We had a Dalmatian that started having these issues at the same age as your B. Vestibular disease got worse causing her to lose her balance and fall when walking, loss of strength in her hindquarters and incontinence. I am not aware of any treatments for the VD, but there are a number of human treatments for strokes that might be able to be used in dogs.
Please pray for Booger
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Thank you for all or your prayers & thoughts so far.
First, I bought some canned food for Booger in the same brand kibble he eats. He loves it & is now getting up on his own to eat. I've been feeding half a can on top of his normal amount of kibble, and it looks like the weight might be sticking to him better.
I spoke with the doctor today, and Booger's white blood cells are elevated. She thinks its a bacterial infection, so we're trying him on a second round of antibiotics. This time we're going to run a 3 week course instead of just a week. She says it could be caused by something that is still stuck up his nose, so we may still need to see a specialist with a scope. He took his first dose of the new antibiotics tonight. I will keep y'all posted. -
Glad to hear some good news! We're all rooting for Booger!!
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We all so hope this will fix your boys issues.
Hugs for keeping us informed. -
What were his blood work values?
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Hope that it helps.. but wouldn't the first thought to do a scope? Shouldn't the first course to screen/scope for infections like aspergillus infection?
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2102&aid=233 -
Glad Kristii liked the muttloaf. i've used it for years. i like to make it with blueberries or cranberries, but have to warn people when i pass it out that "it's blueberries not mold."
Also, i just read some interesting info on giving dogs electrolytes (in Chris Zink's new book). it's NOT a good idea for dogs b/c they don't sweat like people do. Here's what she says ". . . humans loose water and electrolytes when they sweat, dogs lose mainly water vapor when they pant. If you give electrolytes to your dog, you add small charged molecules to the intestinal tract. Those molecules tend to draw water to their location. So if you give a dog electorlytes on a hot day, the water that is in the intestine will tend to stay where the electrolytes are rather than moving into the body. . .thus [possibly] contributing to dehydration. " There's more, but that's the jist of it. And of course in this case we're talking about healthy dogs that are competing.
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Nothing makes you feel so helpless and frustrated as seeing your friend sick and can't get to the source of it all. A hug to you and prayers for a turn for the best for booger
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Also, i just read some interesting info on giving dogs electrolytes (in Chris Zink's new book). it's NOT a good idea for dogs b/c they don't sweat like people do. Here's what she says ". . . humans loose water and electrolytes when they sweat, dogs lose mainly water vapor when they pant. If you give electrolytes to your dog, you add small charged molecules to the intestinal tract. Those molecules tend to draw water to their location. So if you give a dog electorlytes on a hot day, the water that is in the intestine will tend to stay where the electrolytes are rather than moving into the body. . .thus [possibly] contributing to dehydration. " There's more, but that's the jist of it. And of course in this case we're talking about healthy dogs that are competing.
Really interesting…but that makes sense.
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Hope that it helps.. but wouldn't the first thought to do a scope? Shouldn't the first course to screen/scope for infections like aspergillus infection?
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2102&aid=233I was wondering the same thing about the scope. If it isn't done and there is something up his nose and that is the source of the problem, would the infection ever stop without the scope being done to diagnose the problem (i.e. after the 3 week course, then the scope, then would more antibiotics be needed?). I don't know, I'm just curious.
Andrew, it sounds like the blood work was a good call and hopefully the little guy makes a big turn around. Definitely sounds like upping the value of his food is getting him to eat which is GREAT!
Go Booger! -
Andrew, with his sneezing, lethargy, and bloody nose I wouldn't wait three weeks to see a specialist. I would get that nose scoped asap. He may have something as simple as a unpopped popcorn stuck up there (I just say that as an example). This reminds me of a friend's daughter many years ago. She was a young child – 3 or 4 and she went through a period where she was just sickly. Her breath was horrible and she was on antibiotics off and on. She basically was turning into a failure to thrive type of kid. They were on a miitary base and seeing army docs or more likely medics. Finally, she took her to an ENT specialist thinking she would need her tonsils removed even though they weren't infected. The ENT doc found a swollen pinto bean up her nose! For some reason this kid decided to stick a bean way up her nose. Once the bean was removed she was right as rain in no time and no surgery was required. BTW, why did you name him Booger
-- has he been sneezing and having nose issues since you got him? If so he may have a physical defect that has gotten worse and is harboring bacteria that may need to be fixed. Then again, maybe you named him Booger because it's a darn cute name I can't wait until you get to the bottom of this -- Booger needs to feel like a two year old again.
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This reminds me of a friend's daughter many years ago. She was a young child – 3 or 4 and she went through a period where she was just sickly. Her breath was horrible and she was on antibiotics off and on. She basically was turning into a failure to thrive type of kid. They were on a miitary base and seeing army docs or more likely medics. Finally, she took her to an ENT specialist thinking she would need her tonsils removed even though they weren't infected. The ENT doc found a swollen pinto bean up her nose! For some reason this kid decided to stick a bean way up her nose. Once the bean was removed she was right as rain in no time and no surgery was required.
I have to laugh at this story because I had a co-worker to whom a similar thing happened…except it was one of her earrings (a small post) that ended up her daughter's nose. Once that was discovered, the child made a miraculous recovery.
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I did the link to Aspergillus because I know of a Basenji that had this (lvoss knows this person that had this dog also). It was something that was not easily found, but Sam (B's owner) was persistant in getting to the bottom of the problem and the B did recover
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Glad to hear that things are progessing in a good way and that Booger is still with you.
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Trying to address all the questions/advice at once:
Tanza, I didn't think to ask about the blood values. I will get a copy though. The doctor just let me know that his white blood cell count was elevated and all other values were fine.
As far as the scope goes… when he was just sneezing, the doctor flushed his nasal passages with saline, did x-rays, drew samples from his lymph nodes, etc. At that point, he wasn't very sick so there wasn't a huge sense of urgency. We were trying to knock out the most obvious causes before moving on to a specialist with a scope. When we finished the first round of antibiotics, he perked up for a few days so we thought for a couple of days he was improving. Then he took a sharp turn for the worse. At this point, the poor guy's nose is swollen & sore from licking, and we want to get the infection knocked out before we subject him to any prodding around in his nose.
As far as his name, we came up with that before we got him. We were looking for a puppy, tossing names around, searching the internet for a few weeks. One evening it just popped into Andrew's head, and I thought it was a great, cute name. It suits him well. I can't imagine him with a more dignified name. He has never had nose issues until now, and the irony of his name/condition has not escaped us.
Right now, he has improved a good bit since mid-week. He's still spending the majority of his day and night sleeping, but he's getting up to eat, to go out & to greet us when we come home! Yay!
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Hope that it helps.. but wouldn't the first thought to do a scope? Shouldn't the first course to screen/scope for infections like aspergillus infection?
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2102&aid=233Thanks for the link… We did check for fungus. There is a chance there is still fungus hanging out in a deep recess that the doctor couldn't find, but again we won't know until we go to a specialist with a scope.
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Right now, he has improved a good bit since mid-week. He's still spending the majority of his day and night sleeping, but he's getting up to eat, to go out & to greet us when we come home! Yay!
Definitely a good sign, I pray the improvement continues!!!:D
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It is a really good idea for anyone with pets to get a blood panel done as part of their dog's routine yearly checkup. One problem with waiting until your dog is ill before ever running blood work is that your vet can only compare it the lab's reference range which is the average range that most dogs fall into. Unfortunately, that means if your dog is say normally in the high end of the range and then gets sick which causes a number to fall to the far low end of the range the vet may think nothing is wrong with the value since it is still "in the normal range" where in reality there has been a signficant change in that value for that dog. It is also why getting bloodwork done throughout the diagnosis process in a chronic illness is important so the vet can monitor for any changes in values over the course of time.
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any updates?
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I sure hope booger is doing better.
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Sorry I haven't been online in a few days due to increased hours at work….
Booger has taken a definite upturn in the past few days. He still spends a lot of time sleeping, but its a bit less than before. I can tell he's getting restless and wanting to be a bit more active. He had several actual nose bleeds last week, but has not had one since. He is getting up to greet us when we come home, grooming Lola, chasing the cats, getting excited about eating & beating me to the closet where we keep the food, etc. In recent weeks, he would stay in bed until his food was ready & then return to bed as soon as he was done eating. This morning he jumped out of bed before me!
Yesterday it snowed, an experience neither Lola or Booger have had. I let Booger & Lola run around a bit in the snow. Booger actually scampered around with Lola for a few minutes before they got cold & wanted to go back in.
Over the weekend, Booger has had a quick turn around & is almost back to his old self. He still has two more weeks of antibiotics, and then we have to determine if there is still a foreign object or fungus hiding in the recesses of his nose if he is still sneezing. His nose is healing; its still a bit swollen & inflamed on one nostril.
Thank you again for all of the positivity & good wishes!
