Another medical question!! puppy convalescence - Page 2

Any updates?

Oki, hope everythig will work out.

oso, Sounds like a nightmare for you.

I like to feed scrambled eggs (with plain water or skimmed milk only) for the first couple of days (with or without rice) if mine are recovering from serious diarrhoea.

I have had one dog at deaths door after an unidentified infection and castration... he would not eat anything... I used to sit on the floor with his dish and cry because everything failed; then my Vet said to try a powder made by Pedigree Petfoods, I can't remember what it was called but Jack lapped this up and it played a big part in saving his life.  It had a ridiculously high protein content (I think it was about 59%) and I'm sorry to say that the price of it was equally ridiculous but it did the job!  It came in a canister of roughly 1 litre I think. 

Infection takes some time to show in blood work, depending on the specific etiology. I hope the pup is on a broad spectrum antibiotic. Given that, and the fact that it will eat the rice and water and had normal defecation, maybe you are on the right track. The calcification could be from a food contaminant. What food were you feeding and where did you get it? But the primary problem may well be a bacterial infection.

Keep us posted. Hopefully, the pup will make good progress now.

 Hi Oso,

I am happy to hear the pup is responding. The drug is Trimethoprim sulfa, a broad spectrum antibiotic which kills certain bacteria by inhibiting the formation of folic acid. It is generally considered safe, but it does have some potential idiosyncratic effects that might arise during treatment. One of the strange ones that actually might be reflected in your mention of the "calcification" seen is that sulfa crystals can form in the kidneys. They likely would go away in time. The main thing is that this antibiotic is well tolerated by normal gut bacteria, so a pup in the condition yours is in would not get diarrhea from the antibiotic killing off the good gut bacteria. If the pup is in good spirits, this seems like a huge improvement as well given what you have previously written. So, I suspect she did have some sort of serious infection, and it could have been a variety of things, including coccidia. Hopefully when you return from the SS she will be much improved. I would consider really seriously disinfecting everything you can, including kennel surfaces and dirt etc......just in case. 

As for long term consequences, it is difficult to say. I am of the opinion that serious parasitic infections often go undetected and make pups ill and in the short term can cause serious intestinal damage. That can heal, but in some cases, I am not sure it really does and that leaves a dog potentially open to problems later down the road. But I have no proof of this, just a gut feeling from experience. And yes, pathologically, it does make sense. But let's hope she does well. Certainly she will need some extra supportive care in the short term.

best wishes!