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NevadasMom

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    Omg- Beau Has Gained All His Weight Back!

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    To me, he looks like a sausage!!!!! :eek

     

    He probably looks like a Cushings dog........ :( Glad to hear that the hard work is paying off!

     

    How did he wind up with this diagnosis!???

     

    :eek

     

    No diagnosis......just memories of my poor Nevada & her Cushings disease. Too much cortisol, thus looking like a sausage with legs. :( Humans often get a "moon-face" from chronic use of steroids.

    It Just Keeps Getting (worse) Now-better!

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    If the cytology you're referring to is fluid from a joint aspirate, that should be your ticket to a diagnosis. They can culture this fluid directly to r/o infection (including spirochetes and any other TBD), as well as a bacterial infection causing a septic arthritis. I most definitely agree with starting the doxycycline empirically while waiting for the analysis to come back. Can't hurt, may well help, and you'll usually know within a couple of days whether it's helping.

     

    I'd also give thought to the fact that, with his IBD, Beau is already an "autoimmune" dog. Just as in humans, an autoimmune disease may present in other organ systems, and with what you've described as a migrating pattern of joint pain/swelling, this might be classic for an autoimmune (or immune mediated) polyarthritis.

     

    Type III: - IPA associated with gastrointestinal disease (enteropathic form). The diseased gut may show an increased permeability to potential antigens which could stimulate the production of immune complexes. Hepatopathic arthropathies have been described as well.

    The joint fluid analysis should show particular changes that go along with systemic inflammation. An immune mediated polyarthritis would also present with fever, lethargy, lack of appetite, and generalized owie-ness. BTDT with my iggie, who my vet and I were sure had disseminated Lyme. Months on antibiotics still resulted in relapse until it was pointed out by a specialist that it was the steroids giving her brief remissions, not the antibiotics. Her Lyme titre at Protatek was low positive (1:640, per their values) so we kept treating for Lyme, until repeat titres showed a decreased rather than an increase. A joint aspiration and careful re-evaluation of her symptoms confirmed the diagnosis of immune-mediated polyarthritis.

     

    Can't hurt to mention to your vet the possibility of Beau's current symptoms being a part of the overall constellation of symptoms asso. with an autoimmune syndrome. (see above)

     

    I apologize in advance for saying this and contradicting your vet, but I have to suggest that combining any NSAID with a steroid, especially in a dog with IBD and an already-compromised gut, is potentially disastrous. If Beau is having a great deal of pain, either the vet should bump up the steroids if she feels this is inflammatory, or add on narcotic pain meds for better pain control.

     

    OK, I'll shut my big yap now. :blush

     

    I keep thinking septic arthritis too....

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