LuvAPuppy

ask them about milk thistle, vitamin E and Sam E. all are considered to be awesome liver detoxifiers. Misty is on all three and the addition of oatmeal to her diet brought all the liver values back to completely normal.

Oatmeal is great for the liver if you can coax him to start eating it again. I learned about it from my IG list and it brought my girl's enzymes down to normal when they've never been normal before. And did it in only six months. (she is on other liver meds as well, the oatmeal is an addition). Bake it in to treats, mix it in the food, syringe it if you have to but I became a huge believer in the power of oatmeal!!!

I'm a pro at this one with Misty's IBD. 1/2 hr before or 1 hr after a meal. it has to coat the lesions in the GI tract in order to work. 1hr after any kind of antacid like Pepcid, etc. for active disease (in humans) it's one gram three times a day, for maintenance of healed disease in humans it's one gram twice daily. For my little hound it's 500 mg three times daily when she bleeds and we're trying a preventative/maintenance dose of 1/2 tab daily.

Cheez Whiz? I got it to work here for a day or two.... PB was a bust for us, so was cream cheese. braunschweiger flared her IBD (before I knew it was IBD). some have luck w/hot dogs or bread - never worked here. Ice cream?

Yes, they do. My vet here just got a laparoscope. I can honestly say that even in human medicine I've never heard of a lap splenectomy... being a blood producing organ I'm guessing it might be too bloody but I don't know that. I've got a friend that's an OR nurse, I'll try to see what I can find out.

:nod Some dogs will start wincing when there's nothing to be seen; others, you won't know anything until they break a leg. My only experience was in my Dane. She started limping and a round of Rimidyl stopped it until the meds ran out. We had xrays of the shoulder. We go to the vet practice in town that's owned by the orthopaedic referral vet. Several vets looked at the films and they all said they couldn't tell us if it was Osteo because they'd never, ever, ever in 30 years of orthopaedics seen it on film that early. Repeat of the films in six weeks confirmed yes, it was Osteo. As for Echo, she never made a sound. she limped, she ate, she wanted to run and play but she NEVER uttered a sound. her only med was the Rimidyl and we knew she was ready the day she refused to eat.

maybe a quick shot of something adult! Even as a nurse who's assisted with hundreds of office surgeries, the cannula holding open the eye lid made my toes curl for a really quick second Something about eye surgeries gives me the heebies *shudders*

see if he'll eat raw sliced potatoes. or, try slicing them and baking them and see if you get some kind of edible potato type chips. we're on the IVD duck and potato for IBD, but fortunately I know Misty can tolerate oatmeal so we bake cookies out of baby oatmeal, "adult" oatmeal and water. (they're VILE but she eats them). I've also been lucky enough to find duck jerky at our high end pet food shop...but I've never seen rabbit jerky. You might be able to buy rabbit meat and bake it in to jerky strips. be creative but careful!

may already be answered on the next page, sorry if this is a repeat: metranidozole is Flagyl. that is antibiotics and antiamoebic as well as antiinflammatory for the GI tract. I thought of a wicked IBD flare as well since the food had to be changed and changed suddenly. Hope her system settles down with her meds and the return of the "old" food.

Venison, Beef and/or buffalo. someone makes kangaroo I think. um....potato for carbs. even sweet potato - more fiber over regular potato. Mind you all the brands that make these escape me right now...

Yay!! I've had two dogs that have had them and both resolved without any treatment within two weeks of being aspirated. that isn't a scientific thing, just thought I'd mention. My vet does not prescribe anything for them as she feels it takes LONGER for them to resolve. Again, just her thing. I'm not saying it to make you second guess your vet!

It's probably just a histiocytoma, but those can also resemble mast cell tumors which can be more of a problem. if you can take her at the same time as the other pup it should have a needle aspirate done to look for round cells.

I haven't read you whole thread, just the first post and a few updates, but this sounds a lot to me like free fluid in the abdomen. as that fluid collects with no where to go it's going to squish up her stomach and diaphragm making it more and more difficult for her to breath and eat. Please consider calling the vet back today. Use the word "ascites" which is the medical term for fluid in the abdomen. I think you just may have a pretty significant liver problem on your hands Please call today. if nothing else they can drain that fluid off and make her breathing easier.

Not a grey, but yes, my Mom's Chihuahua is hypo and seizure prone. It was never diagnosed as full blown Epilepsy but she does have generalized seizures and she is on pheno. I know not quite regulated thyroid can be involved with seizures, but Keela's thyroid labs are always perfect. I still deeply suspect that her two issues are related. She does well. she seizes maybe once every few months. they're not grand mal, they seem to resemble Chinook seizures. she never gets altered and she's back on her feet within five minutes. That's really all the input I have for you...

IIRC, (and I did NOT re-read the above referenced link yet, I haven't read it since it first came out,) the Purdue study was done exclusively with Danes since the condition seems most prevalent in that breed. I think Echo's data was even sent to the study, but I don't remember if I enrolled her or just thought about it. We in the Dane world considered the results invalid because it seemed to pronounce that dogs fed from raised feeders bloat more often - period. Unfortunately I seem to recall that the majority of the dogs were fed from raised feeders, meaning the test group wasn't 50/50. to me/us, it was like doing a study with 15 red cars and 5 white cars and then saying red cars crash more often. Sure they do when there are more of them! um, duh? I was advised by Echo's breeder to feed raised because it should make eating more comfortable and put less strain on the neck, back and legs. it should ease mobility of the food and keep them from bolting food. The rare occasions that Echo was fed from the floor she had to splay her legs out to the side to reach her dish (think baby giraffe!) putting strain on her legs and shoulders and ultimately she took up a mouth full and raised up to chew and swallow it anyhow.

not dumb at all!!!! Not a lot of people have heard of bloat (more now, it seems, than a few years ago at least! Awareness is a good thing!) here's a good explanation I found: "The technical name for bloat is "Gastric Dilatation-Volvulus" ("GDV"). Bloating of the stomach is often related to swallowed air (although food and fluid can also be present). It usually happens when there's an abnormal accumulation of air, fluid, and/or foam in the stomach ("gastric dilatation"). Stress can be a significant contributing factor also. Bloat can occur with or without "volvulus" (twisting). As the stomach swells, it may rotate 90° to 360°, twisting between its fixed attachments at the esophagus (food tube) and at the duodenum (the upper intestine). The twisting stomach traps air, food, and water in the stomach. The bloated stomach obstructs veins in the abdomen, leading to low blood pressure, shock, and damage to internal organs. The combined effect can quickly kill a dog." so I guess "bloat" is the stomach filling with gas, and the twisting (or "volvulus" or "tortion") is what kills them, ultimately. Correct! unfortunately because of your first-hand experience Bloat alone can kill them too even without the torsion. if the expansion of the stomach becomes large enough it will compress the blood vessels cutting off blood supply.

My Dane's sire bloated and torsed and consequently died in his kennel in the morning after breakfast. No running, no unusual stress, no unusual food. He was not in my care, but the care of my breeder who at the time did not have a kennel man and would feed his dogs, go get ready to go see patients, check on them a last time then leave. When he left, all was fine, when he got back home after office hours, the dog was dead in the kennel. Like Diane said, no one REALLY knows what causes it. Gas used to be a suspect, but many who've been able to be tubed because they hadn't torsed yet didn't have gas in the stomach, just free air. air gulping and water tanking are a possibility as are food additives. heredity is a concern as well and m Dane did have GI issues although she never bloated. because of her sire, when she was spayed she did have prophylactic gastropexy and I'd do it again in a heartbeat with another dane. Bloat caught in time can be manageable, but torsion too throws another wrench in to the mix. I will always feed raised. I will always throw a tennis ball or overturned bowl in to the food of a gulper to slow them down. I will never feed and leave right away -- I always make sure I'm going to be home at least two hours. Fortunately I've never had anyone who wanted to walk or run or play after dinner. I'll probably never get to have another Dane or even a grey, but any deep chested breed is a candidate for bloat, even my IG or even a doxy. My friend's Golden bloated and I never considered them a risk!

yes, this is correct of titers. if one doesn't make antibodies, titers will test 0:0 and you could still be sick. the antigen is the sick itself.

Yes, the margins aren't clear. the bad guys exist all the way to the edge of the sample they sent. a larger hole needs to be made below where the tumor was and to the sides. a general rule for safe removal of a cancerous tumor is three inches all the way 'round. Sorry, not what you wanted to hear, but to make sure they get it all, they'll have to take him back in to surgery and take out more tissue. Hopefully that does the trick.

You didn't fail her. what ever you were supposed to learn from her was learned and she had to go. it's the way of life and of course it's never, ever, ever long enough. Know that an entire planet full of members here mourn with you over the special girl most of us never got the chance to meet....

4.0 is upper normal for direct and total bilirubin in serum. 30 is upper normal (I think...going from memory) for BUN in serum. I really, really hope she meant BUN. If it was really bili, his skin, gums and sclera...everything would be icteric.

Our vet put my Mom's chihuahua on Clomicalm for sort of a generalize anxiety -- she was a mill rescue, never out of a cage, fearful of ALL people, ALL situations. It worked WONDERS! however we had to take her off of it because of her seizures and her thyroid disorder. it's been nearly ten years but it seems that using Clomicalm in a dog with thyroid may cause breakthrough seizures or something like that.