Sunday, December 8, 2013

Updates on Jared

        
Jared, sitting by a warm running dryer in the Mud Room. The three fluid containers are lemon Gatorade, plain water and chicken broth.  The food nearest him are pieces of grilled chicken.


        I have chosen to share the continuing saga of Jared's health issue here, in the event that someone who reads recognizes an issue in their own pet, and is therefore able to put together their own animal's issue, and more intelligently seek veterinary treatment.
              In the last post I established that Jared is thirteen years old and that he has never had an appetite to write home about. He has always taken considerable effort and creativity to feed.  A couple of weeks ago, his appetite dropped off to almost nothing.


"No, Mom. Don't make me drink that !"



 While we made a vet appointment, he began with watery diarrhea.  Initially, the veterinarian staff thought this was simply the end of his life, but I reminded them that he looked well and was highly functional a week before and so this was an acute process, and not completely the downhill slide of old age. He did not move well as we took him from the truck to the vet.  They wasted no time in getting bloodwork.   The most rapid bloodwork showed positive for Erlichiosis, a tick borne illness which may be carried for an extended period. He may also simply have some antibodies to it, and may not actually be ill from it.  Usually, dogs who are symptomatic and positive are treated, and dogs who appear well, are not.  (Incidentally, German Shepherds with erlichiosis can become extremely ill.)   The vet did not wish to treat him at this time because she felt it would flatten his appetite even more.  The second issue was that Jared has a very low sodium, and a potassium level that was in the highest range of normal.  His other kidney labs were within normal limits.  They decided to test him for Addison's Disease, and so a Cortrosyn stimulation test was scheduled.  (Lucky for us, this was a fraction of the cost for a human test of the same type, which is thousands !)   When the bloodwork from the Cortrosyn stimulation test was back, it was negative for Addison's Disease, and Jared was worse.  By then, I was feeding him with meat baby food, salt, water, and proton pump inhibitors, until we had a better diagnosis, all through a large plastic plunger-styled feeding syringe. The vet was planning for intravenous hydration at home.  He was cooperating, and for that reason, I was continuing. Finally, I told the vet that I wanted to go ahead and treat him for the Erlichiosis, and perhaps also for a gastrointestinal parasite.  Shigella is part of the normal surface water here. It sits on the clay and has killed many humans and animals in the few hundred years since this area has been occupied.  Shigella causes death through dehydration.  Dogs of course, get shigella when they drink from puddles while running on the farm.  Humans get shigella from drinking what might look like a beautiful stream or waterfall, which might still be contaminated.  Both antibiotics began in an oral syringe, along with a little food, some salt, and even some mylanta between doses. (Mylanta will impede some of the absorption of antibiotics and can disrupt electrolyte imbalance when used in the long term, so we should avoid doing so, unless your veterinarian has ordered this practice or approved it for some very narrow band of uses during antibiotic therapy.)   Three doses of each later, (36 hours later) the dog began to eat.  A week later, he is eating better than he has for some time. He looks well, and I can barely keep this exuberant individual on a leash !
           The moral of the story is that anytime a dog has rapid onset watery diarrhea, treatment for shigella (also known as shigellosis) should be contemplated, if tests for worms or other obvious causes are negative. Also, we probably should treat for a positive canine erlichiosis test more often than we do, especially in large dogs who seem more vulnerable to it, than others.
          If you own, and love dogs, please read the links to Erlichia, Addison's Disease and Shigellosis, as above.  Our vets are all very good, but we are the experts in the environment and in the habits of our dogs. Our own input and observations are invaluable in pinning down a diagnosis, in a young, or even a very old dog.
         Jared continues to gather strength and to recover. He is really enjoying his life in what are likely his last years. This dog has lived with our family for thirteen years and was a beloved pet to our son Daniel.  Eventually, Jared will join Daniel, but it won't be today !



Later Updates on Jared:

http://lifeaftertherescues.blogspot.com/2014/02/jared-taken-today.html

 http://lifeaftertherescues.blogspot.com/2014/02/sometimes-we-can-hold-on.html

 https://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-passing-of-valued-canine-friend.html


Prior Posts to the above with Jared as the subject:

http://lifeaftertherescues.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-story-of-jared.html




5 comments:

  1. I don't have a dog, but this was interesting.

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    1. Thanks, Linda. It always surprises me that we are at times, so similar medically to dogs, and at the same time, so medically dissimilar as well.

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  2. oh Jane - your family is doing such a wonderful job of remembering Daniel...it always brings tears to my eyes, but they are tears of joy and my heart and soul swell! i thank you so much for the information that you post. we don't have a dog (yet) but we have 3 cats, all strays, two of which are older but one is just a baby stray. one of our cats has recently been acting strangely...we did a search on google and found a blog just like yours, where people shared information and we immediately knew what was happening with our little Moe. it seems he has feline hyperesthesia as he showing all of the known signs. we will be taking him into the vet on tuesday. it was scary for me as i read the diagnosis and the normal treatement (SSRI's for humans but in smaller dosages for cats). but if the vet (who we trust) tells us that he needs SSRI's - then we will give them to him.

    Jared is a gorgeous dog, a gorgeous soul and it makes my heart swell that you would give him the variety of liquids that you do. thank you Jane, for taking in all of the strays that you do...and thank you for sharing all of the information and knowledge that you have about these things...it's how the rest of us learn!

    much love to you and yours always! your friend,
    kymber

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  3. Loving and caring people like you are too few on this earth. Your post brought tears to my eyes.

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    1. Thank you for your kind words. In a later post we give a progress report on Jared. He is doing just tremendously ! The vet can hardly believe that he is fourteen ! He his doing beautifully and is enjoying his life. In fact, this week he took over as the Alpha Dog, which is astounding to us.

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