My Foster Is Sick Again, Really Worried

[Guest LittleGreys]

I had posted about my foster girl being sick back in late July. She had a fever, limping and pitting edema in her legs. All bloodwork was normal. We did the snap test for heartworm and lymes and erhlichia, all neg. She responded well to doxy and pred, we did doxy for 3 weeks and pred for about 5 weeks.

Wednesday she spiked a fever of 105, with severe joint pain. It took 5 doses of tramadol and 2 of morphine to get her any relief. No edema this time. All bloodwork again normal. There is protein in her urine, and culture is pending. She is on IV baytril, cefazolin and doxy, as well as tramadol. She was doing well until this morning, temp up to 103, not interested too much in food, she did eat some and took her meds in cheese. I pulled the IV catheter, just in case.

We are so frustrated not having a diagnosis for this girl. One vet thinks bacterial enocarditis, another thinks autoimmune. We will repeat an echo tomorrow, the first showed a dilated right venticle, but valves seemed OK. Our ultrasound expert is out of town, so he was looking at it via email, so not the ideal situation. Chest xrays looked pretty normal, some spots of calcifications, but no change since the July films. They also see what may be an abdominal aortic aneurysm on the ultrasound. Will re-evaluate that tomorrow as well.

I am so worried for this girl. Please keep her in your prayers.

[Guest FastDogsOwnMe]

Wow. That's terrifying. I'm so sorry.

[Guest PhillyPups]

Many prayers for sweet Gemini.

 

Has a full tick panel been done?

[MandysMom]

Sending prayers for the sweet girl

[Guest racergirl435]

Poor girl. Sending thoughts and prayers.

[Remolacha]

[mychip1]

Many prayers.

 

 

[seeh2o]

I second Pat on the full tick panel. Sending healing thoughts for your little girl.

[JohnF]

I had posted about my foster girl being sick back in late July. She had a fever, limping and pitting edema in her legs. All bloodwork was normal. We did the snap test for heartworm and lymes and erhlichia, all neg. She responded well to doxy and pred, we did doxy for 3 weeks and pred for about 5 weeks.

Wednesday she spiked a fever of 105, with severe joint pain. It took 5 doses of tramadol and 2 of morphine to get her any relief. No edema this time. All bloodwork again normal. There is protein in her urine, and culture is pending. She is on IV baytril, cefazolin and doxy, as well as tramadol. She was doing well until this morning, temp up to 103, not interested too much in food, she did eat some and took her meds in cheese. I pulled the IV catheter, just in case.

We are so frustrated not having a diagnosis for this girl. One vet thinks bacterial enocarditis, another thinks autoimmune. We will repeat an echo tomorrow, the first showed a dilated right venticle, but valves seemed OK. Our ultrasound expert is out of town, so he was looking at it via email, so not the ideal situation. Chest xrays looked pretty normal, some spots of calcifications, but no change since the July films. They also see what may be an abdominal aortic aneurysm on the ultrasound. Will re-evaluate that tomorrow as well.

I am so worried for this girl. Please keep her in your prayers.

[JohnF]

You must be so worried about all this and now the added complication of a TripleA.

Have you considered Gout or gouty arthritis? It's not unheard of in dogs and as with humans you can try to feed things that are low in purines. (Canine gout is often 'calcium gout'.)

Allopurinol is a drug that may be used if confirmed that uric acid is crystallizing and not being excreted adequately.

[tbhounds]

My guess would be immune mediated. If it was a vector (tick) borne disease she would have become worse wihile on the pred.

[Guest LittleGreys]

My guess would be immune mediated. If it was a vector (tick) borne disease she would have become worse wihile on the pred.

Kind of what I was thinking. Also she had 3 weeks of doxy, which will wipe out most tick diseases, except maybe babesia, and like you said, she would have been much worse with the pred.

[tbhounds]

Forgot to mention that if it's an immune disease that would explain the proteinuria.

[Guest Gingergrey]

[carronstar]

Adding lots of good thoughts and prayers for your girlie.

[Guest ryeamans]

I'm so sorry I'll be thinking of you and your pup!