Is my German Shepard dying - Page 6

Hola. We finally got the result back of the complete blood test. Everything came back normal but the Bilirubin counts, which were extremely high. The vet and homepathic suggest the liver is the issue. The homeopath has Suerte on Theuya, Cuprum and Nux Vomica. She wants us to give him Fosforus as well.

I am happy to report each day Suerte is acting a little more like himself. He still is skittish and scared, and has a lost look in his eyes, but not as much. In addition to the shape of his head changing (vet said atrophy of the temples or something like that), he has lost some weight, although he is eating normally.

As always, we appreciate your feedback and input.

Enlosandes,

Is it high total bilirubin or conjugated or unconjugated that is high? Liver dysfunction is a possibility, but there are others too, including that these results are simply artifact and not real. If the liver is not functioning, other liver enzymes would also likely be involved and possibly the dog showing signs of jaundice too. 

Where does your dog get its' drinking water? Is there any chance it could have been drinking from a body of water with blue/green algae? Was is vaccinated for canine hepatitis? Do you have the ability to email a photo of the dog? 

As a suggestion, if the liver is not functioning properly, I would be very careful about the things a homeopath suggests. I am not sure what theuya is, but the other is copper and the nux vomica is something I would suggest you do some reading on asap.

Contact me off-line for some citations. The bottom line is if the blood results are correct, then what caused the elevation. That is what needs to be solved and quickly.

schwarzenberggsd@earthlink.net

Hodie, I just sent you an email with pics, and his blood tests. Thanks so much for your input. It is very assuring being across the world and having kind people help us through this.

We get our drinking water directly out of Lago Nahuel Huapi, it is really clean and pure. We all drink it, and no one else (animals or parents) have had issues.

Not sure about the algae, it does rain here from time to time.

His vacination was a sextuple/sixth, not usre if that translates on your end.

you have to understand homeopathy to understand the remedies it's not a simply system to get a handle on but has a long long history and imo worth giving a thorough investigation.  it is very different from, but can be very complementary to, the allopathic approach. bottom line there is nothing to worry about, these medicines are not toxic (even so like vitamins i would never recommend giving rems willy nilly) and when you work with a knowledgeable person you can achieve great results.  here's a tiny bit about the rems you are giving, though like i said it's not a simple system so this is a small snapshot: thuja is excellent for regaining overall well being especially when there are mental/brain issues involved, cuprium works on the central nervous system & will support detoxing, nux is for digestive system & congestion and is a common & first rate rem for males, and the fosforus (phosphorus in english) is a cell salt another supportive rem. focuses on calming inflammation, mucous membranes, liver .... . sounds like you have a very good homeopath - this looks like a nice combination of rem since you don't have the exact rem due to an unknown cause.

a thought on high bilirubin it might be the result of the body detoxing.  i'm not 100% on this and i'm not a dr just have way too much experience with toxins; but from my experiences and conversations with too many dr i've come to understand that one of the functions of the liver is to bind toxins for the body to excrete and the high bilirubin level might very well be part of this detoxing processes. there is no doubt this process would push the liver to it's max so the more liver support you can give the better.

it seems you are working with some good people and i do hope you continue to see improvement maybe suerte's name is working for him:)  best of luck to you all.

The blood work came back with a high level of bilirubin. However, thedirect bilirubin was not so high, and one healer suggested this means most likely not a blockage of the kidney, such as a tumor.

Through the support of some really caring people on this board, along with this amazing homeopathic vet here in Patagonia, we have begun a treatment plan. We are going with the homeopathic approach first. If there is a set back or flare up, we will reasess our options.

Each day Suerte acts more like himself, the lost look in his is less, he has more energy, and twitches less. In short, he appears to be on the mend. We are fully aware that the liver is a serious organ and are paying close attention to his status. We are cautiously optimistic, and closely monitoring him. We plan to have another round of blood tests.

Thank you all for your kind words and postive vibes. We welcome any additional thoughts.

 If there was a blockage, it would most likely be in or outside the duct of the liver, not in the kidney. The lack of other elevated liver enzymes does not support this. They were blank so I don't know whether they were not tested, there was a problem in the lab or what. The elevated bilirubin levels may also be artifact and your plan to re-check bloodwork in a short while is the best plan.

Good luck.

Oso may be thinking of a liver shunt. I think you can read about that with a google search.

Glad to hear he seems to be on the mend. Sometimes we never really do find out the cause of these things.

The important thing is that this little guy is getting better.Perhaps all the positive energy does help after all.Hope he has a complete recovery and you can put this behind you.

Suerte seems to be healing a bit each day. We wanted to express our gratitude to everyone for their kind words, input, and positive thoughts. I did a blog post on the whole process, it can be seen here. http://livinginpatagonia.com/?p=911 It has been quite an experience and I think we chose the right name for our dog, who knew?