, i haven't been around much lately and just noticed this thread and was about to ask how he was doing and if you were able to see another vet. i'm so sorry, mo!! 
sometimes there's no rhyme or reason, but i also wonder if sometimes vets just don't treat animals as thoroughly as they would humans? 

[brookie]

Aw shit, Mo. I'm so sorry. Much love to all of you guys.

[MsDark]

Nov 27, 2022 19:44:23 GMT notoriousmkg said:

Thanks, Ms Dark. We just lost him. He died in our son's arms about 45 minutes ago. I think he was overmedicated. Mrs Mo wants another vet to look at him and see what happened.

What!?  I'm so sorry to hear this Mo.  

I was hoping for y'all that he would pull through.

[albatross]

Oh Mo, I am so sorry.

[HWBL]

Nov 27, 2022 19:44:23 GMT notoriousmkg said:

Thanks, Ms Dark. We just lost him. He died in our son's arms about 45 minutes ago. I think he was overmedicated. Mrs Mo wants another vet to look at him and see what happened.

OMG, oh, no!!!! I'm so, so sorry for your loss of your furry family member! This sucks so much. So sorry for your family.

[notoriousmkg]

Thanks, everyone. We are actually going to try for a necropsy tomorrow because our daughter would like to know if it's possible to figure out what happened. In my opinion, he maybe had an over dosage of antibiotics. He's a Chihuahua weighing about 9 pounds. So, it would not be difficult to given him a dosage of medicine that could push him over. Mrs Mo also thinks his liver was already probably somewhat damaged from 3 years ago. It's getting difficult to keep straight the whole sequence of events. It also kind of sucks that this happened during Thanksgiving. He had already been turned in by two different owners to the animal shelter when we got him -- and he had an amazing 10 years with us when he finally found the right home.

I told our daughter that when a suitable time has passed it might be time to start looking for another dog or cat to save.