unknown illness
 

our little luci who is 4 is having a really bad year. this is the third time she has had the following symptoms:

she can barlely walk
yelps when you touch her
stand in a hunched position
wont eat or drink

it happened once when she was about 2, but passed in a few days, i think they gave her an anti-inflammatory, they thought she may have hurt her hip the way she hunches over when this occurs

it happened in again jan, took her to emergency, they did about 4 thousand dollars in tests, they hydrated her and gave her pain meds, and somehow it passed, they did not find anything wrong

in jun happened again, took her to emergency, they thought she might have an obstruction in ther small intestine, they did major surgery and found nothing, 6 thousand more dollars

she has been on a special food since she has been home 3 weeks, and she has it again. she was absolutley fine yesterday, and in the afternoon took a nap and woke up with these same symptoms.

the thing that gets me is they dont actually find anything in the hospital but the symptons do pass

If anyone has any info that may help us please let me know, she is such a sweet dog and hate seeing her go through this.

thanks and if anyone needs more info i will provide them.

Max had something similar happen recently. Surgery is usually a last resort. Did they do any bloodwork? Max had a GI panel done which included pancreatic and liver enzymes and also checked his intestinal flora. He was on a course of Flagyl, Reglan, and a soft bland diet. You may try rice and boiled chicken until you can investigate this further. Definitely sounds intestinal to me and my suggestion is that you take her back to the vet and request some bloodwork like Max had.

6K for an abdominal exploratory? If that is all they did that time, then I'm not quite sure what to say except that is ridiculous.

Has she seen an internal medicine specialist?
When they did the 4K worth of testing, what did that include?
Xrays? Where did they xray? What blood work did they do?
When you touch her and she yelps, where are you touching (or just anywhere)? Is there an area that is more sensitive? Does she have any GI upset with all of this?

they have done so much bloodwork and found nothing, she has been on Hills Prescription Diet and has been doing ok, wish we could figure this out, thanks for the info

she hasnt gotten as bad yet as she did a month ago and that time she did not want to be touched or picked up at all, she would yelp and go to bite and she never does that, this only started yesterday and she hasnt gotten that bad yet. There never seems to be any certain spot that hurts her it seems to be her whole body or whole abdomen at least

If the pain when touching her is mostly related to her abdominal area, then I'd make sure they did a Spec cPL to rule out pancreatitis.

At first I was think neuro/back issues, but pain in the abdominal area while hunching over and not eating with nothing found in an intestinal exploratory makes me wonder about her panreas.

But with no diarrhea or vomiting, the chances are slim.

yes they did check the pancreas and even did biopsis of many organs during the exploratory and everything ok

Geez, this is odd.:confused:

I'm so sorry your baby is hurting, I wish I had an answer. I'll keep her in my prayers.

Sounds like what happened to Roxy last month.

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/sic...isc-issue.html

Who is your Vet?

From my understanding, pancreatitis can be a difficult disease to diagnosis, and tests can look ok, but the disease is still present. My son's dog has it, and one of the things that helped the most was more frequent meals, he just can't eat very much at one time ,and if he does, it was cause a flare up. A half pill of Pepcid with his morning and night meal, and two other tiny meals in the afternoon and at bedtime, has produced wonderful results. The symptoms were the same as the ones you listed, and indicate pain, pancreatitis is extreemely painful.

I'm just shocked to find out after all that vets still couldn't find out what's wrong with luci. I'm so sorry for your pain.
Hope luci feels and find out what's going on with her, soon.

As TLC said, it could be a disc issue. My Layla was hunched over before becoming paralyzed with her ruptured disc. Although the general vet did lots of tests, everything seemed normal. A disc issue will not show up on x-ray. It is VERY painful for the dogs to the point that they will not eat or drink and their stomachs may feel very bloated. Rest will help a slipped disc which is why she may have been feeling better for awhile until it happened again.

If all of her bloodwork is normal, and you've tested for pancreatitis...I don't think an Internist can go much further.

If she has a roached back and kind of diffuse pain - I think I'd be at a point of taking her to an Orthopedist to check spine and discs. Or, even perhaps a Neuro. Pain from the spine can cause such odd "referred pain" (pain that travels elsewhere) - so it wouldn't be uncommon for them not to be able to find (by touch) the source of the pain.

I'm so sorry your poor baby is suffering so, and you get no answers. My first thought was a disc problem in the back. My daughter's dog had that and had much the same symptoms. I hope you can get it figured out soon!