SICK DOG ~Vets can't find anything wrong~Need help!! Update post #14

[racuda]

Quote:
That was my first thought. Maybe he ate a toy?

 

[Kansaseq]

Do you have a specialty vet near you? It's definitely time for a 'second' opinion. Megaesophagus, foreign body, tumor; all could be possibilities. Did they ever do a barium/renografin series? If so,and it showed nothing, he may need endoscopy to diagnose the problem.

 

[justuschickens59]

I would get another opinion, ASAP. One of my rescue dogs developed tremors. I took him to my vet and he could find nothing wrong. He was very unconcerned and told me "I never heard of a dog shaking to death." Those were his exact words. Well, maybe a dog never died from actually shaking to death, but I'm pretty sure one has died because of the CAUSE of the shaking.

I took him to another vet who immediately ran an ionized calcium on him that was extremely high. High calcium can cause tremors. Our next step was to travel 2+ hours to take him to an internal medicine specialist. An ultrasound revealed a nodule on one of the parathyroid glands. He had surgery to remove that parathyroid gland (the nodule came back benign) on 11/30. He has not had one tremor since that day.

I definitely would go to another vet for another opinion.

Good luck - I sure hope you find out the cause and that he gets better soon. PS - My dog also has food allergies - if you have any questions, feel free.

 

[Ema]

ok, sorry I was sleeping,I didn't go to bed until almost 5 am...Dh didn't get home from work until 4 am and I needed to speak to him about the dog.

All the dogs I have have been rescued from puppy stage, my oldest is 11, the girls are 5, my biggest is almost 2, and the most recent one we got a shih tzu, is 3 yrs old came from my neighbour down the street who claimed he couldn't be house broken yet there is nothing wrong with him, the only reason he would go in her house was because she would forget to let him out. my youngest here is 10 months old, he was born in a puppy mill that got shut down, he was three months old when we got him and the people had him chained all to himself because he didn't fit their true husky breed bill, guess their female dog got pregnant by a lab, and they only sold huskies. the rescue group took over 60 dogs from the mill, mostly puppies, I took him in. he has received all his vet care though us.

He has been eating and drinking fine up until recently. Xrays showed nothing in his stomach so he has no toys in there. Fecal sample came up with nothing as well. They did a lot of tests for everything they cold think of and it all came back clean, they even looked in his throat looking for maybe a sliver or anything that could be stuck in there.

Anyhow here is the update, When Dh came home early this am I told him what happened with him throwing up again. so he went in the kitchen, took the pork roast out of the fridge we had for supper and sliced about 1 cup into small little bits, with one potato and 1 carrot. he put it down in front of him and the dog took his time eating the whole bowl, we put half a packet of probiotics in it. it did not come back up at all!!!
Dh just looked at me and said, either he is just being picky, or he has a food allergy!! He will not eat kibble at all, no dog food of any sort and if Dh is not home he will refuse to eat. If I put him back over with the rest of the dogs he looks depressed and sad.

when he throws up his food it can be at any varying stages, right away, or in a half hour, mostly indigested food, with plenty of water. So we are now making sure he is not drinking for about half hour before eating or after eating.

the animal hospital I took him to is the best one around, 1 older vet, 2 younger ones. It was the older one who said he is likely making himself throw up on purpose for attention, but he called not long ago to check up on him, and I told him about the food he ate.

He told us he has seen dogs who did fine on dog food and then suddenly refuse it because something in the food upsets their stomach, but usually switching them to an allergy dog food resolves the issue but he refuses to eat that food too. so He told me that it is very likely he might be the type of dog that needs a meat diet, he said he likely threw up the chicken weiners because they have spices in them and usually a lot of salt.

So here is where I stand now, and it looks like Sonew is right, he needs meat, ground beef, chicken, pork, bland. he said I can try adding vegies to his food but no corn, no salt, no spices of any sort. He also told me that on the web I can find recipes for natural dog food.

I forgot to mention in my OP that He is allergic to eggs :-/ and I had been feeding him scrambled eggs for a couple of weeks. So it might have started with that!!!!

So Off tot he grocery store I go to pick up more meat for him. Now lets hope this improves his health.

You guys think he would eat fish?? we got a lot of trout we caught ourselves this summer in the freezer, and I also got a real big salmon in there too. If I go with a meat diet, does he need any vitamins? I sort of forgot to ask the vet when he called.

 

[justuschickens59]

I sure hope the meat diet works!! As I mentioned, one of my dogs has food allergies so all 3 of my dogs eat a white fish and potato one source carb/one source protein high end food. I had 1/2 cup of green beans to their food daily. THe only treats they get are baby cut carrots.

Keep us posted.

And I wanted to to mention how wonderful it is that you have rescued all these dogs. We have rescued 3 dogs and what joy they bring to our family.

 

[Ema]

Quote:
this is good to know, thank you. looks like I might be cooking for him on a daily basis. but if this solves the issue, then I will be happy!

 

[cafarmgirl]

Your dogs symptoms sound exactly like what we went through with our dog. It got to where he was throwing up daily, undigested food or food mush, not much interested in eating and loosing weight. This is a rottie and he normally would eat up his dinner no matter what! Had a bazillion tests done, blood work, x-rays, ultrasounds, on and on. Nothing. Long story short, he has food allergies. For him this means a grain free diet, no corn or wheat among other things, and he also cannot eat chicken. He now eats California Naturals Lamb and Brown Rice and hasn't thrown up once since he was diagnosed. He also takes Pepcid before each meal.

Good luck with your boy. If it does turn out to be food allergies it can be a long road working out what they can and can't eat.

 

[Adora]

I have a friend, his dog has a rice allergy, and most dog foods have rice in them. I really don't know what she does other than get itchy bald patches, but I imagine, it could get worse if they feed her more rice.

 

[BlacksheepCardigans]

You can have him on a "meat" diet but he needs calcium from somewhere. We feed our dogs bone-in pieces, which takes care of that need, but no dog can survive on just meat. If you want to make him healthy food based on raw meat, the book you want is Pitcairn's. If you want to switch him to a real raw diet - one that feeds meat and bone - there are many good sources. I have a diet sheet on my site, but there are lots of places to find information.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Sorry I haven't read all the posts. Have you tried a grain free feed? My dog is allergic to wheat, rice, corn, and chicken! We feed her Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream formula. It's made with salmon and trout, potatoes, tomatoes, berries, and other good stuff. She eats it without having to be coaxed into doing so. We even used it as training treats. I've just started feeding my cats the feline formula.