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Difficult question, Very sick Dog!



 
 
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  #1  
Old August 23rd 05, 03:40 AM
Spam me not
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Default Difficult question, Very sick Dog!

Our 5 year old Jack Russell is very sick! Need advice

History : He is a 99.8% indoor dog. Only had 1 tick ever and that was a few
hours at most.
He has had seizures for about a year and lessened w/ phenobarbitol now for
about 9 months.
About a month ago he got an ear infection and got a cortizone shot for pain
with an antibiotic.

Blood counts were messed up so our new vet wanted to wean off the barbitol.
Recently started on Potassium Bromide and doxicyclene to help with ear/other
infection and wean him off the barbitol. and we started on the bromide.
This latest episode came on suddenly, overnight. He was fine at night then
50% of his normal
self in the AM. He showed a swollen belly and had difficulty standing.
Lethargic and labored breathing.
Glands normal, Temp as high as 105.3 brought down to 102.? with submersion
in water 3-4 hours apart.
Vet says to keep on the doxicyclene and see what will happen.

anyone had a similar exp with good outcome. We hate to lose him but don't
want to make him suffer either.

HELP if you can


  #2  
Old August 23rd 05, 03:45 AM
Spam me not
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Default

Forgot to say he has an enlarged Spleen whidh is the problem with his belly!

"Spam me not" wrote in message
news:Q0wOe.617$mH.136@fed1read07...
Our 5 year old Jack Russell is very sick! Need advice

History : He is a 99.8% indoor dog. Only had 1 tick ever and that was a
few
hours at most.
He has had seizures for about a year and lessened w/ phenobarbitol now for
about 9 months.
About a month ago he got an ear infection and got a cortizone shot for
pain
with an antibiotic.

Blood counts were messed up so our new vet wanted to wean off the
barbitol.
Recently started on Potassium Bromide and doxicyclene to help with
ear/other
infection and wean him off the barbitol. and we started on the bromide.
This latest episode came on suddenly, overnight. He was fine at night then
50% of his normal
self in the AM. He showed a swollen belly and had difficulty standing.
Lethargic and labored breathing.
Glands normal, Temp as high as 105.3 brought down to 102.? with submersion
in water 3-4 hours apart.
Vet says to keep on the doxicyclene and see what will happen.

anyone had a similar exp with good outcome. We hate to lose him but don't
want to make him suffer either.

HELP if you can




  #3  
Old August 23rd 05, 05:14 AM
Rocky
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"Spam me not" said in
rec.pets.dogs.health:

Blood counts were messed up so our new vet wanted to wean
off the barbitol. Recently started on Potassium Bromide and
doxicyclene to help with ear/other infection and wean him
off the barbitol. and we started on the bromide. This
latest episode came on suddenly, overnight.


Drug interactions are a tricky business - I'm extremely
reluctant to give Rocky any drugs other than his daily
phenobarbital and potassium bromide.

Weaning dogs off of long-term drugs is also tricky. What are
your JRT's current and past doses? How long was/is he on them?
What does he eat?

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.
  #4  
Old August 23rd 05, 05:21 AM
Spam me not
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He was up to 60mg daily in 30mg morning and 30mg nite. Worked up to that
from 15mg x 2 daily over about 9 months. Taken down to 25mg x AM / PM over 2
wks.
Eats Biljac food, lamb rice version

Cannot believe how sudden this came on! His fever just is persistent and the
hard belly... yikes!
He can barely walk and is in obvious breathing difficulty.

Any advice?






"Rocky" wrote in message
...
"Spam me not" said in
rec.pets.dogs.health:

Blood counts were messed up so our new vet wanted to wean
off the barbitol. Recently started on Potassium Bromide and
doxicyclene to help with ear/other infection and wean him
off the barbitol. and we started on the bromide. This
latest episode came on suddenly, overnight.


Drug interactions are a tricky business - I'm extremely
reluctant to give Rocky any drugs other than his daily
phenobarbital and potassium bromide.

Weaning dogs off of long-term drugs is also tricky. What are
your JRT's current and past doses? How long was/is he on them?
What does he eat?

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.



  #5  
Old August 23rd 05, 05:48 AM
Rocky
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Default

"Spam me not" said in
rec.pets.dogs.health:

He was up to 60mg daily in 30mg morning and 30mg nite.
Worked up to that from 15mg x 2 daily over about 9 months.


Is that when he was on PB alone? If so, that's probably a
reasonable starting dose for a JRT if seizure frequency warrants
the drug to begin with. How did the Potassium Bromide you
previously mentioned fit into this? KBr works well with cluster
seizures and can sometimes allow lower dosages of PB.

Taken down to 25mg x AM / PM over 2 wks.


That seems reasonable, too.

Cannot believe how sudden this came on! His fever just is
persistent and the hard belly... yikes! He can barely walk
and is in obvious breathing difficulty.


Have his symptoms changed since the last time you talked to his
vet?

Frankly, the hard belly is concerning. It's probably time to
make a phone call to an emergency vet - hopefully for some peace
of mind.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.
  #6  
Old August 23rd 05, 06:09 AM
Spam me not
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He was seen by his vet today and an ER vet Last night. ER vet first
diagnosed enlarged spleen.
Primary vet has been on case for about 1 month. Original vet started PB and
seemed to think our boy
had other problems that the increased PB should have taken care of. We asked
about Bromide when
seizures became 1 per week again, and the vet did not want to use it. We had
the feeling he gave up on our JRT.

We then sought another vet. Ran full panel BC and found slight anemia, white
and reds out of whack and thyroid down.
He attributed a lot to the PB and Antibiotic he was on for the ear
infection.

Things were progressing well w/ no seizures on the bromide and reducing PB
then this all came on at once.
Our poor little guy is so sick! Breathing is so labored, We hate to drug him
more but he seems best wehn he is on pain
meds (50mg tramaol) which make him sleepy.

ER visit would not help as the syptoms have not changed so we are waiting
for more BC tomorrow.

More heelp?

"Rocky" wrote in message
...
"Spam me not" said in
rec.pets.dogs.health:

He was up to 60mg daily in 30mg morning and 30mg nite.
Worked up to that from 15mg x 2 daily over about 9 months.


Is that when he was on PB alone? If so, that's probably a
reasonable starting dose for a JRT if seizure frequency warrants
the drug to begin with. How did the Potassium Bromide you
previously mentioned fit into this? KBr works well with cluster
seizures and can sometimes allow lower dosages of PB.

Taken down to 25mg x AM / PM over 2 wks.


That seems reasonable, too.

Cannot believe how sudden this came on! His fever just is
persistent and the hard belly... yikes! He can barely walk
and is in obvious breathing difficulty.


Have his symptoms changed since the last time you talked to his
vet?

Frankly, the hard belly is concerning. It's probably time to
make a phone call to an emergency vet - hopefully for some peace
of mind.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.



  #7  
Old August 23rd 05, 12:26 PM
Tee
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This probably isn't helpful right now but I'd recommend finding a new vet if
you can. You say you think the first gave up on your dog (when obviously
you hadn't) and the second may or may not have done everything possible for
your dog. I know you don't want to over-drug your dog but I think
significant pain calls for pain killers.

--
Tara


  #8  
Old August 23rd 05, 12:57 PM
buglady
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Default

"Spam me not" wrote in message
news:ncyOe.638$mH.510@fed1read07...
We then sought another vet. Ran full panel BC and found slight anemia,

white
and reds out of whack and thyroid down.
He attributed a lot to the PB and Antibiotic he was on for the ear
infection.


..............I know nothing about the seizure drugs, but I really wonder if
they could cause an RBC and white cell problem. I think it's more likely
that there's a problem with the spleen that is causing these abnormal blood
values. Much of the time if it's a tumor, it's malignant, so the outlook
may not be good. The spleen can rupture though and your dog can bleed out,
so I really think I'd push to see if your dog could take surgery. My guess
is it needs to come out. I don't know either if the meds your pup has been
on can affect thyroid function, but I do know that thyroid imbalances can
cause seizures.

This page exists only in cache, but it's a good synopsis of surgery:
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:0...ntral. com/sp
leen.htm+spleen+dog&hl=en&client=firefox-a

A few more pages on the spleen:
http://www.vetinfo4dogs.com/dspleen.html
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body...ic_masses.html


ER visit would not help as the syptoms have not changed so we are waiting
for more BC tomorrow.


..........Personally I don't understand why no one is treating this as an
emergency, because it seems like one to me. I don't really know this for
sure, but it would seem to me that the spleen is in trouble and is not going
to get smaller, only larger. Getting it out before your dog is in terrible
shape would seem appropriate. Wait and see would not be an option for me.
You have to realize that your dog may not make it through surgery. But
personally, after talking with the vet and getting more info and information
on what he/she thinks it could be, I think I'd give him the chance.

Please post back and let us know how your pup is doing.

hoping for the best for you and your pup
buglady
take out the dog before replying


  #9  
Old August 23rd 05, 02:05 PM
Sharon
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.............I know nothing about the seizure drugs, but I really wonder
if
they could cause an RBC and white cell problem. I think it's more likely
that there's a problem with the spleen that is causing these abnormal
blood
values.


That was my (non-veterinarian) thought as well. I can't remember back to the
original post, but were there any image studies done (x-ray, ultrasound)?
What changes were seen in the repeat blood work (RBC, WBC, changes). Calcium
levels?

-Sharon


  #10  
Old August 23rd 05, 04:27 PM
Spam me not
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He made it throught he night but still no change. Had him in the pool 2
times to bring down the fever, (up to 106.2)
He still seems like he wants to do things but just does not have the
strength or function.
Knows all of us but this persistent fever and lethargy is tough to take!

Hoping to get results today from vet. I want to avoid urgery since the
results I have seen give no betterr than 50/50 for a year or more. His
symptoms seem like parasitic although no history of ticks we know of. I have
read studies that show In parasitic infections, spleen removal results in
death almost 20% in surgery and another 10% follow-up then another 25% 1-2
years. Add that up with the pain from surgery plus expense, I do not know
what to do.

I don't know what this puppy wizard junk is all about but find it un-needed
and un helpful.

We have just gone to this new vet, and we do not feel he has given up.
Switching again probalby is not the best case for any vet to take on.

Keep the helpful info coming PLEASE.






"Sharon" wrote in message
...
.............I know nothing about the seizure drugs, but I really wonder
if
they could cause an RBC and white cell problem. I think it's more likely
that there's a problem with the spleen that is causing these abnormal
blood
values.


That was my (non-veterinarian) thought as well. I can't remember back to
the original post, but were there any image studies done (x-ray,
ultrasound)? What changes were seen in the repeat blood work (RBC, WBC,
changes). Calcium levels?

-Sharon



 




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