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Old 07-27-2016, 09:37 AM   #1
patchesvincent
YorkieTalk Newbie!
 
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: St. Louis, MO
Posts: 7
Confused Possibly IBD in my little guy

This is my first post! I discovered Yorkie Talk in doing tons of research on my little Deano.

Last year he had an episode of chronic vomiting and anorexia and refusing to drink water. Took him to the emergency hospital and he spent on and off again 2 weeks time in the hospital for what they suspected was pancreatitis. He had an x-ray, ultrasound and bloodwork but nothing ever definitely came back with pancreatitis. But eventually he improved and was able to eat again. I have kept him on a low fat diet with Sojos dehydrated food (no meat) and adding boiled meat to it.

Fast forward to the end of June 2016 no sooner do we started moving boxes into our new house Deano starts the same symptoms as the year before, vomiting, anorexia, and not wanting to drink, dehydrating pretty quickly. He spent 4 days in the same emergency hospital (same doc even who remembered him well) and seemed to improve with just fluids and nausea meds and was interested in some food. So we take him home to our new place. He did ok for a couple days and then started vomiting again. We moved to a new area so we took him to a new emergency vet where he was prescribed cerenia, sub q fluids, and given a nurturecalm collar in hopes he might be able to settle down with the move and everything. After getting on the cerenia he perked up a little with food but nothing like his normal self (this dog lives for food, will eat veggies and fruits, even rinds if you accidentally drop one).

Once I ran out of cerenia he last a couple days before the vomiting started again and he became dehydrated. Took him in again to the emergency vet and they performed an x-ray to make sure he didn't have any blockages (nothing was seen on the x-ray), he was given more fluids and cerenia. This particular doctor thought that with how long this illness was lasting that it wasn't pancreatitis, as previously thought, and that he needed to see an internist, they have one on staff there that specializes in gastrointestinal disorders. He suspected IBD but of course couldn't diagnose it. He did run a blood panel on Deano that night and everything was normal except his neutrophils and lymphocytes were both high, not crazy high, but above normal. So he suggested we start him on some broad spectrum antibiotics as well. He was on that and the cerenia for about two days, still not eating when we decided to see the internist.

The internist performed a cortisol test (she thought maybe Addison's) which came back normal, an ultrasound which showed a swollen lymphnode (she said it wasn't out of the normal range as far as size but it was prominent) and a small liver but she didn't see anything obstructing it so she didn't think liver shunts, and a gastric blood panel which was sent to Texas A&M. The blood panel came back pretty normal except that he does have a B12 deficiency, his cobalamin was really low. She suggested an endoscopy biopsy, but unfortunately life happened and we were just in an auto accident the day before she called and balked at having it done just because of the cost and not knowing what was going to happen with our car (we are ok, except some whiplash, the car ended up being totaled though, that's another sad sob story, lol).

I should mention that Deano has been kept on cerenia this whole time, until he started eating and acting pretty normal last Wednesday when I decided to try and take him off of it. He was ok until Saturday.

So the internist has put him on a hydrolyzed diet (currently using Purina) and set up an appointment for a B12 injection. That was all scheduled last week. Over this past weekend, prior to the B12 injection, Deano throws up twice on Saturday morning and then a new symptom, diarrhea. So strange that it waits a month to start up! And he quit eating and drinking again so we started feeding him water via a syringe to keep him hydrated. We took him to his appointment on Tuesday, yesterday, for his B12 shot and update the vet on his new symptoms. We decided to go ahead with the biopsy since he just seems to be getting worse, he's dropped almost 5 pounds over the past month, was only 15 to begin with.

The vet takes him back to give him his injection and a once over while we get everything scheduled. So we waited and waited and no one came in for awhile, I can hear talking about a foreign body, etc. through the wall of the room but I'm thinking the vet is talking to another client cuz there is no way that my dog has swallowed -anything- recently. Finally she brings Deano back and tells us that his abdomen feels much different than it did last week, there is a definite hard lump so she ran the ultrasound wand over him and a pretty good sized foreign body is lodged in his intestines! I was in total shock, I actually just looked at her and told her that that was impossible. Deano won't eat, let alone swallow something else! She assures me that it's there and she was concerned that he probably wouldn't be able to pass it, he hadn't gone to the bathroom in two days at this point.

SO, now instead of getting an endoscopy we had to schedule same day surgery to get this foreign THING removed from his intestines! We got the call that the surgery went well, and that he had swallowed a squeaker to a toy. Now Deano has been pretty lethargic and hasn't played hardly at all in the past month this has been going on, and we haven't bought any new toys with a squeaker since before we moved for him to have swallowed this anytime recently. So this has been in his stomach for awhile. So my brain goes straight to, this is why he has been sick this whole time! But the vet assures me that this is not what has made him sick, because he is still B12 deficient and the squeaker was nowhere near the part of his gut that would be involved in the soaking up of nutrients. She is also concerned that he isn't absorbing water at this point either. So three full thickness biopsies of his intestines have been sent to Chicago (not sure where) and we are awaiting the results of that (3 to 5 days).

At this point I guess we are praying for IBD and not lymphoma! Although lymphoma seems unlikely.

Anyone have experience with this??
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