sick female - Page 1

I have a 8 year old female Shepherd that was healthy as could be, then all of a sudden she could hardly get up and lost her appetite. I took her to the vet and we ran a IV into her to try and clean her of any toxins. We then took a blood test and found she had high levels of Calcium in her system, she seems to be in no pain and drinks water but lost her appetite.Anybody out there ever experiance this sort of problem?

Hi..Unfortunatly yes I have had the same experience with a 6 year old female shepherd this past winter. One day she stopped eating. Took her to the vet and she was diagnosed with lyphoma. Unfortunatly after about 2 months of testing and predisone we decided to put her down. To make a very sad and long story short..I feel we acted too quickly in deciding to put her down. About 2 months after she was put down I started looking for a breeder to purchase a new pup. After telling them what had happened a couple breeders mentioned to me they had similar problems and diagnoses. They opted to wait it out and the dogs made a recovery. They felt that the dogs had a reaction to their rabies/distemper vaccines. They noticed the same sypmtoms about 1 month after having the dogs vaccinated. Our female had her booster shots about 1 month before we noticed symptoms with her. Alot of controversy about the distemper vaccinations causing medical problems in dogs. I wish I had known this info before we decided to put her down...Good luck and hope this may be of some help.

Thanks for your help........

There is no way you can know what happened without running a battery of tests. The first thing to look for would be poison, if only because this is such a common risk and it is one that you can do something about if you catch it quick. I think that there may be a rat poison which actually calcifies the arteries. I could be wrong, but I seem to remember something about this. And I'm not a vet, but I don't think that many dogs will go into remission from lymphoma. Lymphoma is usually fatal in dogs. I had a dog with lymphoma and his lymph glands were extremely swollen, and his heart was in bad shape. It destroys the heart, for some reason. I think that lymphoma usually resolves to fatal heart failure. The vet told me he did not have a chance. He lived for about four to six weeks after diagnosis and then he was gone. We just tried to keep him comfortable. But there are all sorts of things that could go wrong. Who would think that a dog could get myaesthenia gravis? But, they can. And they cannot then even keep down water or their own saliva, much less food. It all comes up, and for a period they can be prone and unambulatory. They also lose their voice. This condition is very grave, but it can be treated if caught very early. The problem is that the tests usually take ten days or so, and by then the dog has lost a lot of ground. This is assuming that you get a sharp vet who makes a good diagnosis the first time he sees the dog. Unfortuneately, this does not happen every time. MG CAN go into remission, but in dogs it is usually fatal because the smooth muscles of the aesophagus never fully recover and the dog dies of foreign body pneumonia. If you have a sick dog, you can do one of two things: Wait and see what happens, and let him take his chances (better than euthanasia if he survives, but not a good choice, unless there is no way you can afford the tests and treatment), or you can throw caution to the wind and start running every test you can think of. Prepare to max out the credit card, as this route can go two to ten thousand, pretty quick (Ask me how I know).

I would at least have the lymph nodes checked. The high calcium levels are an indicator of possible lymphoma. Your vet may put her on predisone to get her appetite back if it is lymphoma.....Don't overlook other possibilities. Like I said before the lymph nodes could be swollen for other reasons as well.

I thank you all for your help in trying to figure this out.As of today she seems a tad bit more alert but still not eating.we will do more tests.Again thanks for taking the time to write your experiance with this problem. Dave

Dave....How did you make out with your sick female??

After spending a nice chunk of money we could not figure out what was the problem and I had to put her down. That was a bad day.Crazy thing that might have happend was there are a lot of frogs around the pond and someone told me there shepherd ate some frogs or toads once and almost died. That is possible I guess. Thanks again for your help.

DDR-DSH What is the treatment for myaesthenia gravis. We have a pup that has the weakend espophegus muscles, little ability to get food or water down. Barium test shows it all the way too the stomach. Not believed to be MG as it usually shows up much later in life, believed to be a birth defect But was curious on what the treatment is for MG. Thanks

Sorry to get back to you so late. I don't hang out on this list. We are actually talking about acalaysia or megaeosaphagus, which is a balooning out of the aeosophagus (sp?). The smooth muscles lose their tone and so there is no normal peristalsis to move food down and keep it down. Myaesthenia Gravis (MG)is only one of the causes of megaeosophagus. Certain birth defects, such a "persistent left aortic arch" on the heart can also cause problems with food passing in young pups. In the prenatal whelp, there is basically a shunt for the blood which would normally flow from the stomach to the heart, and this shunt atrophies before birth, allowing the stomach to take over this blood flow. In some pups this shunt does not disappear but remains ("persistent"), and unfortuneately it will strangle off the aeosophagus. This condition is fairly rare.. Only thought to occur once in every 6,000 or so pups. But, I knew someone who had TWO of them, both closely related. So, be aware that there could be a genetic component. In such a case, I would euthanize, because the surgery is complicated, expensive and no guarantees of success. The dog should not be bred, either. However, there are some "idiopathic" (unknown origin) juvenile incidences of megaaeosophagus which will disappear spontanously. I had one such pup myself, and gave him away because he usually regurged his food after he ate. I had actually gone to take him to the vet for euthanasia, and some local boys were there playing with the pups. I had an impulse to give them the pup (with their father's consent), and that pup never regurged after they took him home (wouldn't you know it?). In fact, he finally died about a year ago, fully twelve years old, and he was one terrific dog. I see his son frequently when I am in that neighborhood. So, juvenile problems can go into remission, and all hope is not lost, so long as it is not a complicated case or involving that persistent left aortic arch. Maybe they have some better surgeries for that now. I don't know. Adult onset MG an autoimmune disorder which can occur spontaneously in formerly healthy dogs. The cause is unknown, but in humans, attacks frequently are preceded by emotional turmoil and stress. The prognosis is grave. But there is hope. I found a Canadian veterinarian who had success with these dogs. The first course of treatment after diagnosis would probably be administration of prednisone, to suppress the autoimmune reactions, which are damaging the acetylcholine receptors. Again, MG is an autoimmune disease, in which the immune system attacks the acetylcholine receptors at the ends of the muscle fibers (synapse between nerve end and muscle end). The usual cause of death in adult MG is aspiration (foreign body) pneumonia. Juvenile acalaysia is much more hopeful. I hope this helps and good luck with your pup!