[gaijingirl]

I really need some advice and opinions from some of you who may have more knowledge or similar experiences as me.

My little buddy (approx. one-year-old, rescued stray) has had a lot of health problems, basically since April and we’ve only had him since February. He gets sick chronically, on and off, often gets a fever with these episodes, loose stools/diarrhea….sometimes they are normal, sometimes not, sometimes it’s a combination of both. occasionally vomiting. His stomach gurgles sometimes after eating. He has had some back pain a couple of times, which made him a bit wobbly…mostly after just waking up….not sure if the back pain is related to the other stuff at all, as that seemed to just start in June. It’s been a bit off and on since then too. He gets lethargic some days and irritable. Some days he seems fine and is his crazy puppy self.

He’s had bloodwork done multiple times. The first time he had full bloodwork done in April, everything came back normal, except his WBC count was very high: 24.49. We were in Canada with family during this time he got tested, but when we returned to TN. we had him re-tested again in June, everything was normal again. He’s been on about 4 rounds of antibiotics and sometimes gets a shot and couple days of prednisone to get rid of the fever. He responds fairly well to both, while he is on them.

He got sick again about 2 weeks ago, so I took him in and we decided to have his bile acids tested and do more blood work. He hasn’t shown a lot of the Liver Shunt symptoms, and previously, all his other blood work didn’t show anything weird with his liver. Here are his most results though:

BAT Pre-meal: 47
BAT Post-meal: 53

The other results that showed some abnormal results were:
BUN 35
AMYL 439
GLU 69
ALT <10 (were in the normal range, but just barely)

Previous blood test did not show anything out of the normal range, although AMYL was at 506, so it was on the lower side of normal.

His vet said that the BAT results weren’t high enough to make him believe it was a liver shunt, but they are higher than normal. Last week, said he would talk with a specialist and see what they thought and what their recommendation was for him to do next. So, I just got off the phone with my vet and he said that the specialist basically thought the same thing he did: that the results were inconclusive and wasn’t really sure what to make of it. He said that he could refer me to go see a specialist and that they would probably just want to do an ultrasound and then more tests, but in his opinion, the ultrasound might not tell them a whole lot. He did say that I could look at going to UT, which, if it is a liver thing, I would personally prefer to do, since we are only a few hours away and I would prefer to not waste money on another specialist if that’s the case. But given his history, past test results, etc., I don’t know what to think. We thought there could be a possibility of IBD and if so, would like to treat it with diet first as biopsy is the LAST thing I want to do if possible, but if it IS something that needs surgery, then I want to get it taken care of while he is young and before he has any more problems. My vet said it was up to me with what I wanted to do with him. He also feels like biopsy for IBD should be a last resort…Of course, I want to do any surgery as a last resort. Little dude is only 4 lbs, so I prefer to not have him put under if I can avoid it. It makes me nervous, which I know you all understand.

I’m also torn about what I should be feeding him right now. He was on Science Diet with the girl who rescued him and I had him mostly on Blue Buffalo and then Orijen. Right now, and for the past 5 weeks or so, I’ve been cooking him a bland diet. Did the chicken and brown rice thing, but now, my vet recommended that I feed him a mix of 25% chicken and 75% high fiber vegetables. He has been sick the least and recovered faster on the home-cooked food, but I know it is not balanced enough for long term. I feel like getting him the right diet plan could make a big difference in his symptoms, but if we don’t know what’s wrong with him, how can a nutritionist begin to formulate something for me?

I did take him to a holistic vet, (who is also practices traditional medicine too) a couple weeks ago too in hopes he could help me with nutrition and maybe add some thoughts on what was going on with him….I came out of there even more confused then when I went in. They did applied kinesiology….and it was all a little quacky. I was basically told my dog had Erhlichia (because they asked Snickers and he told them with Applied Kinesiology!) I did take him to my normal vet after that and the blood test confirmed that he did NOT have Erhlichia. (I guess the dog must have lied about that one).

Any thoughts? What should I do next? Wait for him to get sick again or take him somewhere now? I have no idea what the next step should be…I don’t want to waste any more money taking him to the wrong place that will run unnecessary tests (or diagnose my dog by asking him! Hahaha) I want to go the right type of specialist and be educated on what I need. Do you think it’s a liver thing and appropriate for UT?