MaryJane

I vaguely remember another dog that had an infection that was near impossible to get rid of after the amputation and I think that she used a hyperbaric chamber - it was Twiggy (correct me if I am wrong). You might want to go back and see the old posts. This was years ago ... maybe like 5 or 6.

My Adam had issues with hyper-temperature and it did make the amputation and follow-up visits difficult. The initial hyper-temperature episode showed up when Adam was waking up from his dental -- once he started moving around, he went into hyper-temperature. When we faced the issue with osteo, all the doctors were aware and would take special steps to ease his anxiety - luckily there was a resident that fell in love with him and stayed with him and did most of the care while he was in the hospital. Without her, I probably would never have been able to bring him home. We did a special protocol to be able to do the chemo and that was to give him two 300mg gabapentin 2 hours before the appointment and that would chill him out so that he would not get anxious - made him very clumsy and his 3 legs would literally get intertwined (so I would have to be very careful) but, it kept his temperature down. In your case, it sounds like the hyper-temperature was happening mostly in the hospital and when it happened at home, it was the day after chemo so, it might be from anxiety. Good luck.

Depending on where the recession is and how bad it is, the vet might be able to do a flap. They cut the gum and flap it down over where it has receded and stitch it in place. It would be something to keep in mind if he goes back in for a dental.

Was the leg she was limping on x-rayed ? Also, it could be another tick-borne disease so, it might be worthwhile to repeat the SNAP.

Was it just a urinalysis or a urine culture, if it was just a urinalysis, then get a culture on the urine. She may need something like DES for incontinence (make sure DES and not Proin which can cause sudden death in greyhounds from elevated blood pressure). You didn't mention whether she is drinking more and if yes, then you need to check the urine's specific gravity in the first AM specimen along with the kidney values. If she is on a high protein dog food, you might want to try a dog food with a less % of protein. The reason is that as a animals/people age, sometimes the body has trouble processing protein and what happens is that the fluid intake increases to allow elimination of protein waste products through the urine. With the increased water intake, they need to urinate more.

I would not want to have the vet sedate the greyhound to get x-rays - they should be able to do without sedation. Also, they would be more gentle if the dog is not sedated so that is another reason not to do it. With sedation, they may pull on the legs or head and hurt the dog and when the dog wakes up, worse problems ...

It can cause dogs to be clumsy and their legs get a bit intertwined. Also, can make them drowsy. Depending on the amount of pain, you may want to dose 3x a day rather than twice or dose it closer to when you are getting more of the pain.

Good to hear! Keep it up.

As others have noted, consult with Dr. Couto. My opinion is that the 0.8 dosage twice a day is too high. My Lucy (seizure dog with IBD) went on thyroid meds at 0.6 twice a day and it was too much - I dropped it to 0.3 twice a day and that has been working for us for a few years. As you noted, you cannot just stop the thyroid, has to be weaned down. If he is cranky, then it might be pain and it might be worthwhile to try a painkiller for a week or two and see if that helps.

It is not intact blood cells in the scenario I mentioned. I said that high temperatures can cause blood cells to be destroyed and thus releasing the hemoglobin which is then released by the kidneys into the urine. It would look the same and is differentiated by tests.

Is there a chance that your dog could have over-heated (temp > 103). This happened to one of my dogs after a dental and as he was waking up from the anesthesia. When they brought him out to me - I noticed that he was really panting and I had them take a temperature - it was 102 but within a few minutes went up to about 105. Over the next 30 minutes we cooled him down. This happened again with another vet visit. I started to have the staff check for over-temperature if he started breathing too hard and we were eventually able to control it better by giving gabapentin (calms them down) before his visits. When a dog overheats, there is dectruction of blood cells and I suppose it could possibly resemble rhabdo (I'd have to do much more reading to determine how accurate this is).

Could be pain. Get another x-ray of the leg and send it to Dr Couto.

7am to 5:30 is too long to hold it for most dogs - do you have dog walker ?

I don't know Costco's prices for Tilapia but, Walmart has a 4 pound frozen for about 13.50. Each of the fillets are individually wrapped in a vacuum bag - only problem is that sometimes they don't do the vacuum right and then the bag is loose around the fillet. It is from China but, all the other places are almost double in price. I buy a few of these each month for Lucy (seizures and IBD). How much is the tilapia at Costco's ?

25% is high. Low protein foods are about 15% from what I remember. There are a few dog foods out there that are about 20% that are sometimes suggested when teh dog is not displaying symptoms but some of the values are a bit off.

That was one of the articles - there are a few more that were good. A few that I read seem to suggest that maybe the pancreatitis is worse than it is appearing because it has increased the kidney values. Look at some of the other papers -especially the ones from NIH - National Institute of Health. As to food, home made works really well. You can control fats and the amount of protein/phos. There are some online recipes for home-made diets but, I think you need to get back to the vet and find out whether the 1st concern is the pancreatitis (fat) or the kidney (protein) and then adjust the diet accordingly. Fish is low fat (like tilapia) and if you use just 3 tablespoons in food twice a day (1/4 cup), that would be enough protein - so low fat and low but, good protein. You want to add more veggies and carbs white rice. All my dogs have been on home-made and my kidney dog (with the home-made diet) did really well on it. You might also want to get an appointment with an internist rather than a general vet - they should be able to give you more options. Good luck.

I was thinking the same thing that the values are not great but, not that bad. The urine specific gravity is OK and no protein is being excreted through urine. The bun and Creat in the blood are high but, that could be an "acute" kidney issue. However, checking further about the incidence with pancreatitis and elevated BUN/Creat - there is a large coincidence here that these values rise with how bad the pancreatitis is - so it may be the result of that. I suggest that you google for further information.

By chance, was your dog also tested for tick disease and what was the platelet count. Maybe coincidence, but it seems some dogs are presenting with IBD/PLE that also had tick disease (like Erchlicia) and usually with that they also has low platelets. It might be worthwhile to go back and check the lab tests. Since your dog had hooks for a long period, more likely that was the problem but, good policy not to discount other paths. As to B12, if you give the shots yourself, it is not expensive (about 15 per vial which is given once a month) so, worthwhile to do it.

Good to hear that you brought the dog in for fluids. Make sure that he stays hydrated - if he can do dairy, you can also give him yogurt if he is not interested in the water. It sounds like, although not proven, that this is all coming from the pred initially and then going to a GI issue and because of that, not sure about giving dog a de-wormer because that could further complicate what is going on. Get him tested for worms on Monday and then treat if there are worms. As to switching to hamburger, that can wait until you get a OK from the vet. Although, adding a few tablespoons of cooked oatmeal adds fiber (just like pumpkin) and could help. Also, some dogs do not tolerate pumpkin (diarrhea) but, will tolerate oatmeal. I should have been clearer, I am not recommending that you stop the pred without discussing with your vet - since this all seems to have started with the pred, maybe it's best to get to a stable point again and then see whether there is a different way to handle it. If blood shows up in poo along with vomiting, head to ER vet.

I linked to an article that provides information on IBD and PLE in correlation with Parasitic infections. Note, this is a 2005 paper. Hookworm resistance has become more of a problem (or at least it is now known as a problem) in the decade since the article was written. https://www.vin.com/apputil/content/defaultadv1.aspx?id=3860867&pid=11242&print=1 This article in PetMD is more easily read -- https://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/digestive/c_dg_protein_losing_enteropathy I have also read some articles that are investigating the hookworm resistance to treatments. One researcher that I read recently was focused on whether hookworms become resistant to typical treatments over time because animals were given all-in-one wormers with little discretion of what worms were actually the problem and as a result, worms developed resistance. As additional wormers were given (some places/owners give once a month), the worms with resistance not only did not die, they thrived because they were now alone in the gut as normal gut bacteria might also die in the process. One particular researcher was trying to get manufacturers to provide wormers for specific parasites - not all-in-one as an aide to combat the resistance issue. The hookworms that had resistance (not killed) stayed in the GI tract causing bleeding and inflammation. As far as I know (and I am only starting to delve into this - so, I know very little at this point), pred solves the inflammation but not the bleeding. You might also want to check with vet to see whether you can put your girl on a probiotic - that can help in re-establishing the normal flora in the GI tract. FYI - My seizure girl developed IBD from her seizure meds and we (internist and I) were able to get it under control without pred by switching to a white fish diet (along with carbos and veggies), probiotics, and weekly and then monthly B12 shots. If you are not giving B12 shots, you might want to check the value on the next blood work. They can show you how to give the shot yourself - it is easy.

Talk to vet about dropping pred and instead using an allergy medicine and see if that helps the cough. I would not use chicken - high incidence of contamination and heavy use of antibiotics plus, some dogs are allergic to it. Instead try using hamburger (90%) mixed with rice and maybe some mashed and cooked green beans. You might also want to put a few tablespoons of cooked oatmeal into the food as that provides fiber and can firm up the poop. A tablespoon or two of yogurt could help or could make it worse it they can't digest dairy. The mucus poo indicates (my opinion) that GI tract is irritated and while a concern is not going to get better immediately. It's hard to tell from your post - how long he has been having liquid diarrhea and whether he is eating and how much. Also, is he drinking water ?

My newer boy tested positive for hookworms this spring after being negative last fall. He's having thee doses of Strongid, two months apart. I live in Mass so, his heartworm med was stopped over the winter which could explain the re-occurrence this spring after being off the heartworm med. I did spend quite a bit of time talking with the vet about this (he's very greyhound-savvy) and one of the issues with unresolved hookworm infestations is that it causes inflammation which over time could lead to things like PLE and IBD. He strongly suggested using a probiotic to re-establish the normal flora in the gut. He also suggested making sure that the dog has fiber - my dog gets cooked oatmeal every day so that is not so much of an issue. I have noticed that the probiotic helps to keep the poop firmer so, others might want to try that. The probiotic that I have been using that I really like is the Nutramax Proviable-DC - this was recommended by another greyhound owner.

Is he drinking more water ? Did you change dog foods recently? You might want to try a dog food with less protein and the reason for this is that older dogs may have trouble filtering protein as they older and as result, they drink more water (to filter out the protein) and then because they drank so much more water, they have to pee more. This could result in more accidents.

When is his last turn out?

The statement is a bit confusing so, to clarify - hepatitis is a virus and it damages the liver. A toxin like poison mushrooms would be another cause of liver damage. Another cause would be bacterial type infections like Lyme and Lepto. The link provides good information, https://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/digestive/liver-disease-dogs