Enlarged Heart in GSD - Page 3

Water intoxication would be more likely to happen in a dog with impaired kidney function. An enlarged heart would have made the dog more susceptible to collapsing from it. I, too, don't buy that the supposed enlarged heart disappeared overnight.

Keep that appointment!!

 There is epilepsy that can appear and drinking "too much" water (which for another animal would be "normal" may be able to precipitate it. In very rare cases in humans there have been long distance runners, for example, that drank so much water that they essentially diluted critical electrolytes down below life sustaining levels and suffered cardiac arrests etc. So yes, it can happen, but as I said above, there are a multitude of reasons to keep the appointment with the specialist. My guess is the dog had already suffered a seizure when you found him unresponsive. Earlier, he was in trouble and that was manifested by a lack of energy which was assumed to be his being sleepy and lazy from the days' activities. The important thing is to find out why he seized.....that may well lead you back to the answer for this.

Keep us posted. It is an interesting case for certain.

Best wishes and I hope the dog does well.

Just wanted to update.   This is a first for me.

Shiva has been to a Cardi., and Internal Med. Specialiest (damn those vet bills! LOL)  The additional xrays and ultrasound showed NOTHING wrong with his heart!!! And ofcourse, neither want to say anything against my vet, who is the one that told me of this in the first place.  All kinds of excuses have been made, such as faulty xray machine or development, not positioned right...whatever! :( 

His new bloodwork shows that everything is almost back to normal.  Even his WBC is coming way down and is now in normal range.  He's been on penicilian (sp) since coming home, so that's good.  We've been watching him very closely, and he seems to be doing very well, and back to his normal self.  They told me that he obviously had some type of infection, somewhere, but don't know how, where or why.  They are doing cultures now, and I'm hoping to hear something this week.  Kidney funtions fine, liver functions fine, normal temps...etc.  My vet wants to see him every week, for the next month, to check his bloodwork, and the specialist want to see him back in a month.  (unless something happens between now and them, which they don't feel it will.)  I have talked to several other vets that I know and have worked for, and they have even talked to my current vet.

I think I'm doing everything that I can, to include depleating my investment accounts, but can't help to wonder if we are missing something! :(

Anyway, thanks everyone for your suggestions, comments and prayers.  Trust me, I have passed them all along, which I think has upset some people, but who cares! :)

That's great news, isn't it? I worked for 4 vets over a 15 year span. One was associated with the vet school here at Penn, a genius IQ and graduated summa cum laude from Northwestern. A truly brilliant diagnostician;  IMO the most important skill needed for any vet to be worth his or her salt.  Every now and then even he ended up without a diagnosis and the dog went on to get better with a shot gun treatment protocol to never have a relapse. Your dog could well be one of those puzzling cases that is never "solved" 100%.

Some vets do not appreciate it at all  when owners offer diagnostic or treatment "suggestions" so be careful and try to assess whether or a particular vet might be receptive to that sort of thing. Some consider it a form of critisicm and retaliate in ways you do not want to hear about, the least of which is jacking up the bill.  It seems they can't handle - so and so said this or that may be wrong with Rintie. Might be better to say - I was trying to read up on these symptoms and was wondering if it might be this or that. Since I'm not a vet I thought I'd ask  your opinion.......

Good luck with him. I have a feeling he is out of the woods now.