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 Elite Veteran
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Location: Northern CA | Hoping to put this out there and maybe someone will have had a similair experience and can share the diagnosis. I spent nearly $2,000 in vet bills, no diagnosis, they have no idea what is going!!!
May 10th- Dog consumes a large number of fresh hoof trimmings, that night doesn't eat and doesn't feel well
May 11th- Dog is extremely lethargic, running 103 to 104 temp, nibbles,but not much appetite
May 12th- About the same as day before, take her to the vet. They x-ray belly, nothing alarming just a full intestine, change diet, put on gut motility drug. That night dog begins yelping when bumped or when jumping off couch, out of the car etc.
May 13th- No change, lethargic, fever, now pain coming from unknown source. Vet exams closely, prescribed 3 antibiotics and a pain killer. By that evening she is feeling much better, the next day nearly back to normal. Takes her last pain pill on the 14th.
May 15th- dog wakes up whining in pain. No fever, eats, but yelps when bumped or with sudden or hard movement
Take her to yet a 3rd vet. They run full CBC and chem panel, only thing out of whack is the elevated WBC count. Automatically think peritonits. Dog gets x-rays and ultra sound, all looks normal. New DX- pacreatitis. They send off a test and keep her there on IV. Pancreastitis test comes back negative.
May 16th- Vet calls says she is doing great, all back to normal. I go to see her, she jumps up on me, yelps in pain. I point this out to vet, new dx is slipped disc in neck. She goes on 3 pain meds for 10 days. During which time she is normal, have to keep her quiet, but she wants to play and seems fine.
May 28th- discontinue pain meds. Dog vomits once, on empty stomach, just bile
May 29th- June 1st- Dog continues to vomit once daily on empty stomach, switch to limited ingredient food, low protien, low fat, feed 3 times daily, dog stops vomitting and back to normal
June 19th- dog begins shakely violently, has a 104 temp. Back to the vet, blood work again, only abnormality is elevated WBC. Negative urinalasys. Negative Lymme Disease test. Put on IV antibiotics, fine by next. Comes home on 3 weeks of antibiotics. Feeling better but still not right.
Any freaking ideas??? I am emotionally drained!
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 Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11493
 
Location: 31 lengths farms | no ideas but bumping up!! |
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  Playing the Waiting Game
Posts: 2304
| No idea but prayers you figure it out. |
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 Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | hardware?? |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 928
Location: Northern CA | Nothing that shows up in x-rays or ultra sounds. |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| Prayers for answers and a speedy recovery. My guess is hoof trimming lodged somewhere in intestines. They are full of bacteria, my dogs always throw up after eating them. |
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Regular
Posts: 75
| halter_ego - 2014-06-23 12:36 PM Hoping to put this out there and maybe someone will have had a similair experience and can share the diagnosis. I spent nearly $2,000 in vet bills, no diagnosis, they have no idea what is going!!!
May 10th- Dog consumes a large number of fresh hoof trimmings, that night doesn't eat and doesn't feel well
May 11th- Dog is extremely lethargic, running 103 to 104 temp, nibbles,but not much appetite
May 12th- About the same as day before, take her to the vet. They x-ray belly, nothing alarming just a full intestine, change diet, put on gut motility drug. That night dog begins yelping when bumped or when jumping off couch, out of the car etc.
May 13th- No change, lethargic, fever, now pain coming from unknown source. Vet exams closely, prescribed 3 antibiotics and a pain killer. By that evening she is feeling much better, the next day nearly back to normal. Takes her last pain pill on the 14th.
May 15th- dog wakes up whining in pain. No fever, eats, but yelps when bumped or with sudden or hard movement
Take her to yet a 3rd vet. They run full CBC and chem panel, only thing out of whack is the elevated WBC count. Automatically think peritonits. Dog gets x-rays and ultra sound, all looks normal. New DX- pacreatitis. They send off a test and keep her there on IV. Pancreastitis test comes back negative.
May 16th- Vet calls says she is doing great, all back to normal. I go to see her, she jumps up on me, yelps in pain. I point this out to vet, new dx is slipped disc in neck. She goes on 3 pain meds for 10 days. During which time she is normal, have to keep her quiet, but she wants to play and seems fine.
May 28th- discontinue pain meds. Dog vomits once, on empty stomach, just bile
May 29th- June 1st- Dog continues to vomit once daily on empty stomach, switch to limited ingredient food, low protien, low fat, feed 3 times daily, dog stops vomitting and back to normal
June 19th- dog begins shakely violently, has a 104 temp. Back to the vet, blood work again, only abnormality is elevated WBC. Negative urinalasys. Negative Lymme Disease test. Put on IV antibiotics, fine by next. Comes home on 3 weeks of antibiotics. Feeling better but still not right.
Any freaking ideas??? I am emotionally drained!
Ulcers maybe? The highlight area seems like you have solved the problem but maybe the 3 antibiotics plus a painkiller caused severe stomach pain. It would explain the vommitting and other symptoms. One of the vets I worked for in high school would always prescribe sucralfate when giving pain medications and antibiotics to help with intestinal issues. He had this whole theory behind it but basically he believed if your treating intestinal or stomach problems you should always use a buffer or guard against that acid when you already have an upset and are treating it with meds that can further upset the stomach. |
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 Expert
Posts: 5290
| Perforated bowel from hoof trimmings? |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 928
Location: Northern CA | They don't think so at this point. It has been so long, they think she would be much "sicker" if that were the case. She has no fluid or distention in her abdominal cavity and the blood chemistry is normal. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1538
Location: South Dakota | I have no idea what is going on with your poor dog but I pray you find answers. How frustrating this would be. |
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 Regular
Posts: 53
Location: Nebraska | Who did the ultrasound and who read the x-rays? I ask this because sometimes regular vets who perform these tests sometimes miss things.
If you haven't seen a board certified internal medicine specialist (typically at university or referral hospital) I highly recommend looking into one.
Also things can manifest over time and and I would recommend repeating x-rays and ultrasound to see if something has indeed changed.
Has your dog had a lepto vaccine? We had three confirmed lepto cases in our area within the last 6 months. Two of them just had chronic vomiting/GIT signs the other one was more of a textbook case (elevated liver and kidney values, icteric, fever). You can have titer panels performed to determine if any exposure.
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 725
| I also go with the hoof trimmings having something to do with this. It has not been too long ago I read an article about dogs eating hoof trimmings and they perforated the gut and made the dog very sick. In this case I think the dog actually died before they figured out what was going on. A small perforation might take awhile to actually show up and it could be as small as a splinter. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1182
Location: Do I hear Banjos? | Twice in my many years (12+) as a vet tech we had cases referred to us that sounded similar. One they had no record of any "dietary indescretion"...the other had eaten a couple of those furry mice made for cats. Both had chronic issues that would seem to resolve only to return. The pain, vomiting bile etc. Both showed nothing terribly remarkable on x-ray or even ultrasound. Both had been treated for pain, pancreatitis etc.
We ended up going in and doing exploratory abdominal surgeries to see what was really going on. To take a biopsy if needed etc
Both had foreign objects that had caused partial blockages of the intestine. The fact that these two dogs had had bowel movements and periods of feeling fine had fooled the previous vets. (understandable) Normally you see more consistent signs and something is visible on x-ray/ultrasound. But not for these two dogs. One was a medium mix breed heeler cross that had eaten the furry mice. The other was my favorite...he was a dachshund...had lost weight and the owners had about given up hope. We ended up finding a nerf ball partially blocking his intestine. Seriously...he had chewed and squished the nerf ball down enough to manage to swallow it. It's somewhat porous I guess so things managed to pass and pass around it...but it got stuck. That little dog made a full recovery in amazing speed after the surgery. Both dogs did well...but that little red dachshund amazed us all.
All that to say..still consider that there may be a foreign body in there. Be it hoof trimmings or irritation from that...or he could have eaten something else that doesn't show up so well on imaging.
Good luck...let us know what happens! |
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| Poisoning of some kind ... creating different organ and nerve reactions as time goes on ...
First one I would look at would be antifreeze poisoning ... he may have him a leaky car somewhere that he keeps sampling ...
2nd would be any bug poisons or field spraying that he may have come in contact with ... including weed killers ..
His signs to me indicate poisoning ...
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Regular
Posts: 60
| I agree with something stuck in gut. This happened to our dog and it took over two weeks before he died from it.
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 Texas Tenderheart
Posts: 6715
Location: Red Raiderland | On Sept 11th 2012 my Dachshund showed very similar signs that your girl is showing. My vet finally convinced me to open her up after a couple of days. Obviously I did NOT want to do this to my baby but he was convinced on a small thing he saw on her xrays. I honestly thought it was acorns so I told him to open her and when he did he found a mass at her cecum and he removed it and sent it to A&M for testing a week later the test reults came back cancer. I was not expecting that Dx and we took her to Dallas for more surgery. It has been almost two years and she is a very healthy happy 9 year old girl.
I don't think you dog has cancer but I definitely think there is something serious going on in her gut(hoof trimmings) and it might be time to open her up and double check. I hope the best for your girl. Please keep us updated.
Edited by Kaycee 2014-06-23 8:11 PM
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Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| BARRELHORSE USA - 2014-06-23 7:11 PM
Poisoning of some kind ... creating different organ and nerve reactions as time goes on ...
First one I would look at would be antifreeze poisoning ... he may have him a leaky car somewhere that he keeps sampling ...
2nd would be any bug poisons or field spraying that he may have come in contact with ... including weed killers ..
His signs to me indicate poisoning ...
Anti freeze poisoning does not come and go as you describe. Dogs who are poisoned continually show symptoms. This is not a poisoning. |
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | I really don't know for sure, but is there some kind of contrast medium they can use and then do another set of radiographs? I would want to maybe consider exploratory surgery as well.. |
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 Quack Quack Woodle Woodle
Posts: 7905
Location: Texas | Sounds like a blockage.... can they oil dogs like a horse? lol |
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Expert
Posts: 1543
Location: MI | casualdust07 - 2014-06-23 9:40 PM
I really don't know for sure, but is there some kind of contrast medium they can use and then do another set of radiographs? I would want to maybe consider exploratory surgery as well..
Have they done an xray series with barium? When I worked at a small animal emergency clinic we could... I think rads were taken at the time of administration, maybe 5, 10, 30 and an hour? Or something like that? But would maybe just almost consider an exploratory at this point.
I agree that it sounds like something might be partially blocking in her intestines...
Edited for autocorrect...
Edited by Ridenrun4745 2014-06-24 8:16 AM
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 Experienced Mouse Trapper
Posts: 3106
Location: North Dakota | Ridenrun4745 - 2014-06-24 6:38 AM casualdust07 - 2014-06-23 9:40 PM I really don't know for sure, but is there some kind of contrast medium they can use and then do another set of radiographs? I would want to maybe consider exploratory surgery as well.. Have they done an xray series with barium? When I worked at a small animal emergency clinic we could... I think rads were taken at the time of administration, maybe 5, 10, 30 and an hour? Or something like that? But would maybe just almost consider an exploratory at this point. I agree that it sounds like something might be partially blocking in her intestines... Edited for autocorrect...
I completely agree with this, the exploratory surgery probably would have been cheaper and she would be recovering nicely by now. Strange things happen in those guts, that's for sure. Seen several foreign objects removed from intestines but at least something showed up with barium and radiographs. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 861
| I havent read all the replies, but wanted to let you know my experience. Very much same symptons, etc. Vet prescribed a medicine that was compounded, dont remember name. Seemed to help short term. I asked my equine vet what he thought and he said that if it were a gastrointestinal isssue plain old pepto bismol would help. Much cheaper and yes it helped!! She has issues only every so often now and a few doses of pepto and all is well. (She is an 11 yr JRT. The dog vet cost me around $2000.) Not sure your dog has the same issue but hope you get an answer soon. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 512
| Also worked as a vet tech. In these cases we usually did a exploratory and either found a blockage or mass. The fever is what concerns me very much! Is the dog spay? I highly doubt this is the case because the timeframe is so widespread. But if we saw these symptoms in a closer time period I would think possibly a pyometra. With elevated WBC the body is obviously fighting a infection somewhere-the fever also represents infection.
Edited by Blueridgedreaming 2014-06-24 11:12 AM
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Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | Was the horse being shod? Because it sounds to me like the dog might have picked up a tip of a nail cut off for clenching. So it might be too small to show up on an ex-ray.. |
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 Scorpions R Us
Posts: 9586
Location: So. Cali. | I am going to back up the blockage suggestions and xrays with barium.
We had a similar situation with a large dog of ours that started acting sick. Took her in one night, minor exam vets suggested blockage and sent me home with dog xlax. No change over acouple days, Took her back in, hooked to IVs, overnight stay, Enema, X ray, Xray with barium. Finally confirmed complete blockage in her stomach (had swallowed a towel) and gravel all through out her intestines, and what appeared to be a hole and gravel leaking into her body. Unfortunately due funds and limited chances, we had to make a decision no one wants to make. Exploratory surgery in her case didnt look promising.
Inshort, if they havnt already, and I dont understand why they havnt yet, xray with the barium.
Edited by Three*C*Champs 2014-06-24 4:20 PM
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Quack Quack Woodle Woodle
Posts: 7905
Location: Texas | If perforation is in question, DO NOT use barium....It is inert and cannot be absorbed by the body, it will cause horrific peritonitis if it exits the digestive tract. Ask for a water soluble contrast like gastrografin or omnipaque, whatever the vet can get their hands on. |
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Regular
Posts: 56
| My guess would be a partial obstruction or some kind of bacterial infection caused by the hoof trimmings.
If you haven't already, I'd go to another vet for a second opinion - preferably a referral clinic or a board certified vet.
I hope your dog recovers soon. It's always scary to not know what's going on! :( |
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Strange Dog Illness- $2k in vet bills, they are stumped