Sick and vets are stumped! - Page 3

If her albumin is very low..that is the likely cause of her large abdomen, as she probably has ascites (free fluid in her belly). Albumin is a very large blood protein that is needed to maintain fluid within blood vessels. Once albumin starts dropping below 1.5 g/dl, fluid will start to to leak out into body cavities. That is a very serious problem that needs to be addressed by trying to figure out where the protein is going...there are 3 possibilities 1) you are not making albumin...in which case you have serious liver disease, 2) you are losing protein through your urine...something we call glomerulonephrtis. If this is the case then treatment is initiated while an underlying cause for inflammation/infection is found and corrected, 3) you are losing it through your intestinal tract...means serve intestinal disease. None of these are particularly good.
No matter what your dog needs supportive care and further diagnostics to determine the underlying cause. I would attempt to find an Internal medicine specialist. You can find your closest one by going to the website for the American College of Veterinary Internal medicine (www.acvim.org). Hope something is found on your pup quickly. Good luck.
 

Gabby is at the animal hospital tonight. I cant stand it! We found a different vet and he too was kinda unsure. His guess is Liver failure. He is quite sure it isnt Pyo though he kinda talks in circles so I cant say why he thought that. He decided t keep her overnight but told me the outcome does not look good. I dont know that I completly agree with his idea either because he said Gabby's weight loss must have been happening over a period of some time...he wont listen that it truly was fast and dramatic. Im just at a complete loss of what to do now, even worse I cant even be with her tonight :(

I hope you get good news this morning.

The vet has determined she is having liver failure. He has started her on Diarrhetic to help remove the fluid. He told us yesterday the outlook was just not very positive. This morning when we spoke on the phone he was planning to cathitor her to try and pull some of that fluid out of her abdomin. However when I got there to visit her she was much more perky and had even lost half a pound, so it seems she is responding to treatment. He said if she continues to lose fluid this way she can probably come home tomorrow or Saturday. He is even hopefull for a full recovery but warned she will have to have a special diet and be on medications the rest of her life. To me this is all good news and I'm glad we seem to finally be getting somewhere

Liver failure caused by what? Something causes it. The liver has an amazing ability to heal itself. I almost died and needed a liver transplant when I had my son. It's been almost 3 years, but my liver tests 100% normal now. I am on no medication nor a special diet. Depending on what is causing the liver to fail, she may well have a good prognosis. PM me if you need diet or supplement ideas. I have a dog in kidney failure that was first misdiagnosed as liver failure and did a bunch of research  (maybe not all for naught!) on it. My dog shouldn't be alive, really...2 years after they said he wouldn't last a week;-). I had a vet custom make a supplement for him. It wasn't even that expensive. 

Shortness, I'm relieved that you got Gabby into a vet's office that recognized how critical and in need of hospitalization and supportive care she was, and who was able to make a diagnosis.   But, as Jenni78 points out, when the patient is a 7 month old puppy, while the liver failure diagnosis and subsequent response to treatment tells you the 'what' as far as your dog's problem, it doesn't answer the question of 'why'.  Example: A friend of mine in CA recently related (via email) a similar situation with a dog from a litter she'd breed; this 6 year old, previously active and athletic working-lines GSD went into a rapid decline, just as Gabby has done, and when the dog's owner rushed him into the vet, the only info she had to tell the breeder was that this dog was in acute kidney failure, and the prognosis did not look promising.  Again--the 'what' was identified, but there had to be a 'why' for a 6 year old dog that immediately prior to falling ill had been the picture of health.

I suggested that the owner and/or the breeder needed to insist that the vet investigate WHY the dog's kidneys were failing, and ticked off the things that I'd be concerned about if my dog were to become similarly affected.  One of those differentials was leptospirosis; few people ever think about the disease, despite the fact that the organism is virtually everywhere, and vaccinating against it fell out of favor with many dog owners a number of years back when the 'vaccinosis' theory became popularized.  The breeder passed our email conversation on to the dog's owner, who immediately contacted her vet and asked if the various differentials I'd mentioned had been tested for and ruled out.  The dog had not been tested for lepto, and while the vet was skeptical that it was even worth doing, he pulled the necessary samples anyway and sent them out to the lab. The test results indicated an active infection with leptospirosis, the surprised vet modified the treatment the dog was receiving and saw marked improvement; now, several weeks later, the dog is recuperating at home and is nearly back to his pre-illness vigor and attitude.  It should also be noted that lepto has zoonotic potential; anyone having contact with the dog's urine can become infected as well, and the family members were all tested as a result, with one person placed on treatment as a precaution due to the test results.

The vet needs to get that part of the puzzle solved as well; it's great that they're more optimistic about her recovery than they were when she was admitted, but organ failure of any type in a dog so young needs to have the cause identified.  Hopefully Gabby continues to improve, and the vet uncovers the root of the problem, permitting them to fine-tune the treatment to fit the cause and achieve a complete recovery.  You may need to motivate the vet to do more diagnostic work in order to get your question fully answered, though, with that motivation being your persisting in asking 'why' Gabby's liver is compromised and not settling for a vague answer.


 
 

Talk to your vet about the possibility of a liver shunt.  While not a common problem in GSD, I would think it could occur.  It is a hard diagnosis and if repairable it is costly to do and only a few vets are qualified - most of them are at teaching facilities. 

Here is a link to some info on this problem;http://www.vet.utk.edu/clinical/sacs/shunt/faq.php 

Gabby is home! We picked her up yesterday. His final conclusion was swelling in her GI track...He said this caused the lack of or non obsorbing of that certain protein the liver makes which in turn caused everything else. He still isnt sure what originally caused the inflimation in the first place but said maybe something she ate causong a tear in the intestines. It still kinda sounds like a lot of guessing to me. But, she is continuing to impove so who am I to argue. She is still taking the first two meds but he addded Lasix to keep gettin the fluid out (so far working wonders!) and Prednisone for the inflimation. Thats the one he says she may have to take for the rest of her life. In about a month we will try to wean her off it and see what happins. She is on a prescription diet i/d food, both can and dry for now to help put weight back on. I have been giving her about 4 smallish meals a day, is that ok? Also I think she is leaking while she sleeps. I have found random puddles and her side has been wet. It doesnt smell like pee but she is drinking a ton too so I guess it may not. Should I worry about that?

Glad you have Gabby home! The experience I've had with dogs being on lasix or prednisone is leaking while they sleep. Prednisone long term caused problems for a dog I had, so it's good your going to wean her off, has to be gradual, you vet probably told you. Best of luck.

Lasix, also known as Furosemide, is a diuretic. Diuretics get rid of fluid by making you PEE. Whie she is on that drug, she will need to go out to pee much more often. So, I am not surprised that she's leaking urine. And yes, the urine will be quite dilute and may look more like water than pee.