Diagnosis For Kelly

[Guest Stripeyfan]

I hope it is ok to ask for some more healing thoughts for Kelly. We've had the blood test results back and they show 'evidence of disease in the small intestine'. He is not absorbing colabamin or folate properly. Our new vet says it's one of two things – a hereditary malabsorption disorder (rare) OR... damage from the roundworm (which he's now clear of). Our old vet basically denied this was even possible. It makes me feel physically sick to think where we'd be if we'd stayed with them and left Kelly for another 6 weeks like they wanted to.

 

If it is parasite damage the vet thinks it should eventually clear up, although he may need steroids/antibiotics to keep the inflammation under control. We need to keep him on his bland diet again for a few more days until he firms up, and then try a fish and potato based food. I'm pretty scared about doing that as his flare-ups have been so bad on the Burns and Royal Canin. I will be talking to the vet (who wants me to ring with a progress report next week anyway) before I even attempt it.

 

So we're apprehensive about what happens next but relieved we now know what's wrong!

 

Thanks for reading.

[Guest IrskasMom]

I have really no Advice . Just Hugs and Prayers for your Boy

[Guest BleuDog]

Many more Hugs and Prayers and Greyt Vibes are zooming to the Babe...

[MandysMom]

Sending healing thoughts for Kelly. I'm glad you switched to a vet who is more open.

[Guest SusanP]

I'm so glad you know what you're dealing with now. It sounds like this vet knows where he's going with this. Sending positive thoughts to you both.

[dante2zoe]

Thanks for the update. Keep us posted on Kelly's progress! Poor pupper (and mom).

[Guest Energy11]

Sending healing and positive thoughts to Kelly!

[greyhead]

We went through this with Spencer last year. First we got the intestinal malabsorption diagnosis. then they kept testing him for worms -- he had a history of hookworms -- and the fecals kept coming back negative. His poop was soft, yellowish, and smelled truly awful. I had to really push to get a culture of his poop done. It came back that the small intestine problem was SIBO, in his case caused by Clostridium perfringens. It took three antibiotics to get rid of it. This was drawn out over many months, and in the end he was left with IBD, which can be controlled with luck and skill but has no cure. There are other bacteria, of course, that can cause this.

 

So I'm very happy that you've found out as much as you have about Stripey's condition. But I urge you to have a fecal test for bacteria!! Please don't hesitate to let me know if I can be of any help. Here's the link to my GT thread about Spencer's diagnosis; it contains another link to a good article about this bacterium. http://forum.greytal...1entry3887382

 

Here's a good article for your vet too: http://www.vin.com/proceedings/Proceedings.plx?CID=WSAVA2002&PID=2580

Edited March 13, 2010 by greyhead

[Guest Stripeyfan]

Thankyou so, so much for all the good thoughts! They are really helping all of us through what's been and still is a very worrying time.

 

Hi Greyhead, thanks for the link and info. Our old vet did a complete bacterial culture along with the original worm test and it came back negative; the new vet only tested for the worms this time but I will mention what you said when I speak to her next week, as given how the old vet let us down so badly, I'm not sure I trust anything they did any more. I have been reading about Spencer and it sounds like you had a terrible time with him. I really hope he is ok now.

 

I don't know if anyone has any thoughts on this... Kelly's flare-ups have always seemed to happen when he's gone onto these hypoallergenic foods, so I've been looking up the ingredients of various 'prescription' diets online (not with a view to using them, just to compare), and the ingredients of the ones for allergies seem very different to the ones for GI disorders like malabsorption, IBD etc. The hypoallergenic ones are much higher in fat and fibre, which I have read somewhere is good for large intestine problems but not for small intestine disorders. Because ALL the vets at our old practise were fixed on the idea of his problem being allergies they had him trying allergy-control foods, and I'm wondering if the fibre/fat in these (they all contained brown rice) are what made him react so badly. He is doing greyt again on white rice and chicken so I am sure he is not allergic to these ingredients.

 

I am sure we'll get this figured out somehow!

[greyhead]

I totally hear you about the food-allergy focus. Not to diss anyone, but it has become something of a fad, IMHO. Spencer reacted badly to grains and carbs in general, which are very plentiful in prescription diets, so my vet was supportive of our using a non-prescription, limited-ingredient food. We use Natural Balance venison & sweet potato, and I'm just grateful that he can handle the potato! I'm hoping to find another protein source soon, as he has been on venison exclusively for a year. He does still have an inflammatory reaction to more common things like chicken and beef, but I'm hoping fish might offer some variety. If not, there's always kangaroo!

 

Yes, thanks, Spencer is doing really, really well now. The only thing is, he lost a lot of fur as a side effect of his immunosuppressant med for IBD, budesonide. His legs are about nekkid! But the internist said he had to take it for a year, which will be up in May. Hopefully, it'll grow back when we stop the med.

 

It sounds like you're on top of Kelly's condition, learning as much as you can and observing how Kelly responds to things, which I think is key. The thing about fecal testing for "bugs" is that there are a couple routinely looked for, like E. coli and salmonella. They mainly expect Clostridium perfringens only in German Shepards, and only looked for it in Spencer because I lucked into articles about it on the Internet and demanded it. When they do look for Clostridium, they usually look for the C. difficile variety, which is thought to be more common than the C. perfringens variety. Since you're paying the bill, you should feel free to investigate on your own and request specific tests. In any case, you should ask them what specifically they plan to look for and why they're picking them. As you might surmise, I consider "because it's the most common" to be not a very good answer!

 

Best of luck with this, and please keep us posted! We'll be looking for news.

 

Mary

[Guest isntitgreyt]

Sending more hugs and prayers. Get better Kelly...

[AstasMinion]

Sending more healing thoughts for your pup. Sounds like you're making good progress in getting the answers you need. Take care!

Edited March 14, 2010 by AstasMinion

[Guest Vers]

No experience with exactly what you're dealing with, but just wanted to send healing thoughts to Kelly, and we'll keep sending them.

[Guest Stripeyfan]

Thankyou - please keep sending them! Poor boy now seems to have colitis so it looks like I will be ringing the vet as soon as they open - he'd had some mucus in his stool after coming back from the vet last Tues, but seemed to be improving by the end of the week, so given this and that there was no blood in it or anything, we didn't panic for once... yesterday it was back to full on slimy yuck and he had us up at 2am needing to go out. He's still eating and much brighter than he was when he had the liquid D last Monday but I don't dare leave it any longer... I think he's gonna need some steroids or ABs to get him over this one. I could strangle our old vet for putting him on that food.

[Guest Greytluv]

 

I have no wise words. It sounds like you're doing all you can.

Edited March 15, 2010 by Greytluv

[Guest Stripeyfan]

Back from the vet...

 

We have ABs. We have steroids. We have been warned about the drinking and the peeing... So long, carpets, it's been nice knowing ya!

 

Thanks again for all the good thoughts, truly appreciated.

[Guest bluefawn]

I am so glad it was not something even worse! Glad you got him to a good vet.

[Batmom]

Fingers crossed ......

 

What I've done with dogs on steroids, whenever possible, is to just take them out every 2 hours during the day and @ 5.5 or 6 hours overnight. Even if I have to wake them up to do it. Not possible for a person who works outside the home, but when one *is* home, taking the dog out for a quick pee beats cleaning it up indoors. Here, the worst of the "pee" effects wear off in @ 7 days as pup gets used to the meds.

[carronstar]

Adding lots of good thoughts and prayers for Kelly.

[Guest momofevie]

Glad you've found a new vet. Thinking good thoughts for you and Kelly.

[Guest Stripeyfan]

Yikes, looks like the weeing has begun. Luckily I heard Kelly get off his bed out in the hall and dashed out there to find him at the door looking desperate. Let him out and he was stood there for ages and whimpered a bit afterwards... Poor boy. Although I haven't seen him drinking yet?? There is a lot of water in his rice/chicken though so maybe that's where it came from. He's on a high-ish dose (6 tabs) for 3 days and then we're scaling it down, so hopefully he'll get used to them. Is there anything we need to look out for in particular with the weeing which would warrant a call to the vet, like if it doesn't settle down or he keeps whimpering? And if this isn't a stupid question – is there any chance he could dehydrate??

 

Thanks for your info, Batmom, we should be able to work something out and at night, he's pretty good at letting us know if he needs to go out. If he has an accident, though, we have enzyme cleaner! I fully expect it's gonna happen because he's the sort of dog that when he's gotta go, he's gotta go. It wouldn't be the end of the world.

[Guest bluefawn]

I would watch for blood in his urine. He could become a little dehydrated with increased urination and less water. You can do a simple check - pull up his skin at his shoulders and see if it releases back down, or if it stays up. If it releases back down, he should be ok.