Arthritis

[Guest MzBaileysMomma]

I am new to this site and am in need of help. Our beloved Bailey, who will be 14 in April, has been diagnosed with arthritis. She has been showing signs of hind quarter weakness for a couple of months but it took a turn for the worst about two weeks ago. She is extremely unstable and can go down in the blink of an eye. The vet gave us tramadol and adequan injections. This is not working. She will eat less than a cup of food (food meaning whatever we can get her to eat), drinking a lot of water, won't get out of her bed and we have to force to go outside for bathroom breaks. She will not take the tramadol anymore, no matter how you try to hide it or force it down the throat. I noticed today that she is losing weight and is giving us the blank stare. We have called the vet several times to be told that she just need more time to adjust but I am just one worried mama.

 

I have been reading on here about kidney failure having similar symptons as arthritis and now am wondering what test need to be done to determine which illness it is. The reason why I am asking is that the last blood work done showed elevated levels with her kidneys. Vet said it wasn't good but we would watch it and start her on a special kibble for the kidneys. We haven't done this as she won't eat now.

 

I feel like we are missing something with my girl. I am extremely concerned and don't want her to be in pain and I have shed many tears in the past two days because she is hurting.

[Guest 2dogs4cats]

I have a 14 year old with kidney disease and it has been a learning experience. Did you get a UA? You said the kidney levels were elevated. Did the vet say she has kidney disease or what did the vet say about it? UA in addition to the blood should allow the vet to diagnose kidney disease.

 

When my girl was showing weakness in her hind end, I immediately thought it was arthritis, and my vet treated it as such. I gave her all the arthritis supplements and Tramadol as well. It wasn't helping one bit. The strange thing about it was that she didn't seem to be in pain at all, but I know that dogs can mask that. She was almost turning her hind feet in and her rear would sink almost to the floor, but no signs of pain. I could touch her hind end and she wouldn't even flinch. This is when I started researching for other possible causes of the weakness. I sort of put the pieces together and she does have hind end weakness due to the kidney disease. It's hard to explain, but it's more of a weakness than the pain of arthritis. I don't think it automatically comes to mind as I have read this is more common in cats than dogs.

 

I also feed her almost exclusively canned food as it is more appealing and keeps her hydrated which is so important for a kidney dog. I would definitely talk to your vet about her kidney status or talk to a new vet if you get the brush off. I actually have never had a dog with arthritis, but I would think that pain meds would be an instant improvement. My vet told me if the Tramadol didn't help within a week, it wasn't the answer. Feel free to PM me with questions.

[silverfish]

If you feel that something else is going on, I'd be the first one to tell you to listen to your instincts. We all give advice based not only on our knowledge but our past experiences, and I've now lost three dogs to problems other than the ones they'd been diagnosed with, their true condition not being dxd until the last minute. I know medicine is not an exact science, but when you're treating for age related kidney disease and your dog dies of cancer, and another dog is being treated for disc luxation and also turns out to have cancer (which would have been easily treatable caught sooner, since it was probably benign but simply in the wrong place to operate at that stage, having spread until it wrapped itself completely around the spinal cord), it makes you feel that if your vet isn't sure and your dog is going downhill, it's time to go to the specialists for an opinion.

 

My vet told me that he didn't send me to one because he didn't know which to send me to, but this is false logic. A general medicine guy at a specialist centre will be able to guide you to the right person far better than a local vet. Again, this is just my experience, but I would advise you to request a referral to your nearest vet school or specialist centre if you have any doubts about the dx.

 

As to tests it would be worth doing: complete geriatric blood panel for starters, and a complete urine analysis (UA) with protein:creatinine ratio. If you decide not to go for a referral to a specialist, follow that with x-rays/ultrasound to see if there is any physical problem. If we'd done even that with Susan, they could have removed the cancerous kidney and saved her life.

 

Also, there is no rule that says 'dogs will only suffer from one condition at a time'. It is possible that your girl has a spine problem AND a kidney problem .. or she may have neither, just 'old dog' weakness.

 

And lastly, Tramadol does not suit all dogs. Some are seriously disturbed psychologically by it and will exhibit wandering/pacing, crying/whining, disorientation and anxiety, and inability to rest. If it is decided that she does simply need a heavy-duty pain killer, ask your vet about trying a different one.

[JohnF]

Let me chime in here as this might be important.

Angel, my last dog who lived to 14, had Chronic Renal Failure. She'd been on Metacam and generics for many years and only given the full dose in acute phase. Eventually the Metacam stopped working at low doses but because of kidney troubles it was considered too dangerous to continue it. Amongst several things the vet tried was Tramadol. She had a bad reaction to it. By the second day her heart went crazy with fast Arrhythmias and occasional strong sinus beats. I stopped Tramadol right away, called the vet that evening, took her in as an emergency. I couldn't find anything in the veterinary literature about this, but there was a mention of it in human medicine. We came to the conclusion the kidney and liber function were just not up to metabolising the Tramdol out of the system fast enough and so it began to build up. (It actually took 36 hours to be free). We then tried a load of fancy modern painkillers, none of which worked particularly well. She then went off eating and then drinking in actual end stage Kidney Failure, she became incontinent too. We had gone as far as we could.

For meaningful info about kidney disease in dogs please visit the K9 Kidney Group on Yahoo http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/K9KIDNEYS.

Another useful resource is at http://www,dogaware.com

 

As someone has already said there can be saveral medical problems at the same time: spinal neuropathy, arthritis and kidney issues. You really need to get it properly diagnosed do that you know what you're dealing with. If it's end-stage kidney disease then you need to know to treasure them in the time that remains rather than put them thru loads of tests and treatments. I've lost 3 to CRF over the years and I can tell you it is so important to know at what stage the dog actually is at.

[Guest 2dogs4cats]

I agree there could be more than one condition at a time. Luckily my girl only has the CRF. I think it would be much harder if she had bad arthritis as well. I just wanted to make an additional note about pain killers and CRF. I tried Tramadol since my vet told me it would be the one that would do the least harm to the kidneys, but it did not work at all and she was a restless, panty mess on it. I really don't think any pain pills would have worked, because her instability was due to weakness, not pain. This was resolved with calcium.

 

I first found out about her illness due to her incontinence and was diagnosed with UA and blood work. I was offered proin for her incontinence which I found out is a major no-no. Proin, incontinence meds due not help incontinence due to kidney failure and will do more harm. I ended up putting her on Chinese supplement to resolve the incontinence.

 

I know my girl is in her final stages, but happy to say she is not on any prescription meds. The vet told me she had no idea how long she would live, but thought 3 months would be a stretch. It has been 4 months and symptom free today. With a past Grey, I was several days too late and it still haunts me. That will never happen again. I am just trying to help some others not go through the trial and error I did with this. The vets really didn't have any answers for me, however if I had some information to spur a conversation, I think they may have been more helpful.

[Guest MzBaileysMomma]

******UPDATE***********

 

I would like to thank all of you for responding. Bailey was admitted to the hospital yesterday and transferred to the emergency hospital last night. At 11:30pm last night they finally discovered what was causing her problem, she had a tumor in her abdomen that was bleeding. By this time it was to late and she crossed the rainbow bridge. We were with her for her last moments on this earth and am very thankful she is no longer in pain.

 

 

Once again thank you for fast replies to my post.

[kudzu]

I couldn't PM because you are too new here. Please accept my condolences. I have lost a dog, still quite young at age 10, in similar circumstances. Suddenly didn't want to eat her meal, later collapsed, too late by the time we got to ER. Happened in a matter of hours. By the time you see the symptoms it is almost always too late. Even if you manage to save them the cancer has usually metastasized. You did your best and almost assuredly any other action on your part would still not have saved her. I am so sorry you had to loose Bailey this way.

 

God speed, sweet girl.

[Fostr_Mom]

I am so sorry for your loss. Godspeed Bailey.

[Batmom]

Oh, I'm so sorry.

 

Godspeed, beloved girl.

[Guest momofevie]

Oh, no. i'm so sorry for your loss. I'm glad you were able to be with Bailey at the end. She knows you love her.