Serious Foster dog Issues

Tazwell

New Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2007
Messages
1,083
Likes
0
Points
0
#1
Some of you might remember my post about the Husky, Kenna. She lives with a friend of mine. She had an odd health history... More is here http://www.chazhound.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67604

Anyway, she got a dose of Panacur, and her diarrhea cleared all up. This was about 3 weeks ago. She was doing wonderfully since then, but she wasn't gaining any weight. She was eating Canidae. We figure it's because it's a very high quality food, and she's a husky-- she burns lots of calories...

Anyway, Friday night, she got diarrhea again. Saturday, it was solid-- then Saturday night, it came back, and she began vomiting. Sunday, she vomited a few times in the morning, became more and more lethargic as the day went on, then finally started going into seizures. Very bad seizures.

We rushed her to emergency, where they gave her 4 doses of Valium to calm her down, then phenobarbital. At 8am Monday morning, we took her from there, to her daytime vet. They kept her all day, where she didn't have any seizures. Since they don't have anybody there overnight, they sent her home with us last night at 9pm. She's on Clavamox, Phenobarbital, and a calcium pill or something...

We took her back to my house, so we can take turns staying up to watch over her tonight. She's dizzy, can't walk straight, and is very, very lethargic. She's eating, drinking, and using the bathroom okay now. The emergency vet said that it looks like she was poisoned by something, and the daytime vet said it seemed epileptic since we couldn't find anything she could have got into.

I would think that if she was sick for 24 hours before hand, it's not epilepsy. The vet was like "Oh, I must have missed that in the report." Uh-Huh. Anyway, She had a low calcium level, but that was about it regarding her blood tests.



I'm worried sick about her, and I don't know what's wrong. Does this sound like anything anyone's heard of, except for ingesting something toxic? Do dogs usually pull through these kinds of things okay? Am I handling this right? If not advice, then encouraging words? ;) I'm just so lost with this poor dog... She's resting peacefully in her crate by my feet right now.
 
Joined
Dec 23, 2007
Messages
87
Likes
0
Points
0
#2
First, it sounds like you have a heart of gold for taking this poor dog in. I hope everything works out for her. Having been involved with the breed for quite some time, a couple of thoughts that come to mind:

For the diarrhea: Possibly there are parasites that weren't detected by your vet which may explain her intial positive response to the Panacur. If she has giardia or other flagellates, a single dose (3 consecutive days of treatment) is probably not enough. If she has coccidia or tapeworm (doesn't show 80% of the time in a fecal), then she likely needs a different medication. Also, some Siberians can be prone to IBD and her food may not be agreeing with her: . http://www.siberianhuskyhealthfoundation.org/health_bowel.asp

For the seizures: Poisoning does sound plausible given your description, but the breed is known to have inherited epilepsy:http://www.siberianhuskyhealthfoundation.org/health_epilepsy.asp. Another good link for information is http://www.canine-epilepsy.com/. My understanding though is that non-genetic causes have to be ruled out before diagnosing idiopathic epiliepsy and most dogs are not started on seizure medication right away. One of the other potential causes I'm aware of (besides poisoning) is liver disease. Anything that impairs liver function (i.e. shunts, microvascular dysplasia, etc) can result in toxin buildup and seizures. This happened to a Siberian owned by a friend of mine and I believe was diagnosed using bile acid tests and managed by putting the dog on a lower protein, primarily vegetarian diet.

I'm not sure if this helps or not, but I hope that you are able to get things back to normal for her.

Debbie
 

Tazwell

New Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2007
Messages
1,083
Likes
0
Points
0
#3
Wow, Thanks!!! That's a lot of helpful info-- I'll read up on each link closely.

But I'll bring a few of these things up to the vet when I speak to them next. I didn't know Huskies were prone to epilepsy, or IBS-- neither of those were never mentioned to me.
 

Tazwell

New Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2007
Messages
1,083
Likes
0
Points
0
#5
Eh... Not really....

The day after the night we brought her home, she began convulsing again. She went back to emergency, they stabilized her, then She went to her daytime vet again in the morning.

The seizures seem to be caused by low calcium levels, rather then poisoning or epilepsy. The emergency veterinarian (I've come to respect her a lot) said it looked like a very rare condition called HypoParaThyroidism. But only a certain test performed by Michigan State University can diagnose it. So we sent a blood test there, and the results should be back in a week or two.

For now, She's taking Clavamox, Phenobarbital, 12 Citrical tablets a day, and Vitamin D. We're praying this keeps her stable, without her going into seizures again. The rescue has no funds to send her to a specialist, and she's over $2000 since Sunday. We've paid $1200 ourselves, not even including the medications.

If it's not this "Hypoparathyroidism," or if she can't remain stable with these medications, we are pretty much out of options.

Advice? Suggestions? Anybody ever heard a case like this, or have info that may help us out?
 
Joined
Jan 27, 2008
Messages
66
Likes
0
Points
0
#6
I had a friend with a chocolate lab that suddenly started having severe, frequent seizures. The vet couldn't figure out what was wrong, so the owner started looking online and found some cases of dogs who had seizures after using topical monthly flea treatment (can't remember the brand).

They had just started using it on their dog, so they never re-applied it and the seizures subsided. Of course, you can never be sure if it was stopping the treatment that stopped the seizures, but I thought this might be worth mentioning, just in case...

I hope she's feeling better soon...
 
Joined
Dec 23, 2007
Messages
87
Likes
0
Points
0
#7
Tazwell, I haven't heard of anything like this before. Hypothyroidism is another more common defect in the breed, but I'm not sure the two diseases are even similar. I sure empathize with you though and hope she be stabilized.

Debbie
 
Joined
Dec 23, 2007
Messages
87
Likes
0
Points
0
#9
Chanda, for the most part, the Siberian is a healthy, hardy breed. I've been lucky never to have had seizures in my dogs in the 25 years I've been involved, but yes, epilepsy does occur.

Debbie
 

Tazwell

New Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2007
Messages
1,083
Likes
0
Points
0
#10
She told me Hypoparathyroidism is a genetic defect, as well. It would make sense, I'm sure Kenna didn't come from any show lines, but rather a byb or puppy mill or something of the sort...

Either way, It's a gland that's either attached, or right next to the thyroids. I forget which... But it deals with the Calcium I guess. So it's like Hypothyroidism, only with this other gland that controls Calcium. Thus Hypo PARA thyroidism... That's what the vet told me.

She didn't have any seizures last night, let's hope that she continues to improve :)




 
K

Kris L. Christine

Guest
#11
SEIZURES--Possible Triggers/Causes

One of the potential adverse reactions to vaccinations is seizures -- has your dog recently been vaccinated?

Significant calcium deficiency can cause seizure-like episodes, have you had a blood test to check calcium and phosphorous levels? High phosphorous foods (meat, eggs, nuts) bind with calcium, as do high oxalate foods (oatmeal) and may deplete your dog's levels to a point where it will cause problems. Poison will also cause seizures.

You might want to do an online search for "canine hypocalcemia" or just "hypocalcemia". This link http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/breeding/eclampsia.htm will take you to an article on this subject in which it states that the signs of low calcium levels (hyocalcemia) are: "Muscle tremors, restlessness, panting, incoordination, grand mal seizures and fever as high as 106."

Further, the above articles thats a one of the possible causes: Poor Nutrition - "Home brewed" diets usually are at fault. The owner innocently may be adding too much unbalanced meat to the bitch's diet, thinking the extra protein is beneficial. What's really happening is the calcium to phosphorus ratio is out of balance because the amount of useful calcium in the food is actually reduced! The ideal contains a ratio of calcium to phosphorus of 1.2 to 1. (Many organ meats such as liver have a ratio of calcium to phosphorus of 1 to 15!! Liver is great for dogs but if it comprises a large part of the diet, the calcium/phosphorus ratio of the diet will be improper.)

If you have chickens, you should be aware that their droppings are extremely high in phosphorous and can cause a problem if your dog eats too many of them. If the droppings are charging your dog's blood with phosphorous, it's going to drain him/her of calcium in order to maintain proper pH balance and cause muscle twitching, etc...

Check this link HPA | Phosphorous | FAQs on phosphorous from the Health Protection Agency, especially this quote: "It has been used as a rat and rodent poison.."

Check this site Eclampsia (Puerperal Tetany, Milk Fever, Hypocalcemia) in Dogs "Eclampsia, also called milk fever or puerperal tetany, is an acute, life-threatening disease caused by low blood calcium levels (hypocalcemia) in dogs ...."

One of our dogs developed severe seizures after the second of his puppy rabies shots -- his head shook so hard we thought his eyes would pop out, it was terrifying. After this seizure activity triggered by the vaccine, he became prone to them from other triggers. Whenever he ate too many high phosphorous foods (or chicken droppings), he would seize. Giving him 1/2 a quart of plain organic yogurt would calm his seizures within 15 minutes, when they were food-related.

Personally, I would have a complete blood count done to check for mineral levels if you don't think vaccines or something your dog is eating is causing the seizures. PLUS, I would consult a Homeopathic/Holistic veterinarian for an alternative treatment.

Kris L. Christine
Founder, Co-Trustee
THE RABIES CHALLENGE FUND

PERMISSION GRANTED TO CROSS-POST THIS MESSAGE.

Duration of Immunity to Canine Vaccines: What We Know and Don't Know, Dr. Ronald Schultz http://www.cedarbayvet.com/duration_of_immunity.htm

The 2003 American Animal Hospital Association's Canine Vaccine Guidelines are accessible online at http://www.leerburg.com/special_report.htm .

The 2006 American Animal Hospital Association's Canine Vaccine Guidelines are downloadable in PDF format at http://www.aahanet.org/PublicDocumen...s06Revised.pdf .

Veterinarian, Dr. Robert Rogers,has an excellent presentation on veterinary vaccines at http://www.newvaccinationprotocols.com/.
 

Tazwell

New Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2007
Messages
1,083
Likes
0
Points
0
#12
She has no vaccinations, none had been done prior to that. She's had a complete blood panel done, the only thing that was low was the Calcium. No chickens in the area. She was eating a diet of Canidae All life stages. And we still haven't found any evidence of her getting into anything toxic.

Yesterday we took her back to have her calcium re-checked, it was still low-- at 5.5. It should be at 8, they told us, and last time we checked (tuesday, i think) it was 5.7. We might be upping the dose of Calcium, but the doctors are arguing about it and I'm waiting until I get a third, and unbiased opinion on it.
 

Members online

No members online now.
Top