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ahicks51

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    Osteo Discussion

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted · Edited by ahicks51

    Note that it's real dangerous to compare human osteo with canine osteo- not that anybody has, but when talking about injury = osteo, it might be important to look at the figures. In humans, the incidence of osteo is about 900 per 300 million in the US, meaning about one per 333,000 (3 per million), mainly in the 15-30 age bracket. It's rare- it's in the same class as being struck by lightning. Conversely, in large-breed dogs, I seem to recall someone throwing numbers around like 25% of greyhounds dying from osteo, and it's on the other end of the age spectrum.

     

    And that's important in the context of injury; if injury = osteo in kids, that implies something goes wrong with some copy protection feature in the cell; instead of just *stopping*, it goes nuts, and that leads to amputation. In the canine, it seems to be genetic, presumably with a strong environmental component- trauma (maybe even micro-fractures from racing?) is correlated, but I have questions about the dietary component as well (carbohydrate intake), as well as fluoride. I had a long post on this ages ago:

     

    http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php?showtopic=182959&st=0&p=3031976entry3031976

     

    Anecdotally, The Lisa has a co-worker in the lab who has a relative that had osteo as a child. He was taken home to die, living in a country that doesn't exactly have the means for managing that sort of thing. Instead, they fed him turmeric and honey- as in bags of turmeric, and gobs of honey. The doctor was surprised to see him come back several months later; the tumor was gone, no amputation. Possibly apocryphal, I dunno.

     

    I do wish that opioid pain killers weren't contraindicated with naltrexone; if that weren't the case, I suspect there might be some greater interest in using naltrexone for osteosarcoma.

     

    ETA: Forgot to note that because osteo usually occurs in older greyhounds (whereas it is found mainly in younger humans), it implies there's an immune component. Ultimately, all cancers are caused by an immune component: the inability of the body's immune system to differentiate between "good" cells and cancerous ones- which the body does with great success every day, destroying pre-cancerous cells all the time. It implies that amplifying the immune system somehow may combat osteo; it has been suggested this is why naltrexone seems to help in some humans that are fighting cancer, by increasing beta endorphin levels, among other things.

    Skin Tear Near Eye

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    If your home is large enough, can you physically separate the dogs, obviating the need for muzzles? In other words, move the cushions, put down an extra water bowl, put up a baby gate, and make sure everyone is well-fed (and sleepy!) when you leave. Heck, add a Benadryl if it'll help.

    Rescued Blood Donor

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    I wouldn't worry so much about the long-term donations; red cells are meant to be replaced, after all, but if that schedule is correct, something needs to be done about that facility.

     

    In the short term, if you wish, feed some beef heart, maybe with some liver as well. I just picked up a 60 pound case of the former for our dogs today. We don't feed liver quite so often. Both are excellent sources of heme iron, and are much more readily assimilated than the iron salts (iron sulfate, in many cases) added to kibble.

    Protein Losing Enteropathy

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    When was the first CBC? The RBC went from 4.03 (reference range 5.50-8.50) and HCT of 31.1 (37.0-55.0) to RBC of 8.83 (5.5-8.5) and HCT of 48.6 (reference range 37-55), which seems a bit odd to me.

     

    If it's lymphangiectasia, you might see edema as well- abdominal distension, shortness of breath (from pleural effusion, where fluid backs up in the lining of the lungs), and fluid depositing in the legs.

     

    Monday is a ways off; if you want to try something, MCT oil works with both lymphangiectasia and PLE. Coconut oil is a good source of MCT, and it might help get some calories into him. Good luck.

    Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Symptoms

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    To answer the original question, the dogs (and particularly the cats) would have been hit harder due to the size. One of the big symptoms of CO poisoning is headache- very strong in many cases. The smaller the critter, the stronger the effect. We had a problem with the gas heat when I was a kid; one of the lovebirds died. We didn't know why until weeks later when we pieced it all together.

    Protein Losing Enteropathy

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    Welcome to GT. Wish it were under better circumstances.

     

    The short story: "Leaky gut," provided the diagnosis is correct. For whatever reason, the gut is unable to retain absorbed nutrients- in this case, proteins. See also:

     

    http://www.petplace.com/dogs/protein-losing-enteropathy-in-dogs-ple/page1.aspx

     

    If the cause is truly gastrointestinal, the MCT oil recommendation is a good one- as is feeding raw or cooked food (with as little vegetable matter as possible, with none coming from grains if it can possibly be helped).

     

    As most people don't feed kangaroo without reason, can you explain the series of events that have transpired to get to this type of diet?

    I'm So Frustrated

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    Actually Aaron, at the time of vaccination they were eating Evangers chicken & brown rice. I switched to Natural balance after they were getting the explosive BM's once i added ANY amount of Evangers in. I soon realized that it probably had nothing to do with the Evangers.

     

    Ingredients in Evanger's Chicken and Rice (emphasis mine):

     

    Chicken, Ground Brown Rice, Chicken Meal, Potato Product, Pearled Barley, Chicken Fat (Preserved with Natural Mixed Tocopherols (Vitamin E), Carrot, Celery, Beet, Parsley, Lettuce, Water Cress, Spinach, Oat Meal, Catfish Meal, Brewers Dried Yeast, Natural Chicken Flavor, Flax Seed Meal, Egg Product, Monosodium Phosphate, D/L Methionine, Lecithin, Fish Oil, L-Lysine, Salt, Kelp Meal, Potassium Chloride, Natural Yucca Schidigera Extract, Vitamin E Supplement, Ascorbic Acid, Biotin, Niacin Supplement, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Acetate, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Citric Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Manganese Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Manganous Oxide, Sodium Selenite, Calcium Iodate.

     

    Barley is Hordeum vulgare, a cereal grain in the Triticeae, a cousin to wheat. From this- if I'm right, and it's pretty speculative- lectins from wheat (and presumably barley and rye) cause sensitization in the gut. This is normally not a problem, but sometimes some system upset- injury, bacterial damage, or (possibly) vaccination- can result in a dramatic upswing in sensitization to the gut. This may be caused in part by adjuvants added to vaccines, but I don't know enough about veterinary vaccines to speak to the adjuvants used in these.

     

    But both dogs at the same time? Phew. Occam's razor and the rest of his shaving kit make coccidia look like an appealing lead to follow. Hopefully that'll be that.

    Conflicting Hypothyroid Opinions

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    Who ran the samples for the test?

     

    Not sure -- I got the tests done at my local vet in Somerville, MA. The first list of reference was what I got from my vet, the second was from Dr. Dodds.

     

    Almost certainly done by IDEXX or the other commercial lab whose name I can't recall. Labs like MSU and (presumably) Dr. Dodds run theirs after dialysis, meaning the solution is concentrated so that the compounds will be present in a sufficiently high concentration that the instrumentation can read the figures that low.

    I'm So Frustrated

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    The Coccidia is an interesting take; good suggestion.

     

    Our of curiosity- what were they being fed at the time of the vaccinations? If it was kibble, does it contain wheat? (More curiosity than anything else- sorry!)

     

    If I'm reading right from the discussion, they're on a wheat-free food right now, so this is a stretch- but you might try fish oil with every meal.

    Degloved The Webbing Between Her Toes

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    Coco injured one of his feet (a rear paw, I seem to recall) where the skin just peeled right off. You could see the bone underneath. I had no idea how the vet would stitch it, so I washed it out with dilute povidone 3x/day, and after day two it had healed over (!). I've never seen a wound like that just... close up. We also carefully dried it, and packed the space between the toes with a non-stick dressing, 3 layers, bound it in place with 1/4" waterproof tape, then taped the foot, then put a sock over it.

     

    Of course, all that came un-done after one trip into the backyard, so I can't say as my assiduous bandaging job made any difference.

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