Please Help! Veterinary Advice Desperately Needed. - Page 5

Piper, I had a similar experience with my boy Jake 10 years ago. He suddenly stopped eating and would drink very little. His stomach was hard and swollen. He grew weaker by the day. We messed around at the local vet for almost 2 weeks trying to figure out what was wrong then finally drove for hours to have an ultrasound done on him. It was stomach cancer that had spread to his liver.

This dog is 18 months old. While it is not impossible, it is improbably that it is any kind of cancer.

Your vet should pull out a small amount of the fluid in Sam's abdomen and take a look at it under a microscope.

There are many causes of fluid in the abdomen besides congestive heart failure (peritonitis and leukemia, for example). The fact that the Lasix is having no effect suggests that this may not be a heart problem. I wish you could get good vet care for Sam!

Sabrina, I'm confused about something. I gather that Sam is not in the hospital but at home with you. If she is stable enough to be at home, why isn't she stable enough for a 5-hour car ride to someone who can ultrasound not only her heart but her abdomen? I realize that a car ride may not be comfortable for her, but it's probably her only hope of getting a correct diagnosis. I've taken more than one sick dog on an uncomfortable car ride to the right vet, and saved their lives by doing so.
The people here are wonderfully helpful and would love to save Sam, but as they have mentioned, they are not vets and they have not seen Sam. Sam needs to see a good vet with the right diagnostic equipment as soon as possible. Forum advice is no substitute for this, as Hodie and Sunsilver will tell you.

Hemangiosarcoma is coming to mind;  or some other type of cancer and is DEFFINITELY possible at her age.

Again, while not impossible, hemangiosarcoma would be far, far down the list. "HSA occurs most frequently in older dogs with a mean age between 8 and 13 years.19" (from: http://www.vet.uga.edu/vpp/clerk/frankhauser/" as well as many other vet sites. This dog is 18 months old. I have had many, many dogs with HSA and they all fit well within the age limits expressed in the vet literature. I have never seen or heard of a dog so young with HSA. Nothing is impossible, but it is improbable. 

And I do agree with Susan that if at all possible, the dog needs to see a more sophisticated vet if she does not immediately begin to show improvement. But even in KL, the nearest such place, just how much more sophisticated a clinic is available remains to be seen.

Re: hemangiosarcoma...."if you hear hoofbeats, it's logical to think horses, not zebras!"

That's great that she seems a little better. I think that's most likely due to the antibiotics working, and that would push cancer even further down the list of possibilities.

Susan,

Yes, of course if taking her to KL was going to help I would do it as soon as possible. But unfortunately, I am not convinced that is the case. I have spoken to the vet in KL and was a little disappointed, he came across as quite uninterested and was saying they are a very busy emergency hospital and do not give appointments, we would apparently have to bring Sam and just wait until they have time to see her.
We of course have no idea how long this would be, and even when they do see her, she would have to do a number of tests that take quite some time to complete, the vet in KL even asked me whether she would have to be sedated for the ultrasounds!?

And I'm just not confident at all that in Sam's current position, she would be able to make this trip? (She gets very tired and stressed from visiting the vet here who is 10 minutes away)

Having said that, I am still trying to work something out with the vet in KL and trying to stabilize Sam's condition as best as possible so she is in a better condition to make the trip. (If that's what we have to do)

UPDATE:

We have taken Sam to see the vet again this morning and her temperature is down to a normal level.                              

We asked for her bladder to be checked and were told she felt very uncomfortable when he was checking her bladder.
He could not feel any faeces in the bladder but said to continue with the Lasix as she is still a little dehydrated (better than before but still slightly) and that could be why she hasn't gone to the toilet for some time.
(At the moment, we are trying to get Sam hydrated by coaxing her to drink as much water as she can and are also giving Pedialyte regularly via syringe)

So, he recommended we continue with the current medecine (Lasix, Hepavite and Enrofloxacin) and take her to KL as soon as possible to do an ECG and Heart Ultrasound, he said if both these results cam back showing nothing wrong with the heart he would say it is a problem with the gut, when I asked if we should do a Ultrasound of the kidney / liver he said we could do that if the heart results came back fine.
But he also said if it is not a heart problem, there are one hundred and one different things that could be wrong with the gut.
Again, this is one of the reasons that I haven't rushed Sam to KL, it seems whatever the results, we still won't have any real way of treating it (due to lack of facilities and expertise in Malaysia).


So, if you could read through this and offer any more advice, that would be great, it has really helped so far.
I know you are very limited in what you can advise without actually seeing her but all the information and suggestions you have given have been immensely helpful for Sam and we really appreciate it.

Do you think Sam is in a condition to make the trip to KL and do these tests?

As Sam has not been to the toilet at all for three days (Saturday-Monday), does this definitely indicate kidney failure?

Or could it be what our vet is saying, and she is not losing fluids because she is still slightly dehydrated?

And if this is the case, should Sam go on a drip to stablise / rehydrate her?

Thank you all again for the help, we really hate to see poor Samantha like this and are trying to do whatever we can to help her.

You can ask your regular vet to call KL and make the appointment for you, as an emergency.  Sometimes vets like this are considered "referral clinics" and make appointments only through the vet.  Your vet would then fax or send all of her records to KL so they would be able to go over her case and treatments to this point. 

molly