My Shepherd was diagnosed with Perinial Fistulas today at vet. - Page 1

I am devastated to have my vet tell me my best friend, my shadow, my life really has this disease, rare, but known on tight tail dogs as she is. She is going on 8 yrs old, why did she get this so late in life? She was always healthy, never a health issue and full of energy, happy, great pal to own. I will just die if anything happens to her. He put her on meds for two weeks to see if she responds to them, if so a refill for more, if not, a specialists to do anything from amputation of the tail, to removal of anal sacs to GOD knows what. I just cannot cope loosing my best pal, my life! Has anybody here had a dog get this and how was it treated for it? Is it really a death sentence.? I will never cope with loosing my best friend, I just cannot believe this happened today. It is known in Shepherds because of a tight tail. No known real treatment or reason for it other than the tail issue.? Nobody seems to be studying this disease either by sounds of just guessing how to treat it and give the dog more years, but can be severely painful that a drastic decision may have to be made and a very expensive treatments if given to give a dog some years left. Help somebody that I can understand this better.

So sorry for you and your girl. I did a search for you as I remembered threads on this in he past.
http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/bulletins.search?s=+Fistulas+&b=AND&r=25  Alot of info to read for you. My husbands dog had fistulas. She also had alot of other things going wrong for her in her old age. My vet treated her with prednisone and it really helped. She started her on a high dose but I got her down to 5mgs a day.Also I  feed RAW but added dog food to her diet for more fiber and that helped too. At the time I used Canidae but they have since changed their formular. Good luck to you guys.

Thank you so much, so changing the diet helps? I give her Taste of The Wild, Bison flavor, she is eating good, but what might help her better, did not think of diet effecting this?

It is thought to be an autoimmune disorder, thought to be genetic, not really all that rare.  It is common for dogs to get this when they are older and have no problems when they are young.  I have noticed that it is more common in dogs that have allergies, especially food allergies, therefore, changing the food to something that is more hypoallergenic is probably helpful.  A drug called cyclosporin is very helpful in treating this disease, although it is extremely expensive, probably ranging around $600 a month!  Luckily it usually clears it right up, and they are on the drug fairly short term, however they can have recurrences.  I have seen quite a few GSDs with this disease where I work, they all did the cyclosporin treatment and lived good, happy lives afterwards.

You need to join this yahoo list:  http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/PF-L/ 
They will help you a lot.  They helped me when my guy was diagnosed a few years ago.  He was 9 or 10 at the time.  They are a great group!

And another thing, I forgot.......It's NOT a tail issue.  Don't let anyone talk you into amputating the tail!!!!

You should read & print these two articles:
http://www.videxgsd.com/Anal_Furunc_1.htm

http://www.videxgsd.com/Anal_Furunculosis_TT2.htm

I have a dog with PF - sometimes known as Anal Furunculosis.  She got it at 5 and she is now approaching 12.  She had aggressive surgery - which did very little to slow it down, she then had an impacted Anal Gland removed and went on high doses of cyclosporin for 6 months, with topical application of Protopic (tacrolimus monohydrate).  We wash regularly with Hibiscrub and examine the area for any recurrence.  She has not had any further signs for over 3 years. 

So take comfort Chickadee, it is NOT necessarily a death sentence and with proper care and attention will get better in most cases.

Our experience was about 19/20 years ago, Our male was about 5 yrs old at the time, we caught it very quick and in those days they used to cut it out  along with cryosurgery , we were very vigilant being told it would possibly flare up in different places round the anus, we had four operations and one of the anal sacks were removed. After that it never returned. (Keeping the area clean is a must)

I guess we were lucky he lived till he was 13 years old surviving a couple of strokes at about 10yrs old, two torsions when he was 11 AND 12, it was the third torsion plus not being too good on his back legs and his age, together with our vets advice we called it a day with him.
He was a tough old dog, certainly don't make them like him anymore.