My 9yo shiba inu mix, Sandy, is currently at the vet's. I took her in Monday
because she had been throwing up repeatedly since Sunday morning and was
refusing food, even her favorite treats. Doc was concerned because three
weeks ago I took her in for lesser bout and she turned out to be on the
verge of pancreatitis with very impaired liver function and very high
triglycerides. Turns out that was all due to hypothyroidism. On that trip he
gave her fluids and kept her four days and then send her home on Hills i/d
dog food and thyorid supplements.

On this trip, her bloodwork had returned to virtually normal. Her nausea
seems to have abated and been replaced by nausea. He is blaming it on an
allergic reaction to pine pollen and her eating grass. I agree the grass
isn't good -- but she started throwing up BEFORE she ate the grass. She has
never had an allergy problem before. He is not giving her fluids this time,
but started her back on canned food this am and we'll see if she can keep it
down. She did take some of it, though she has not been interested in food
since Sunday.

I like my vet, but he's a country vet who tends to look for the most obvious
answer. This episode doesn't seen to add up to me, and I am wondering if
there is something else we should be checking for. I hate for the poor thing
to be so miserable.

Suggestions?

Songbird
(Mom to Sandy and Kahlua)

"Songbird" wrote in message
...
My 9yo shiba inu mix, Sandy, is currently at the vet's. I took her in
Monday because she had been throwing up repeatedly since Sunday morning
and was refusing food, even her favorite treats. Doc was concerned because
three weeks ago I took her in for lesser bout and she turned out to be on
the verge of pancreatitis with very impaired liver function and very high
triglycerides. Turns out that was all due to hypothyroidism. On that trip
he gave her fluids and kept her four days and then send her home on Hills
i/d dog food and thyorid supplements.

On this trip, her bloodwork had returned to virtually normal. Her nausea
seems to have abated and been replaced by nausea. He is blaming it on an
allergic reaction to pine pollen and her eating grass. I agree the grass
isn't good -- but she started throwing up BEFORE she ate the grass. She
has never had an allergy problem before. He is not giving her fluids this
time, but started her back on canned food this am and we'll see if she can
keep it down. She did take some of it, though she has not been interested
in food since Sunday.

I like my vet, but he's a country vet who tends to look for the most
obvious answer. This episode doesn't seen to add up to me, and I am
wondering if there is something else we should be checking for. I hate for
the poor thing to be so miserable.

If your dog was diagnosed with hypothyroidism then she should be on thyroid
medication and not a short-term supplement, at least from my experience and
reading. While I've seen two dogs go into a sort of remission after 3
months on thyroid medication they must be checked twice a year to make sure
the disease doesn't kick back up. One of them has had a flare-up while the
other hasn't. All the other dogs I've known with hypothyroidism take
medication daily and will do so for the rest of their lives. Thyroid
medication is very cheap but is necessary for dogs with hypothyroidism.

Did your vet recommend trying Benadryl to see if it helps prove or rule out
environmental allergen? Have you recently treated your yard with grass
seed, weed & feed or any other additive? Does your dog have access to
anyone else's yard who may have done so?

--
Tara

"Tee" wrote in message
...
"Songbird" wrote in message
...

I like my vet, but he's a country vet who tends to look for the most
obvious answer. This episode doesn't seen to add up to me, and I am
wondering if there is something else we should be checking for. I hate
for the poor thing to be so miserable.

If your dog was diagnosed with hypothyroidism then she should be on
thyroid medication and not a short-term supplement, at least from my
experience and reading. While I've seen two dogs go into a sort of
remission after 3 months on thyroid medication they must be checked twice
a year to make sure the disease doesn't kick back up. One of them has had
a flare-up while the other hasn't. All the other dogs I've known with
hypothyroidism take medication daily and will do so for the rest of their
lives. Thyroid medication is very cheap but is necessary for dogs with
hypothyroidism.

Did your vet recommend trying Benadryl to see if it helps prove or rule
out environmental allergen? Have you recently treated your yard with
grass seed, weed & feed or any other additive? Does your dog have access
to anyone else's yard who may have done so?

Yes she is on L-thyroxin for the foreseeable future, .5 mg twice a day if I
remember right. Yard has not been treated, she has no access to anyone
else's. She was stung by a bee over her eye on Friday and her eyebrow area
swelled up/swoll up (neither one looks right!). We had to take her to
another vet (that primary one referred us to -- he was out on a rabies
clinic) for a Benadryl shot. That fixed her up right away, and other
symptoms did not start until almost 48 hours later, so I doubt this is a
result of the sting.

I'm just concerned something more serious is going on than eating grass.
This dog has a history of eating grass and throwing up -- but not like this.
Not to be gross, but there was vomit all over the place.

Songbird

HOWEDY songbird,

S-HOWENDS like your dog is DYIN from STRESS INDUCED
AUTO-IMMUNE DIS-EASE aka The Puppy Wizard's SYNDROME.

PERHAPS you should ask some of these dog lovers for advice?:

From: "Evelyn Ruut"
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 13:24:44 GMT
Subject: Dog Food,My Mistake! ~ Lee

wrote in message
...

Ah, someone else who cringes about the sharing of food with pets. My

mother drives me nuts with her feeding her little chihuahua off the
same
fork or spoon she uses to eat. I try putting the dog in the bedroom
but
mom takes so long to eat that the dog drives me nuts with its yapping

and crying. Then she gets upset about 'the baby' crying and won't
eat.
I usually just hope for the best and figure it could be worst. The
real
thing that gripes me is that I spend the time to cook her meals only
to
see the dog eating it. If I tell her not to feed the little monster
she
tells me that he tells her he's hungry. I swear it's worse than
taking
care of a toddler.



My mother in law did exactly the same thing with her chihuahua. She
fed it
from her spoon or fork, from her own plate, whether it wanted to eat or
not.
She would force it. It would drink from her coffee cup then she'd
drink
from the same cup.

It was utterly disgusting and my husband was in a black rage about it
half
the time, but he knew she was attached to it and didn't want to make a
fuss.
What was even worse, was that she would take a mouthfull of food, chew
it,
then remove it from her mouth and place it in the dogs mouth. (it had
no
teeth, so she even chewed for it). This went on at every meal and it
was
absolutely nauseating.


The poor thing wasn't even allowed out of her clutches long enough to
get a
drink of water or to defecate. Finally at 3AM it would get free of
her
death grip on it, and it would begin to yap yap yap, waking us all up,
and
we'd find the it had gone all over the floor.


We tried "managing" the situation, but it was totally out of hand. I
would
try and feed the dog with our dogs, take it out when we took our dogs
out,
but her force feeding it and just the whole lifestyle thing, coupled
with it
going all over our house, finally just put my husband over the edge.
The
dog was almost 18 years old anyway, and it was "time."


Strange to say, about two years prior to her diagnosis, my mother in
law had
intended to put it to sleep because it was old, toothless, unwell, and
would
go all over her house all the time. She was finding it harder to keep
up
with, and her friends convinced her to put it down.


In the process of taking it to the vet's office in a grocery cart,
somehow
she fell on the ice and got a small cut on her head. She took this as
a
"sign from god" that she shouldn't put the dog to sleep.


So she let the dog continue to use her whole house as a toilet for the
next
couple of years. She got many thousands less for the house than it
should
have been, because of it. The carpets were completely rotted through
right
down to the wood. The many years of dog urine had soaked into the
wood
floors and the odor was impossible to get rid of.


So when she came to us, the dog of course wasn't any better, and it
continued using our house for a toilet too. My husband wasn't going
to
stand for it, and no matter what, we couldn't care for both her and the
dog
too. (If she had instead gone to a nursing home, the dog wasn't going
to
be going along with her in either case). So he took it one morning
and had
it quietly and humanely put down and had the remains cremated.


She never stopped asking for that dog, a million times a day, even
though we
got a new kitten and a new puppy since then in the hopes she would
"connect". We had a doggie "funeral" for it, burying the ashes in a
lovely little special garden in our yard, planting bleeding hearts
above it,
but she never remembered any of that. In her mind that dog is still
alive
and just out of her reach, hiding from her somewhere. Only recently
has
the dog obsession calmed down.


The brighter side of it all, is that after that she was able to remain
with
us, and she has had a very good quality of life for her last few
somewhat
cognizant years. She has been with her one and only child and has had
a
better life experience overall, than she has had in many a year
beforehand.


She has been clean, well dressed, well fed, properly taken care of
medically
and in every other way. She has been treated with dignity respect and

love. She has been stimulated by going to daycare, doing crafts, being

entertained there by the various programs, has had excellent exposure
to
people, animals and children, seen her son, grandchild and great
grandchild
more often, and I do believe she has declined at a much slower rate
because
of having been here.


--
Evelyn

(To reply to me personally, remove sox)


Songbird wrote:
My 9yo shiba inu mix, Sandy, is currently at the vet's. I took her in
Monday
because she had been throwing up repeatedly since Sunday morning and
was
refusing food, even her favorite treats. Doc was concerned because
three
weeks ago I took her in for lesser bout and she turned out to be on
the
verge of pancreatitis with very impaired liver function and very high

triglycerides. Turns out that was all due to hypothyroidism. On that
trip he
gave her fluids and kept her four days and then send her home on
Hills i/d
dog food and thyorid supplements.

On this trip, her bloodwork had returned to virtually normal. Her
nausea
seems to have abated and been replaced by nausea. He is blaming it on
an
allergic reaction to pine pollen and her eating grass. I agree the
grass
isn't good -- but she started throwing up BEFORE she ate the grass.
She has
never had an allergy problem before. He is not giving her fluids this
time,
but started her back on canned food this am and we'll see if she can
keep it
down. She did take some of it, though she has not been interested in
food
since Sunday.

I like my vet, but he's a country vet who tends to look for the most
obvious
answer. This episode doesn't seen to add up to me, and I am wondering
if
there is something else we should be checking for. I hate for the
poor thing
to be so miserable.

Suggestions?

Songbird
(Mom to Sandy and Kahlua)

"Songbird" wrote in message
...
because three
weeks ago I took her in for lesser bout and she turned out to be on the
verge of pancreatitis with very impaired liver function and very high
triglycerides. Turns out that was all due to hypothyroidism. On that trip
he
gave her fluids and kept her four days and then send her home on Hills i/d
dog food and thyorid supplements.

He is not giving her fluids this time,
but started her back on canned food this am and we'll see if she can keep
it
down. She did take some of it, though she has not been interested in food
since Sunday.

........Just because she was diagnosed with hypothyroidism doesn't mean she
can't also have pancreatitis. Sounds like she has pancreatitis to me. She
should be on fluids, nothing by mouth. Has the vomiting ceased? She didn't
get any steroids recently did she?

buglady
take out the dog before replying

No steroids. The vet seems determined to put this one to "spring grass." I'm
not so sure. Hope to go down (40 minutes away) and meet with him face to
face today rather than communicate through staff-relayed phone messages. If
we're looking at chronic pancreatitis, I see no need to make her suffer
through that. She has not been herself for last two months, whining and
shifting uncomfortably, as well as the vomiting. I don't know if this is a
problem shiba inus have; as a less popular breed, it is harder to find info
on them. (We didn't know that was what we had til two years ago ourselves --
we just thought we had the weirdest looking husky on the earth.)

Songbird


"buglady" wrote in message
ink.net...

"Songbird" wrote in message
...
because three
weeks ago I took her in for lesser bout and she turned out to be on the
verge of pancreatitis with very impaired liver function and very high
triglycerides. Turns out that was all due to hypothyroidism. On that trip
he
gave her fluids and kept her four days and then send her home on Hills
i/d
dog food and thyorid supplements.

He is not giving her fluids this time,
but started her back on canned food this am and we'll see if she can keep
it
down. She did take some of it, though she has not been interested in food
since Sunday.

.......Just because she was diagnosed with hypothyroidism doesn't mean she
can't also have pancreatitis. Sounds like she has pancreatitis to me.
She
should be on fluids, nothing by mouth. Has the vomiting ceased? She
didn't
get any steroids recently did she?

buglady
take out the dog before replying