Chihuahua not eating, GI troubles. Vet unable to provide answers.

[Sekah]

My Chihuahua normally has a voracious appetite and will eat anything. She came to me with my fiance about a year ago. She's 7 years old and intact. Until she came to stay with me she was very overweight. She's now at an ideal weight. Or would be, if she would firckin' eat.

About a month ago she refused food for a day or so, coupled with some diarrhea with traces of blood in it. Her poops are normally well formed and regular, and her appetite never wanes. I brought her to the vet. He checked her blood and stool, gave her an ultrasound checking for pyo and abdominal masses, etc and checked her teeth. Ultimately he didn't find anything. She started eating again shortly after the vet visit.

Since then she's stopped eating half a dozen times or so, but not always coupled with diarrhea. Between hunger strikes she acts normally and is bright and playful. Right now we're in one of the worst bouts of it and she's not eating much at all, and her poos are liquid and with some blood in them. I've brought her back to the vet once more where he gave her another ultrasound and checked her teeth more thoroughly but again could come up with no answer for her condition.

Because she's a tiny dog and she's been slimmed down so much, she can't exactly afford to lose any more weight. She gets sickly looking pretty fast. My fiance has requested we pile some more weight on her to act as a buffer, but her refusing food is a symptom, so fattening her up doesn't feel like an answer. Plus she has a luxating patella - I want to keep unnecessary weight off. She's also had back/pain problems in the past. She eats 6-Fish Orijen.

Anyways, does anyone have any thoughts on what could possibly be the issue? And does anyone have any thoughts on what my next step should be?

[Lyzelle]

Is it possible she is eating/chewing something from around the house? Plant, wood, old toy, finding something in the yard, under the bed, etc?

That's what speaks to me when I hear yo-yo coupled with "nothing wrong". They are getting into something, get sick, it's already digested or there is no trace, you go home and watch her like a hawk, she ends up not being able to get into anything.

Then she gets better, you loosen up, she gets into it all over again.

Similar thing happened to me when my boy was a puppy.

[crazedACD]

Have you done a thorough blood panel?

[Sekah]

Originally Posted by crazedACD

Have you done a thorough blood panel?

I'm not sure how thorough the blood panel was. I assume it was a standard type looking at liver values, etc. However I'm pretty ignorant about what exactly they look at. The vet responded that everything looked normal (normal enough that I could choose to spay her without worrying about the anesthesia).

Originally Posted by *blackrose

Has any bloodwork been ran on her at all? Any wonky values? Any medications been tried?

Has IBD been ruled out?

Yes, some blood work. No wonky values. No medications have been tried.

IBD is a diagnosis based on exclusion of all other diagnoses, right? Can it just spring up in a middle aged dog without an identifiable change in her environment/food?

[*blackrose]

Has any bloodwork been ran on her at all? Any wonky values? Any medications been tried?

Has IBD been ruled out?

[crazedACD]

Has the vet suggested anything other than "Oh well, can't find anything!"? Is he interested in figuring it out? I might suggest a second opinion depending on the bloodwork answer.

Addison's disease comes to mind..once again depending on the bloodwork.

Could there be a correlation between anything you are doing..flea sprays, frontline, washing beds, cleaning, heartworm prevention, treats, bathing, anything like that?

[Sekah]

Originally Posted by crazedACD

Has the vet suggested anything other than "Oh well, can't find anything!"? Is he interested in figuring it out? I might suggest a second opinion depending on the bloodwork answer.

Addison's disease comes to mind..once again depending on the bloodwork.

Could there be a correlation between anything you are doing..flea sprays, frontline, washing beds, cleaning, heartworm prevention, treats, bathing, anything like that?

Quite honestly, I've been less than impressed with the vet's motivation to figure out what's wrong. I appreciate him being conservative and not going too crazy from a client costs point of view, and he DID come to me highly recommended, but... He's definitely not aggressive in his diagnostics.

No correlation between anything you mentioned. The only possible correlation I had come up with previously was stress. Mega can be a bit of a stress case, but I think the association is tenuous at best in this situation.

[*blackrose]

Originally Posted by crazedACD

Has the vet suggested anything other than "Oh well, can't find anything!"? Is he interested in figuring it out? I might suggest a second opinion depending on the bloodwork answer.

Addison's disease comes to mind..once again depending on the bloodwork.

Could there be a correlation between anything you are doing..flea sprays, frontline, washing beds, cleaning, heartworm prevention, treats, bathing, anything like that?

I would think of Addison's was the cause, there would be other symptoms/interesting bloodwork results.

Just checking liver values probably isn't enough. That's great, but there are other clues in bloodwork that can't be found by just a basic CBC. I'd suggest doing a full blood panel workup, and may as well do a thyroid check while you're at it. We just had a pooch diagnosed with Addison's and he had some weird chemistry values (major values were in normal ranges, it was just some key things that were off that a CBC wouldn't have caught), as well as the diarrhea/vomiting/shaking.

IBD is a diagnosis based on exclusion of all other diagnoses, right? Can it just spring up in a middle aged dog without an identifiable change in her environment/food?

I'm not a vet, so I honestly don't know. I do know that if a full blood panel doesn't show anything, intestinal parasites/giarrdia has been ruled out, and nothing else obvious shows up, the pet is tentatively diagnosed with IBD and treated with steroids. Most do well with that treatment. Course, steroids make lots of things better! lol

I think if I were you I'd be finding a different vet and getting a second opinion.

[crazedACD]

Originally Posted by Sekah

No correlation between anything you mentioned. The only possible correlation I had come up with previously was stress. Mega can be a bit of a stress case, but I think the association is tenuous at best in this situation.

Stress can trigger autoimmune symptoms and addison's, IBD=autoimmune diseases. Yeah sometimes it's nice to have a vet that doesn't go crazy with all the tests, but then again the one time she's not eating, goes into hypoglycemic shock and you have to go the evet at 1am...it's going to cost a lot more than running tests to get a diagnosis you can manage. I dealt with a vet that was lax about running tests for a while and it cost me more in the long run...not to mention likely hurt the animals.

Originally Posted by *blackrose

I would think of Addison's was the cause, there would be other symptoms/interesting bloodwork results.

Ah yes, I didn't see she posted before me. I'm assuming he did in-house bloodwork, and didn't send it out...usually that's just a basic CBC and organ values. If you were to do a full blood panel with thyroid..that's where I would start, and work off of that. I'm looking up diagnosing Addison's..

Confirming blood test results will show:
Low levels of blood sodium
High levels of blood potassium
Adrenal function tests will measure the amount of cortisol in the blood. If it is low, adrenocorticotropin, an adrenal gland stimulating hormone, will be administered. Cortisol levels are then retested. If there is little or no response to the adrenocorticotropin, it can be assumed that your dog has Addison's disease.

So..in-house labwork won't really test for that stuff. Maybe a second opinion is in order. I'm surprised he hasn't offered any meds to manage the symptoms in the meantime..like metronidazole or some anti-inflammatory. I would talk to whatever vet about having something on hand like Nutri-Cal (OTC)...being so little, if she's not eating, her blood sugar could drop and go into shock.

[*blackrose]

Originally Posted by crazedACD

Stress can trigger autoimmune symptoms and addison's, IBD=autoimmune diseases. Yeah sometimes it's nice to have a vet that doesn't go crazy with all the tests, but then again the one time she's not eating, goes into hypoglycemic shock and you have to go the evet at 1am...it's going to cost a lot more than running tests to get a diagnosis you can manage. I dealt with a vet that was lax about running tests for a while and it cost me more in the long run...not to mention likely hurt the animals.



Ah yes, I didn't see she posted before me. I'm assuming he did in-house bloodwork, and didn't send it out...usually that's just a basic CBC and organ values. If you were to do a full blood panel with thyroid..that's where I would start, and work off of that. I'm looking up diagnosing Addison's..

So..in-house labwork won't really test for that stuff. Maybe a second opinion is in order. I'm surprised he hasn't offered any meds to manage the symptoms in the meantime..like metronidazole or some anti-inflammatory. I would talk to whatever vet about having something on hand like Nutri-Cal (OTC)...being so little, if she's not eating, her blood sugar could drop and go into shock.

Ha, that's what it is. Potassium and Sodium. I knew it was something that was odd, but couldn't remember what.

Some clinics do run full blood panels in house, which may save you some money. I think here it costs $125 in house.

And yup, running tests are so important, IMO. Takes a ton of the guess work out and gets you to the right diagnosis quickly without all of the, "Well, let's give this a try..."