Pepper not eating well *UPDATE* not good

Could it be a bout of kennel cough?  We had that here a couple of years ago...and the boys' appetites were not good.  Afterwards, they were back to normal.

tashakota

She is on Ketaconazole and Atopica. One other thing was to reduce the Ket and see if that helps.

Can I ask what she's on those for??

Both are *extremely* hard on the liver.  Ketaconazole is for fungal infections and Atopica?  it's still my nightmare drug -- it eventually kills the kidneys and hurts the liver -- now Billy took high doses of it while he had IMHA but even at small doses it's immune-suppressive (it's used sometimes for allergies but it's pretty much as harmful long term as pred is)

Is she taking milk thistle?

When they did bloodwork did they do a broad enough panel to know what the liver and kidney values are??  Those two particular drugs?  Man, I'm not surprised.  They could be causing an ulcer as well. 

calliecritturs

tashakota

She is on Ketaconazole and Atopica. One other thing was to reduce the Ket and see if that helps.

Can I ask what she's on those for??

Both are *extremely* hard on the liver.  Ketaconazole is for fungal infections and Atopica?  it's still my nightmare drug -- it eventually kills the kidneys and hurts the liver -- now Billy took high doses of it while he had IMHA but even at small doses it's immune-suppressive (it's used sometimes for allergies but it's pretty much as harmful long term as pred is)

Is she taking milk thistle?

When they did bloodwork did they do a broad enough panel to know what the liver and kidney values are??  Those two particular drugs?  Man, I'm not surprised.  They could be causing an ulcer as well. 

She's on those for severe allergies to everything. We've tried various remedies including allergy shots and nothing works as well as the Atopica. The Ket is for constant fungal infections on her feet, ears and butt.  She has improved remarkably on the Ket but it is one thing that we thought of to reduce and see if she feels better.

I'm not sure about the blood panel. I can't imagine that they didn't look at everything but like I said, I'm in Indiana still and they're out there. I will certainly be more involved once I get out there.

CoBuHe

Could it be a bout of kennel cough?  We had that here a couple of years ago...and the boys' appetites were not good.  Afterwards, they were back to normal.

The vet heard her hack in the office and didn't think it was kennel cough, but they also did a round of antibiotics as well just in case. Hasn't changed anything for her.

sl2crmeg

This might sound like a "duh" thing, but has the vet checked her teeth and gums? Once I was having trouble getting Pirate to eat, and one afternoon my best friend brought her dog over for a playdate. We were laying on the floor looking up at the dogs, and poor Pirate had a HUGE ulcer on the inside of the roof of his mouth. I never would have noticed, except from that weird angle.

Good question, I don't know, but will pass along to my husband.

tashakota

sl2crmeg

This might sound like a "duh" thing, but has the vet checked her teeth and gums? Once I was having trouble getting Pirate to eat, and one afternoon my best friend brought her dog over for a playdate. We were laying on the floor looking up at the dogs, and poor Pirate had a HUGE ulcer on the inside of the roof of his mouth. I never would have noticed, except from that weird angle.

Good question, I don't know, but will pass along to my husband.

You should be using a good probiotic also if you're using antibiotics.

  It has to be hard on you being so far away from her at a time like this. Sending healing vibes her way, and I hope she feels better soon. (((hugs)))

erica1989

Has she been tested for heartworms? Some internal parasites can also manifest themselves with vomiting, disinterest in food, etc. I would also ask the vet to take a good look at her heart and lungs - make sure there's no fluid buildup around the heart. That can cause coughing, and a lot of heaving can cause blood in the vomit as well.

This is an interesting thought.... her urine and fecal was tested, but not sure about heartworms. I will definitely ask my hubby if that was checked for but she is on monthly heartworm preventative.  Breath and heart sounded fine with stethoscope but not sure what else was tested as well.

tashakota

This is an interesting thought.... her urine and fecal was tested, but not sure about heartworms. I will definitely ask my hubby if that was checked for but she is on monthly heartworm preventative. 

Unfortunately heartworm preventatives are not foolproof.  If a young heartworm is in a position of low blood flow, it may not get enough of the pesticide to kill it.  That is why I would never do a 45-day dosage schedule.  That only gives you one chance to kill the critter.  A 30-day schedule gives you two chances before the young heartworm is too old for a preventative to kill it.

Also many believe that Heartgard's dosage amount is too low to be completely effective.  The dosage was lowered so that herding dogs with the mutated MDR1 gene could take Heartgard safely.

Note:  A dog on heartworm preventative will normally not have any microfilaria (initial baby heartworm stage), so they should only be given the antigen heartworm test for mature adult females.  It requires several (6-7?) adult females for that test to come up positive.  There is no test that will detect mature adult males.

tashakota

Breath and heart sounded fine with stethoscope

  Jessie had pneumonia about a month ago. She has laryngeal paralysis and aspiration pneumonia is a hallmark of the condition. LP causes a hacking, unproductive cough but she began coughing more than normal, about 3 times as much, so I took her to our vet. Her heart and lungs sounded good, but he did a cbc and took x-rays and they showed that she had early pneumonia. The cbc showed her white blood count was elevated too. Did they do a cbc on Pepper? Pneumonia would affect her appetite too.

jessies_mom

tashakota

Breath and heart sounded fine with stethoscope

 

  Jessie had pneumonia about a month ago. She has laryngeal paralysis and aspiration pneumonia is a hallmark of the condition. LP causes a hacking, unproductive cough but she began coughing more than normal, about 3 times as much, so I took her to our vet. Her heart and lungs sounded good, but he did a cbc and took x-rays and they showed that she had early pneumonia. The cbc showed her white blood count was elevated too. Did they do a cbc on Pepper? Pneumonia would affect her appetite too.

Talked with hubby last night and he had taken her yesterday to the vet again. They did a chest xray and the vet thinks it's pneumonia, so she is on another antibiotic to see if that helps. DH said that her appetite seemed better yesterday and that she finally ate all of her food. She lost another pound, so he's going to up her food amount to try and get some weight back on her.

The blood tests didn't show anything that I can remember him saying anything about.  The vet also looked down her throat and at all her teeth and does not see any ulcers.  The vet suggested she may have some issues with her swallowing muscles, would that be LP?  And the difficulty could make it hard for her to eat and/or cause the hack that she has every now and then.

The vet also took an xray of her abdomen and found that she'd been shot!  At some point in her past before we got her, someone shot her with either buckshot or birdshot or something with small round pellets. :(  I can't believe someone would have shot this sweet dog!!!

 DH just told me that the vet suspects lung cancer.  Biopsy was done today and will have results tomorrow. Chest xrays show large masses on both lungs. Current diagnosis is weeks.  Slim chance it's not cancer, but the vet seems to think it is.