Very Sick Whippet - Owner Looking For Help

[Rickiesmom]

I am cross-posting with permission. Owner lives in Eugene, Oregon. This 1 year old dog is very sick, time is important so I hope it is OK to post here vs. Off Topic. I will give the owner a link to this thread. Thank you for any ideas or suggestions.

 

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Two Saturdays ago, my husband called me while I was in Washington visiting his dad, and told me that Kidogo was throwing up. I told him to take away food and water and monitor him, if he throws up one more time to take him to the emergency vet. Sunday morning, the dog threw up a couple more times. My husband took him into the emergency vet and they took him back for xrays and IV fluids. They told us that he had a section of dilated small intestine, consistent with a foreign object, but they could not see the foreign object on the xrays.

 

The next day, we were referred to the regular vet for an ultrasound, but they still could not identify a foreign object. The surgeon (who had performed multiple surgeries on whippets and other sighthounds) said she wanted to do the surgery for foreign object removal anyway, that if she didn't find anything she would take some biopsies. We agreed, and she ended up actually finding some small pieces of rubber in his system. We could not identify it, and wonder if he had chewed something while staying with a family friend because we had been gone so frequently. The surgeon told us everything else in there looked good and sent him home with us the next day.

 

That week, he did great. His incision was healing well and his energy started to come back to him. He was eating and drinking, and overall seemed to be making a good recovery. On Friday night, 3 whole days after surgery, he threw up again, just once. We called the vet and she said he very possibly could've taken the pain med when he didn't have quite enough in his tummy. He seemed fine Saturday morning, but started refusing food Saturday night. He didn't have anything to eat or drink on Sunday, so we left the vet a message saying we wanted to come in Monday morning. That night, he threw up three times and we ended up taking him to the emergency vet again. They took some xrays and told us that he had a lot of gas in his intestines (again). They said they'd feel more comfortable if his surgeon looked him over, so they gave him an anti nausea shot and some subcutaneous fluids and sent him home with us.

 

We went back to his surgeon on Monday morning, by this time, we had accumulated over $4000 in vet bills, most of which we put on credit. Our emergency dog fund was nowhere near big enough. She said she was puzzled by his situation, and told us some possibilities: inflammatory bowel syndrome, pancreatis, I don't remember what else. She wanted to do an ultrasound and send in those biopsy samples that she took during his surgery. We can't really afford to spend more on just testing, when we're not sure that these tests will even give us a diagnosis. We took him home with some anti nausea pills and some steroids to see if that would make his intestines start moving.

 

He did great all week, started eating and drinking, was more active and constantly demanded walks. He had lost 3 lbs in the last week, which is a lot considering they don't have much to lose to begin with. We were slowly starting to wean him off the bland food to his regular food, and he seemed to be doing great. Until yesterday night. He threw up again, and my husband said it was probably because he had waited too long to gave him his anti nausea pill. So we gave him another one, but he threw up again in the middle of the night, about 6-7 hours later. We've called the vet again and are now waiting for her to call back.

 

Sorry for such a long piece of text. Does anyone have any guesses/suspicions as to what this might be? Any advice on whether or not we should keep pouring the money into trying to find out what is going on? He is only 1, which I feel like is way too young to be having this many issues, and I am extremely afraid that I am going to lose him. We don't really know what our next step is going to be considering our now limited resources. 2014 has already brought so much pain, and stress, and I am at the end of my line emotionally. So tired. Sorry to unload all of this on you guys. I just felt like I should let you guys know what's going on, and it all kinda came spilling out. /:

[Charlies_Dad]

Did the vet eventually do the biopsy? Vomiting is one possibly symptom of IBD and I also question why take him on the bland diet so quickly? Perhaps the food they are normally giving him is causing the issue. I would get him back on a bland diet and get the biopsies performed ASAP.

[MP_the4pack]

I do feel for them. My pocketbook has gotten very tight over the past several years.



All I can say is what I've done. I've chosen to continue with vet care and tests, and put the vet bills on the Care Credit card. If I couldn't do the payments necessary to pay off the card in time before the promotional period was up, I transferred the balance to another of my credit cards that had the 0% financing for a year for balance transfers.

Then I went out and got a second job. I live alone. It was my only option. I'm not telling anyone to get a second job. I'm just saying that's what I chose to do.



But it doesn't have to be waitressing or anything like that. Can they sell stuff on ebay? Make collars? Chop fire wood and sell in front of the house under the honor system? Dog sit whippets? Write resumes for people looking for jobs? Can be anything just to bring in a little extra cash just to pay that bill.

[Houndtime]

No thoughts. Just wishing them the best outcome possible. We went through this with Fuzzy in the summer. He had diarrhea for three weeks and we never found the cause. I refused the biopsy and scope and treated him with a limited protein.

[Batmom]

How is the stool? Did they do some new bloodwork? What type of food is he eating? When he vomits, how long after the meal and does it look like he's horking up his whole meal or just fluid? Has anyone considered the possibility that there's some of that rubber in his stomach?

[greytpups]

Mary, all I can suggest is sending a pm to tbhounds, jjung or krissy to see if they have suggestions. If you're on FB, I'd also post to the pro greyhound forum because of the vets that frequent it. Have you contacted the breeder?

 

I can't imagine how scary this is so soon after your loss of Rickie. I hope he gets well soon.

[Rickiesmom]

Jan, I am not the owner, but your suggestions are good ones, thank you!

[BatterseaBrindl]

How is the stool? Did they do some new bloodwork? What type of food is he eating? When he vomits, how long after the meal and does it look like he's horking up his whole meal or just fluid? Has anyone considered the possibility that there's some of that rubber in his stomach?

All of this.

[Burpdog]

What are they feeding? Get him off of NSAIDs or pred and increase the stomach meds. I would not be feeding him kibble at this point unless it's soaked.

[tbhounds]

I think my concern/question would be if there is ileus of the bowel in question. When they performed the surgery did they just do a enterotomy or a full dissection of the bowel. Knowing the current meds may help too.

[Rickiesmom]

Thank you all for your responses. I don't have answers to any of your questions but here is the latest update from the owner:

 

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He went back to the clinic today, but didn't see the vet. He went to get an anti nausea shot, and it should work for at least 24 hours, after which they gave us some anti nausea pills to continue him on. He seems okay, alert, but very clingy. He ate some rice and boiled chicken tonight, and I added water to his rice because he is still refusing to drink. He at it all, then went to sleep. It's been quite a few hours and he is still keeping it down, so that's good. We put his surgery on Care Credit, but I wonder if we could try to pay some of it off right now so we have more room to pursue the tests and such.

 

The vet is great, she knows we are low on funds and that is why she prescribed the medicines that she did, so that we can try to figure out what is going on by process of elimination. If the combination of medicine is working to make him feel better, she will wean him off each one, and if he gets sick after removing one, then we will have a better idea as to why he is sick. Thank you all so much for being so encouraging. This really is a great community.

[Burpdog]

I would encourage them not to withdraw meds too soon. So touchy because he has had surgery and it's hard to know if there still is a problem, or if recovering from surgery is the problem. Sending prayers for the little one.

[greysmom]

I'm glad there seems to be progress. The problem is that it's hard to tell, as Diane said, what the problem even *might* be. It could be just one thing, or it could be a succession of events, each causing vomiting, and not related to anything else.

 

If they are in touch with you again, you might direct them to the Oregon State University vet school. They have worked with a lot of our group's greyhounds through the years and have good general sighthound experience.

[Guest muddyclips]

Hi, thank you guys so much for your responses. I'll try to answer some of your questions. We are hoping the anti nausea medicine will at least help him through the weekend. He is eating well (still rice and boiled chicken) but still not drinking water.

His poop is solid, but small, and he has pooped very infrequently since his surgery. We haven't done the biopsies because of the extra cost. We are feeding him Diamond Naturals Lamb and Rice, but he's thrown up since going on a bland diet of rice and boiled chicken. When he throws up, it's anywhere between 20 min after meal to 4 hours for the first time, and then subsequent times anywhere from 2-6 hours from first time. He shivers before he throws up, and sometimes retch but sometimes doesn't. The first time he throws up its always food, the subsequent times will sometimes have some food residue, and liquid, and (I think) bile. His surgery was an enteronomy. The medication he is currently on is Prednisone, Metoclopramide, and Cerenia. They did do bloodwork prior to surgery, and everything came back normal. We haven't had one done since.

Thanks for all your good thoughts!

[Rickiesmom]

So glad you are here! There is a lot of love and experience to help you!

[tbhounds]

Welcome! I guess I'm confused as to why they prescribed the prednisone. No tummy protectants (carafate, Pepcid, Prilosec...)??

[Guest muddyclips]

I'm not sure what the Prednisone is for. She told me, but she also said a lot of other things and I can't for the life of me remember what each of them are for, sorry. He is also taking Pepcid once a day.

[3greytjoys]

I'm not a veterinarian -- just tossing thoughts to consider (if your Whippet's current vomiting isn't prescription medication related).

Has a laboratory fecal test been run on a fresh fecal sample?

Have you (or your husband) noticed any diarrhea, mucus, blood, or eggs/worms/parasites in stools during the past couple of months?

Assuming your Whippet has been on the same Diamond kibble long-term, when did he originally begin eating food from his current kibble bag?

Adverse reactions to food can last longer than the period in which dog is eating that food (e.g., IBD, salmonella, e coli, etc.). Helpful to keep bag in case manufacturer's product run data is required later.

Diamond has had recalls in past years (including pet food expiration dates through early 2013). I have not seen a recent FDA recall for them; however, if your dog's vomiting happens to be pet food quality related, remember that customers begin seeing problems in their dogs before official recalls are announced.

If your dog is gassy while eating Diamond kibble, a different brand of single protein kibble could be helpful (only after he's cleared to begin graduating from his bland diet by his veterinarian).

To avoid bloat (can be common in deep-chested breeds), avoid feeding within 1 hour before strenuous exercise, and within 2 hours after strenuous exercise.

Thinking back to the first few days before your boy's initial bouts of vomiting:

Could he have eaten any human food leftovers, or snagged food without a human noticing?

(Particularly food high in fat, even gravy or chicken fat/turkey fat, or other human food potentially toxic to dogs like grapes, raisins, avocado, chocolate, etc.)

Any repeated munching of leaves from a houseplant or outside plant material could cause or compound problems.

I don't know how long you've owned your 1 year old Whippet, but assuming you bought your puppy directly from a breeder, ask your breeder if they've had this problem in their pups. Some breeders won't confess recurring health problems in their breeding lines, but it's worth a try.

Some of these "general" home observation exam questions might help trigger a new answer that could be helpful to your veterinarian. http://www.petplace.com/dogs/your-dog-s-physical-examination-at-home/page1.aspx

(Other readers could benefit from this excellent pet exam questionnaire for their newly adopted Greyhound's veterinary file.)

Edited March 9, 2014 by 3greytjoys

[Rickiesmom]

I am not sure if the owner will have time to post today - here is the latest update

 

He started having diarrhea last night. ): I guess it's back to the vet for us later today. I am terrified of leaving him for about 6 hours because I have to leave at 8:30 for work and the husband only gets back between 2-3. Between going to Washington and the vet trips with Gogo both of us have taken way too much time off and our work places aren't very pleased with us. /: I will ask the vet about re running blood, and the other stuff today. Hopefully it's something we can afford. I will also ask about the prednisone and why he's on it.

[Rickiesmom]

Here is the most recent update, from early this morning.

 

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After spending the morning at the vet's that Monday, Kidogo was sent home feeling slightly better. The vets want to switch him to an allergen-free food. But we're not sure what in his food he could be allergic to. They haven't ruled out inflammatory bowel disease yet, so he's on Prednisone twice a day. I say vets because this is the surgeon that is prescribing all these medicines and advising all these tests, and I've also spoke with our regular vet, but she's also at a loss and agrees that these are the measures we should be taking, considering our finances. His most recent blood test came back normal again. He is still on chicken and rice, but we would like some suggestions as to what is a good least likely to cause allergic flare-ups dry dog food we can try to get him on? No vomiting or diarrhea for 2 full days now, but yesterday he didn't poop at all, and today he pooped one tiny nugget. His recent patterns have seen him go up to 3 days without throwing up, so hopefully the calm sticks around for a LOT longer this time around. He is eating okay (I think he's no longer interested in the rice) and still not drinking a whole lot. Energy level is higher than it has been but not quite back to his normal. Thanks again, you guys.

Edited March 13, 2014 by Rickiesmom

[Jiffer]

I'd expect smaller poos on his diet. It's not terribly fatty or with filler so smaller poos is probably a good thing (as long as he continues to poo).

 

Sending prayers and healing thoughts.

 

The vet suggesting a hypoallergenic diet is also to reduce the work the tummy has to go through to process the food. It's a way of letting the tummy rest without cutting off his food intake. Some of the HA diets also include tummy supporting nutrients... I recently used one that had colostrum infused into it which can help heal the GI tract.

 

Even though he's not drinking much, is he dehydrated?

 

Given the update this morning, I'd say he's on the right path.. just a matter of getting him over the hurdle. Sometimes it takes a bit longer for the meds to work their magic.

[dixidoll]

Just seeing the post. I have a whippet that basically had the same symtoms. Vomiting, after eating anything. Did the anti nausea stuff, making this a short story. Was told she must have eaten something. I was positive she did not, not like her. They sub Q ed her for the dehydration. She was now staying at the vet. Did Barium test, x-rays. When the barium did not go past her stomach they did endoscopy. BINGO ! Stomach was totally full of H-pylori. Vet was afraid it was going to rupture. No food, on IV. Stopped the vomiting and she came home after 3 dayson all these meds for 2 weeks. Flagyl, Amoxi, Pepcid, Cerenia, Misoprostol, Sucralfate.

 

I syringed Ensure and baby Pedialite( sp ) is small amounts to keep her alive. In 2 weeks fed her id and very good canned food. Some holistic folks told me to give her 1 tsp. medical Manuka Honey. She got it every day for 6 months. It is a natural antibiotic, and heals the stomach. Also good for acid reflux, ( I tried it ) and swear by it now.Also Mastic gum pills. Google them for the healing information. Put her on total grain free. She is totally cured and a happy and energitic girl.

 

She get the Manuka Honey about 3 times a week now. It is part of her diet.

 

Hope I got this information out before it is too late. Sorry about your little whippet. It has been almost 3 years since this happened to mine and she never relapsed.

 

Please keep us posted.

[Rickiesmom]

Latest update:

 

No vomiting or diarrhea for...5 days now, woohoo! I'm hoping this means he's done with the bad parts. We're still getting very minimal poops, his last one was on Thursday, small, kind of soft, and dark. We are transitioning him from the chicken and rice to the Hills I/D tonight. Why that is prescription food is beyond me, the ingredients list looks terrible. /: He is still on Prednisone twice a day, and I think it's working. His energy is basically back to normal, including barking at passing dogs when he's on his walk.

 

Here's what we may have available in our local pet stores that we can consider switching to:

Natural Balance

California Natural

Wellness Simple

Royal Canin

Pinnacle

Nutro Natural Choice

Anyone have any experiences with any of these food, or other limited ingredient foods? We're most likely looking at dry dog foods.

[LuvAPuppy]

I'd choose Natural Balance, but keep a close eye on the ingredients as it was just recently bought out by Mars or P&G or DelMonte or something. I'm still using their duck roll, but I check it carefully before I give it to her. Or I'd go Wellness. My dog didn't care for Pinnacle, but I've heard great things. I used to use Nutro 17 years ago, but don't care for some of the changes since then. I used Calif Natural also but again, it was purchased by a mass marketer, and their quality has gone down while their recalls have gone up, just like Nutro. My cat is on Royal Canin prescription S/O for crystals and he loves it and seems to do well. I used one of their formulas for a short time for the dog until she got tired of it. Right now in addition to the Wellness she's getting Nature's Variety raw bites. I don't think she loves it as much as she did a few weeks ago, but she eats it. I can rotate between chicken, duck and lamb for her so she doesn't get too bored.

[robinw]

I used to feed my dogs California Natural but switched after they ere bought out by one of the big pet food companies. I feed Iker Go! Fit and Free, which is Canadian and hasn't had any recalls.

 

http://www.petcurean.com/for-dogs/go/fit-and-free-grain-free-adult