Another mystery illness!

[Robink]

I joined this forum to post our dilemna and hopefully get feedback. A month ago we adopted an unwanted 9 year old aussie mix named Chance. We were already friends and were glad to have him join the family - we have Buddy the border collie and Mollie the mini-schnauzer (more about her later!).

On Tuesday Chance started drinking an excessive amount of water, peeing a lot and barely touching his food. His bowels were normal and gums pink, no fever, no vomiting (yet) so I just watched him for a couple of days. When he stopped eating completely on Thursday am, I took him to our Veterinarian. They gave him a thorough exam, blood-tested for everything including diabetes, salmon or other poisoning, etc. They also x-rayed everything. All tests came in normal, but he exhibited pain in his back. So they decided he has the beginning of disc disease and put him on a course of prednisone (brief!) and muscle relaxant. Well now it's Saturday and he still refuses all food and begs for water all day. I was told to let him have small amounts only as he will drink so much he throws up.

So my question is should I worry about him not eating at this point? Assuming he is in pain, maybe he's just not hungry. However, if anyone has suggestions for what to try to encourage him to eat, I'm happy to hear them. I already tried to trick him by putting a teeny tiny amount of food he usually loves in his water and he refused it. Thanks for this forum!

[bitterrootbullies]

Originally Posted by Robink

I joined this forum to post our dilemna and hopefully get feedback. A month ago we adopted an unwanted 9 year old aussie mix named Chance. We were already friends and were glad to have him join the family - we have Buddy the border collie and Mollie the mini-schnauzer (more about her later!).

On Tuesday Chance started drinking an excessive amount of water, peeing a lot and barely touching his food. His bowels were normal and gums pink, no fever, no vomiting (yet) so I just watched him for a couple of days. When he stopped eating completely on Thursday am, I took him to our Veterinarian. They gave him a thorough exam, blood-tested for everything including diabetes, salmon or other poisoning, etc. They also x-rayed everything. All tests came in normal, but he exhibited pain in his back. So they decided he has the beginning of disc disease and put him on a course of prednisone (brief!) and muscle relaxant. Well now it's Saturday and he still refuses all food and begs for water all day. I was told to let him have small amounts only as he will drink so much he throws up.

So my question is should I worry about him not eating at this point? Assuming he is in pain, maybe he's just not hungry. However, if anyone has suggestions for what to try to encourage him to eat, I'm happy to hear them. I already tried to trick him by putting a teeny tiny amount of food he usually loves in his water and he refused it. Thanks for this forum!

Disc disease would not cause the excessive drinking (polydypsia). Pain might cause him to loose his appetite, but the pred would have taken care of it. Plus the prednisone would have increased his appetite for food and for the water. So his continued lack of appetite and increased thirst would be a big concern. I'm not sure where you are located, but has he had any ticks lately? Lyme disease may cause joint pain as well as other symptoms. Was he tested for that.

Some other things that cause polydypsia are Cushings disease, Addisons disease, kidney failure, diabetes insipidus (different than the diabetes tested for in a standard blood test), and some toxins. Plus some others that I'm forgetting now.
Do you have a copy of his blood tests? What are the blood calcium levels and the alkaline phosphatase levels?

My suggestion would be to have your Veterinarian send the blood test results to an internal medicine specialist to see if they have any ideas. If his thirst is so increased that he's vomiting from drinking too much, than there is a definite problem that needs to be solved right away. I would be way more worried about the drinking and not eating than I would about the back pain at this point. I can't stress enough that if you know there is something wrong with your dog and the Veterinarian isn't pursuing it hard enough get a second opinion!!!!

I don't know if you read my post on "mystery illness" about my dog Samantha, but her original vets (2 of them) both looked at her blood tests and said everything was normal, just wait to see if it goes away. The second I showed her blood results to a different Veterinarian he said right away that he was very worried about her blood calcium levels! So get another pair of eyes looking at his case as soon as possible. As it turns out, Samantha did finally get over it, but it is very likely that if we hadn't noticed the calcium and hadn't put her on medication to lower it, she may have gone into kidney failure and died, and I never would have known why.
Good Luck!
amanda samantha sydney murphy foster and kipling

[Jeepbrie]

What I usually do is either use wet food in with the dry food. I make ground beef and rice. That usually works. Braunschweiger comes in second.

[Robink]

Thanks you folks for the replies. Actually I've been told rice with boiled chicken broth (not canned) is good and then bits of the chicken. However our Chance would not touch any food and believe me, I tried everything.

I took him to the Emergency clinic last night as our Veterinarian is closed on the weekend. He is now throwing up some blood and froth - one Veterinarian said prednisone would not cause that but another said it would (so much for second and third opinions!!!) - but he now has a fever and diarrhea which he did not have when all this began. It is now pointing to what I originally asked about: salmon or other poisoning which he tested negative for. It's not Lyme, that would cause totally different symptoms mostly muscular distress.

For now Chance is comfortable and on fluids while they wait for more blood tests to come in. I will let ya'll know what happens. He's only been with us for a short time, but we all miss him terribly and hope he heals.

[Robink]

I don't know how many actually read this forum but since I started I will end it. Late this afternoon Chance's diarreah became totally blood and uncontrollable to the point the kennel workers had to diaper him. Then he started bleeding from his nose.

Everything in me says HE WAS POISONED but his coagulant was still testing normal when he died tonight at 8 p.m. The vets feel a tumor was somewhere in there and burst, or something, hell, I don't know. They offered to cremate Chance but I am picking him up tomorrow and he will be buried at our farm with our other old friends who never went through anything like this, they lived healthy lives and died of old age. I will also get all the test results and maybe, figure out with help what the hell happened. After two thousand in Veterinarian bills and a dead friend, I didn't opt for an autopsy, sorry.

This was a great dog whose owner decided they didn't want him anymore after 9 years. He had lost his cat buddy and started trashing their house when he was left alone. Since I am home with my 2 old dogs or else, they are in the car with me, we were happy to take him in. We knew him from visits and my girls adored him. A sweet, mellow, smart aussie mix with a name that I guess was somewhat profetic, if that's a word.

Palehorse you might decide to delete this message and that's okay. I do appreciate your site and your efforts. I am so frustrated with vets telling me nothing is wrong two days ago and now devastated about losing our new family member. I'm babbling in type. Maybe I will post again after I hear from the family Veterinarian. The one who said nothing about the excessive water drinking.

[palehorse]

Palehorse you might decide to delete this message and that's okay. I do appreciate your site and your efforts. I am so frustrated with vets telling me nothing is wrong two days ago and now devastated about losing our new family member. I'm babbling in type. Maybe I will post again after I hear from the family Veterinarian. The one who said nothing about the excessive water drinking.

No reason to delete it, it's good for others to know that vets can and are wrong sometimes.

I am sorry for your loss... Please let us know what the family Veterinarian said. Vet's are not as well trained as doctors are, and we sometimes forget that the really are *not* doctors. Most I have encountered have good intentions, but are not as bright as a regular "doctor" would be, but who can afford to take a pet to a doctor anyway? And most doctors are not trained in animal physiology, nor would they even accept and animal patient.

That's why we *need* each other on a site like this. So we can share experiences among ourselves, and find answers that often times professional vets cannot.

[bitterrootbullies]

Originally Posted by Robink

I don't know how many actually read this forum but since I started I will end it. Late this afternoon Chance's diarreah became totally blood and uncontrollable to the point the kennel workers had to diaper him. Then he started bleeding from his nose.

Everything in me says HE WAS POISONED but his coagulant was still testing normal when he died tonight at 8 p.m. The vets feel a tumor was somewhere in there and burst, or something, hell, I don't know. They offered to cremate Chance but I am picking him up tomorrow and he will be buried at our farm with our other old friends who never went through anything like this, they lived healthy lives and died of old age. I will also get all the test results and maybe, figure out with help what the hell happened. After two thousand in Veterinarian bills and a dead friend, I didn't opt for an autopsy, sorry.

This was a great dog whose owner decided they didn't want him anymore after 9 years. He had lost his cat buddy and started trashing their house when he was left alone. Since I am home with my 2 old dogs or else, they are in the car with me, we were happy to take him in. We knew him from visits and my girls adored him. A sweet, mellow, smart aussie mix with a name that I guess was somewhat profetic, if that's a word.

Palehorse you might decide to delete this message and that's okay. I do appreciate your site and your efforts. I am so frustrated with vets telling me nothing is wrong two days ago and now devastated about losing our new family member. I'm babbling in type. Maybe I will post again after I hear from the family Veterinarian. The one who said nothing about the excessive water drinking.

I am very sorry Robin! You did everything you could for him and he knew he was loved.
Hugs to you and your family.
amanda samantha sydney murphy foster and kipling

[Tucker'sMom]

I am terribly sorry for your loss.

[Budarooski]

My nine year old Aussie, Buddy, was a healthy, active and loving companion and then just like that, he became paralyzed, couldn't eat and could barely drink. I took him to the Veterinarian and to a specialist in the city (they specialize in neurological disorders). All blood tests were negative for anything abnormal. It was the second time this had occurred, albeit the first time was nothing compared to the second episode.

We put him on steroids and anti-biotic and it appeared he was getting better after four days...started to take a few steps, but very wobbly and weak. The 5th morning he was in horrible shape and by 11am that day we agreed he was in pain (every breath sounded like he was drowning in phlegm), so he was put to sleep.

I'm a 41 year old married man with child that has been through some pain in my life, but this really hurt. I cried like a baby that entire day. The hardest part was dinner time when I'd fill both dog's (we also have a Border Collie) bowls with food and throw the Frisbee for the BC while Buddy ate (I had to sit with them so Buddy could eat because Nikki (the BC) was the alpha leader and if she had her way, she would have starved Buddy out). That first night when it came time to feed was so hard. I sat in the darkness of my yard and bawled like a little school girl, wishing I could have done more to save Buddy. Even now I can't type this w/out tearing up.

I will miss him forever.