I need help, please help me figure this out.

KristyHall

Crowing
8 Years
Jan 27, 2011
5,047
190
288
North Alabama
My dog, Bear, began to exhibit neurological issues. within a span of 20 minutes he rapidly went down hill. He tried to eat but when he leaned forward his tongue fell out of his mouth and laid in the bowl, just hanging there, preventing him from eating. his face and lips drooped, he stood awkwardly

by the time i got him to the vet within thirty minutes of his symptoms, he couldn't walk. i carried him and he peed all over me and became unresponsive to me. he shallowly gasped for breath and had lost complete motor control his heart had slowed way down
the vet is not optimistic.

she said he showed all the symptoms of what is known as "dumb rabies"
instead of becoming aggressive they become uncoordinated

this is where it gets weird
later i received a call, while i hung out in town waiting for news, that he had stopped deteriorating, and they tested him for everything. Because by his symptoms she was pretty sure it was one of several contagious diseases that is extremely dangerous to animals or humans or both

his tests came back spotless. . no inflammation, no rise in white cell count.... nothing. Even rabies can cause inflammation. They will be doing the next round of tests soon including a spinal tap, but they have to wait for the surgeon to arrive to do it.

which leads her to consider a poison or a toxin. we went over a list of plants and animals in the area that could be toxic but none would cause these symptoms.

and if someone poisoned him it would have been using something really unusual, which is unlikely.
We went through the possibility that we dropped a pill from one of the medications in the house and that he ate it, but none of the medicine would cause these symptoms.

so we racked our brains, and she called all her colleagues, and no one can figure it out

i came home... and i stepped out and the smell of something awful.. something rotted hit my nose

and a thought occurred.... botulism

I called the vet and told them my suspicion, and while they said it was rare, it would fit in with many of the symptoms. We also wonder if it could be a combination of things.

None of the animals are sick, except my horse who has had a limp for several days even though the farrier found nothing wrong. Because of the lack of illness in the other animals, they have moved diseases like rabies down to the bottom of the list though they can not rule it out. At this point, we are all at a complete loss. The vet said this is one of the strangest cases she has seen.

They went ahead and put him on medicine for tick born illness which can cause many of these sort of symptoms. At this point though, it is only a guess and we can only wait and see.

Please does anyone know what this could be? Has anyone seen this sort of thing happen to their dog? I am so scared for Bear. I miss him all ready. I don't want to loose my dog. Any suggestions will be of help.
 
Wow Kristy. That is just awful! I'm sorry that I don't have any input, but I will pray for Bear.
hugs.gif
 
How terrible! Have they considered a stroke? That's the first thing I thought of, coming on so fast, with those symptoms, then later recovering, at least partially. If he had gone rigid or had jerking muscles, I would have wondered about a seizure.
 
My dog, Bear, began to exhibit neurological issues. within a span of 20 minutes he rapidly went down hill. He tried to eat but when he leaned forward his tongue fell out of his mouth and laid in the bowl, just hanging there, preventing him from eating. his face and lips drooped, he stood awkwardly

by the time i got him to the vet within thirty minutes of his symptoms, he couldn't walk. i carried him and he peed all over me and became unresponsive to me. he shallowly gasped for breath and had lost complete motor control his heart had slowed way down
the vet is not optimistic.

she said he showed all the symptoms of what is known as "dumb rabies"
instead of becoming aggressive they become uncoordinated

this is where it gets weird
later i received a call, while i hung out in town waiting for news, that he had stopped deteriorating, and they tested him for everything. Because by his symptoms she was pretty sure it was one of several contagious diseases that is extremely dangerous to animals or humans or both

his tests came back spotless. . no inflammation, no rise in white cell count.... nothing. Even rabies can cause inflammation. They will be doing the next round of tests soon including a spinal tap, but they have to wait for the surgeon to arrive to do it.

which leads her to consider a poison or a toxin. we went over a list of plants and animals in the area that could be toxic but none would cause these symptoms.

and if someone poisoned him it would have been using something really unusual, which is unlikely.
We went through the possibility that we dropped a pill from one of the medications in the house and that he ate it, but none of the medicine would cause these symptoms.

so we racked our brains, and she called all her colleagues, and no one can figure it out

i came home... and i stepped out and the smell of something awful.. something rotted hit my nose

and a thought occurred.... botulism

I called the vet and told them my suspicion, and while they said it was rare, it would fit in with many of the symptoms. We also wonder if it could be a combination of things.

None of the animals are sick, except my horse who has had a limp for several days even though the farrier found nothing wrong. Because of the lack of illness in the other animals, they have moved diseases like rabies down to the bottom of the list though they can not rule it out. At this point, we are all at a complete loss. The vet said this is one of the strangest cases she has seen.

They went ahead and put him on medicine for tick born illness which can cause many of these sort of symptoms. At this point though, it is only a guess and we can only wait and see.

Please does anyone know what this could be? Has anyone seen this sort of thing happen to their dog? I am so scared for Bear. I miss him all ready. I don't want to loose my dog. Any suggestions will be of help.
I'm so sorry that this has happened to Bear and hope that he is doing much better. By any chance could he have gotten into some mouse poison? The reason I ask is because that's what happened to my dog 2 yrs ago. It was the Bromethalin mouse posion that affects the central nervous system and not the Warfarin anticoagulant kind. It is imperative to look at the box to find out. Luckily I noticed my dog eating it and was able to give her peroxide to induce vomiting which she did within minutes of lots of green posion and then the vet gave her activated charcoal which helped bind the rest of the posion and when she pooped it was green also. Since we got her treated in time she had no ill effects. I am hoping that Bear is ok. It is so super scary not to know what is going on. Here is a link to the Bromethalin posioning and it also gives a list of some other conditions that could have the same symptoms. Good luck.www.aspcapro.org/mydocuments/0903toxbrief.pdf
 
I am so sorry for Bear's illness and hope the situation is soon resolved. As a dog owner I would be interested in hearing what has affected him so badly. Get well soon Bear.
 
The rotting thing; what was it?

I would not be so quick to say it was botulism. Botulism is an anaerobic bacteria that can be found in spore form in the dust and dirt, but no toxin would be produced unless it was in an environment that was favorable for growth. Sometimes wild birds will eat fish or invertebrates that have been contaminated with the bacteria, and when they die anything that eats the dead bird would become infected as well. Now if your dog had come into contact with a bird that had died from the toxin, or another animal that died from eating an infected bird or invertebrate that would explain the transmission of the bacterium.

I would find the dead thing and check to see if your dog had touched it, bag it up and bring it in to the vet for testing too.

I do wish you the best of luck...... and I hope they figure out what is causing his illness soon!
 
Thank you all for the suggestions and best wishes. I reported everyone's ideas to the vet. I also found a dead owl in the yard....


The vet told me this morning that he is alert and his vitals are improving. The tests are all coming back fine. They now do not believe it is anything contagious. All of my other animals remain fine, confirming the belief it isn't some disease. The vet feels that it is a combination of things that caused this, though they are not sure what.

I have dropped my heart pill and lost it in the past. She said that could cause the depressed system but not the face drooping. She believes that at least some of the symptoms are from ingesting a medication that could have been dropped. The rest of them, she has no clue.

Stroke in a 5 year old dog is really rare, and he has no signs of meningitis or insyphilitis (spelling?) in the tests. other things that could cause the face droop would also cause certain symptoms that he does not have. Like certain poisons and toxins. His sudden turn around and steady improvement only adds to the confusion. when I brought him in, they did not think he would make it and now, he's chewing on his IV and perking up when ever anyone walks by.

At this point I don't care what it was that made him so sick, as long as he gets better. I signed a waver and gave them permission to do what ever they can to save him. They warned me it can get expensive but I have a credit card I keep specifically for medical emergencies like this. I am a penny pincher, but when it comes to necessities, and the health and care of those I love, then the penny pincher gets thrown out the window.
 

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