My 1.5 year old male Pharaoh started vomiting early in the morning on tuesday june 8th, and again on june 9th. After the second time started eating grass like a goat.
He had been on a mostly raw diet of ground chicken parts with one can each of tuna sardines per week. I had a very busy period at work and put out dry food for him for about a week before the incident. The brands were Avoderm and Blue Wilderness. We had these around for a month or two for emergencies. He has eaten both before at the rate of a bag every six months or so.
He was a little less active those days and I scheduled him for the vet on Thursday. Thursday morning there was a small amount of vomit.
The vet prescribed science diet canned food and took a blood test.
Thursday night he ate the ground chicken as usual.
During this period he was only responding to first class stimulants like a walk or a squirell in the back yard.
He would not even try to escape when we left the house. He would not respond to invitations to play. He did still seem eager to go on his walk twace a day.
Friday I force fed him some canned science diet. He did not throw up and seemed to recover. Saturday morning he was showing great deal of improvement.
We were playing with his friend in the field when the vet called and said his liver readings were off the chart.
AST(SGOT) 1710 Normal 15-66
Alkaline Phosphatase 3715 Normal 5-131
GGTP 2.0 Normal .1-,3
Monocytes 1210 Normal 0-840
Every thing else was normal.
The doctor put him on pregnisone and cephalexin. I did some research and cooked a bach of Dr. Dobbs liver diet and gave him Sam-e, silymarin, phosphatylcholin and vitamins including extra E. Also L-Carnatin and Alpha lipoic acid in the form of Juvenon.
He has steadily gotten better. Sunday afternoon he shredded a duster and started stealing my daughters toys again. Sunday night I felt his nose against my leg begging for food while I was cooking. He had a shower and acted like a normal little Hun as usual.
Monday he was pretty much normal, playing with his squeaky toys and alerting Basenji style to any external noises. Honestly, we felt he had fully recovered.
After some debate we coughed up the $850 for a sonogram tuesday.
He is back and groggy still at 5:53 PM. His liver has substansial scarring. The specialist said it seems a little small. His spleen is slightly enlarged.
Also the x-ray indicated his intestines were slightly inflamed.
The doctor was shocked to hear that he was acting normal. He has lost about a pound and a half through this ordeal. The vet did more blood tests on his office machine which only goes up to 1500, his readings are still off the charts.
He put him on a liquid drug for parasites and gave him Marin. I had already ordered Denosyl online as a precaution.
We have no real clue what happened. He was his normal self and then he just went down and came back up after a couple of days.
Here are the theories:
An infection. we live in south Florida. it could be anything from leptospirosis to something no one has ever seen before. He did seem to recover faster after the antibiotics.
Something Toxic. He has drank pond water or ran into algae before we could react on occasion. I stumbled across blue green algae poisoning during my research and was fairly shocked.
He could have ate something, both Mushrooms and various poisonous plants have been suggested. We have too many here to count. We scoured the property and could find nothing toxic. He has a fenced in backyard and he chews on weeds fairly randomly most of the time.
I am deeply suspicious of the commercial dog foods he ate. In my mind his illness is linked with those dry dog foods. He threw up the dog food twice and he has never had any problem with his raw diet.
*My breeder suggested his Thyroid. She stated that she had never seen this problem.
Pharaoh has been extremely healthy since birth. He goes full speed at everything. This spring at a year and 2 months he reached 26 pounds. He is the smartest dog I ever heard of. Whatever hit him hit hard and fast and nearly took him. Does anyone have any ideas?
I have no clue but wanted to extend my well wishes to all of you., I sure hope they find it and find it quickly…
Is he only vomiting, no diarrhea?
I hope some of the more seasoned members have some ideas, meanwhile, take care of that little guy of yours.
Oh, heavens, I hope you get your boy back to normal soon. Sorry I can't be of more help.
Hugs.
Never any diarrhea, His stool his brown and solid three times today. He has been eating Dr. Dobbs diet with the science diet from the can mixed in. The sweet potatoes firm his stool up nicely.
We just finished playing hide and seek with my 7 year old daughter. He always wins.
He is getting his aggression back. Honestly, it is like the vet and I are talking about two different dogs. His appetite is healthy.
The only difference is he does not seem as eager for aggressive play./ Before this bout of illness any move towards one of his toys would have him tearing up the house.
Oh.. He only vomited for three days in the morning. Tuesday very heavy, once on my daughters bed were he sleeps and again an hour later. Wednesday once in the morning early , Thursday only a little, this was after the chicken the night before.
Oh.. He only vomited for three days in the morning. Tuesday very heavy, once on my daughters bed were he sleeps and again an hour later. Wednesday once in the morning early , Thursday only a little, this was after the chicken the night before.
I'm in Florida too and there certainly are toxic plants everywhere. A friend's basenji boy chewed an oleander twig last year and spent several days at the emergency vet but has completely recovered now, Hopefully whatever attacked Pharaoh's liver is out of his system and his liver will recover. You sound very wise in your treatments, good luck!
Sending wishes for a speedy, full recovery for Pharaoh.
Mackpack I don't have any idea how wise I am being. Just desperate. i am loading him up with ery supplement that i have read about that could help.
The vet said he was a very strong dog.
He is all fired up this morning. Full of snark!!
