Dazed & Confused, Sick Yorkie!!!!

[Vickie]

Hello to everyone. And am looking for help answers or any information that can help. Here is the scenario= At this time we have 1 Yorkie named Rusty, 11 years old, as everyoine knows Yorkies are the most picky eaters on the planet, we finally found food that was acceptable to this little guy and stuck with it. It seemes it took a liking to a product called Rollover and a very small kibble type, and all was well for years. However, periodically the dog would have a couple of days where it was for a word Down and might throw up along with a bit of " yorkie Diahreha ". Around this past June Rusty went into a severe sick spell and was not appearing to rebound. Would not eat, throwing uo and lethargic as hell. Went to the vet and was diagnosed as going into kidney failure. Well upset is only a word until this happens. Kept Rusty for a while put him on IV and a s**tload of medication. Finally he rebounded and came home. Now, still more frequent with throwing up and now not diahrea, but the little guy is bunged up tight. Back to the vet, seems that the kidney function is now recovered and with all else going on tested for Addisons Disease, the good news not present. Vet now comes up with possible ulcer problems in the stomach, sent him home with more meds.
Shortly after this Rusty starts int panting for no apparent reason. Oh and prior to the panting the vet decided that perhaps some of his bad teeth were the problem and thusly creating his situation, so in he goes to have 8 of his little teeth yanked fron his poor little head. Now back to the panting, It seems that when a Yorkie or small dog is in pain they will start a dry panting.
One night it got to the point that we made a trip to the emergency vet fo consultation and x-ray and a shot of doggie morphine. Still no answers.
By this time we are on a antibiotic, a stomach med and a pain med and he is no longer having solid food but is on a pureed liquid. Vet also did a barium test and foun food is not moving through the system but x-rays do not show any blockage. This past week the vet decided to do an exploratory, and little Rusty was opened up from stem to stern, well guess what they found- Not a damned thing, no tumors, no cancer, no blockage no reason internally for any of this. Today we brought the poor little bugger home and have him back on a pureed liquid diet, although he is drinking and periodically slurping up a little gruel.

If any body has any ideas or suggestions then we are receptive it seems that at this time everyone is grasping at friggen straws. Do not want to hurt anyones feelings here but we are looking for answers not prayers and sympathy. We thank everyone in advance.

[chattiesmom]

Two things first -- Welcome to Yorkie Talk and I am so very sorry that Rusty has this mystery illness.

I would start with his food..... change it -- sometimes food manufacturers change the formula and/or sometimes these little guys can develop allergies to certain ingredients. It might be a good thing to "home cook" very bland food for him for a while and then start adding back other items and his dry kibble and see where that takes you.

Good luck and sending many hugs

You will probably get prayers (mine) and good luck wishes because this site is full of very caring prayerfull people.

[rammer]

Once again hello, in regard to Rusty, I am Rammer, husband of Vickie and just joined up myself. In regard to Rusty we already have changed his food as he is now on a liquid puree type of gruel that is well just wet.
Have also tried very bland ( blech ) boiled chicken stuff and that is not cutting it. Still not digesting.

[Yorkiedaze]

It saddens me to welcome a new person under such sad circumstances. I do not have a clue as to what could be wrong with your boy, but I would ask that Vet. to refer you to a specialist. Next, I'd never feed another bite of dog food. Stick to real food. Please keep us all up to date on all of this. I personally am very, very interested.

[dcapper]

I have a senior Yorkie too and he's picky as well. Talk to your vet about Royal Canin or Medical. It seems he needs a dietary food of some sort. Maybe check with the vet and see if Rusty needs Prednisone. Toby needed a special diet cause he was getting stones, its not the same problem but the food helped alot.

Derek

[sweetr72]

I just wanted to welcome you to YT...sorry Im no help..where in Ontario are you??

[Yorkieluv]

Have they done a full blood panel? Were any of those levels borderline or high or low? How were is ALB and ALT values?

[Vickie]

Good Morning everyone. As you all can see, LOL, I have written a novel below...

This is Vickie, and this is my first time posting. My husband is the one who started this thread, using my nic, last evening after I had gone to bed. I also see he joined as his own nic, rammer in post #3....I had signed up the other day and told my husband about this site and what my nic and PW were, and that I was going to post here about Rusty's problems but hadn't yet. LOL I see he's taken care of that... He told me about this thread this morning.
Firstly, I would like to apologize for what my husband has said above in the last paragraph of his initial post about not wanting sympathy and prayers. It was rude of him to say that.
I appreciate all prayers offered and would like to thank those who have done so for Rusty. The Vets we are seeing (there are 2 at the place we take him too) are stumped at this point as to what is wrong with our little dog and prayers for him are truly needed at this point.

One thing my husband did not mention was that the Vet had found that the food rusty eats is not going out of his stomach and into his intestines in a timely fashion....when we were at the emergency vet, a week ago this past Wednesday (he had some teeth extracted the day b/4 and was in pain and doing frantic panting for 2 hours after eating his evening meal, hense the visit) they xrayed his stomach (vet thought he might have had a twisted gut, I think that's what they said...so much going on with Rusty this past month I can't recall everything anymore ) and found he still had 99% of the food he ate still in there. Our vet then put him on the total liquid diet, to see if that would stop the vomiting, but it did not, so....due to the not emptying of the stomach and the continued vomiting no matter what he ate, our vet then thought he might have a tumor and that is why we had the exploratory done this past Wednesday. Which leads us to now and still no diagnosis about what is so wrong with him.

Yorkieluv:
Blood work was done 2 weeks ago when this last bout of vomiting and diahhrea started, again , and all levels, except protein, which was slightly high, but at an acceptable level to the Vet, were all good. Since the kidney failure episode, which BTW was in late April, not June as my husband had said, we have had his levels checked once prior to the other week and all was fine then as well. ALT, if you are referring to the liver, that was fine. ALB, ?? Sorry, I have no idea what that is, but will presume that it is ok too, since the vet said all levels were good.

Sweetr72:
Thank you for the welcome. We are in S.E. Ontario, in the Toronto area.

dcapper (derek): We had changed his diet to a special kibble the vet has that was for dogs with stomach problems (sorry can't recall ATM what it was) back in July after yet another bout of vomiting and diahrea. The vet said he could also stay on a bit of the rollover for variety. we had blood work done then to check to see that he had not gone into kidney failure again. He had not, all levels were good. Rusty, from that point on in July, would vomit at least once a week for a day or for a few hours but would always be ok the next day...the vet also, at that time put him on reglan (to give him when he did vomit to stop it and it worked well. In fact, he was put on it after he had his teeth taken out twice daily and is still on it but only once daily since we brought him home yesterday. Oh and he is also on prilosec once daily as of yesterday). But come mid Sept. he was getting increasingly sicker with the vomiting on that diet as well. I did, back in May when he came home from the stay at the vets after the kidney failure, I put him on a frozen, raw, organic chicken, veg and fruit dog food from pet valu. (Brand name, natures variety, organic chicken diet) (with the vets blessings). I had to cook it for him because he wouldn't eat it raw, and he took to that for a few weeks, but then the vomiting started again so we stopped that...and he went back on the rollover and the kibble he had been on b/4 the kidney failure. Bottom line is, I have tried all sorts of different foods over the years and especially this past 6 mos. or so and nothing works....he may take to it for a brief time, but he starts vomiting eventually, no matter what it is.
As far as the prednisone, he was on that when he was in kidney failure and stayed on it for a week after he came home. If you are suggesting it as an anti inflamatory, I believe that the reglan he is on is doing a similar job.
FYI I just remembered, he did not vomit for 3 weeks after he came home from the kidney failure episode when he was on the predinisone...not sure that is what helped though, but will ask the vet in the morning. IMO prednisone is a nasty drug and I'd rather not have him go on that drug to prevent him vomiting for the rest of his lifetime.

Yorkiedaze:
Thank you for the welcome. I have as you can see above outlined his diet for the past while. I believe the raw chicken diet would fall into the catagory of people food...do you agree?? and back when he started that, he tolerated it fine for a period of time and then he started vomiting it as well. I also had him back on that after he had his teeth extracted (ground very fine) for a few days and also that is what he had eaten the day we took him to the emergency vet...But when our vet saw that it had not digested properly, that is when she put him on the total liquid diet. Whether he can tolerate it this time, I have no idea because at this point he is not allowed to eat any solid foods.
The specialist is a very good suggestion. Thank you. I will t/t the vet about that tomorrow morning.

Chattiesmom:
Thank you for the welcome. It is a mystery illness indeed. So far, as I mentioned above we have 2 vets stumped for an answer to the vomiting and diahhrea. Allergies have been mentioned, by the vet, and that we would tackle them (if that's the case) once he has stopped the vomiting. Last night and yesterday afternoon after we got him home from the vets,I gave him, with the vets ok, the liquid from canned chicken soup, as well as a 1/4 of a teaspoon of strained, pureed beef and vegetable baby food. I used the whisk to blend it totally into the soup liquid.

Now then with all the above said, this is what happened last evening and over the night and this morning.
He ate about 1/2 and a bit of a cup of the soup/baby combo, 1/4 cup at a time, during the afternoon and for his dinner. After dinner about 8ish. I had to give him the prilosec. It is in a 10mg. gel cap and he was to get only 5mgs. so, we had to split it. I put it with a teeny weeny bit of ice cream and he took it down. 10 min. later he vomited that up. So, I took approx 3mgs. of the other 5mgs. and gave it to him again. He did not vomit that. During the night, he vomited 4 times. This morning I gave him his 1/4 tab. of raglan with nothing, left it whole, and put it down his throat with my fingers. Gave him a syringe with a teeny bit of water to moisten his throat. That came back up 5 min. later. So again I put another 1/4 tab down his throat with by hand and no water. It is now 11:47 a.m. and all is well. Pill stayed down. Rusty has drank some water. He has not eaten any of his chicken soup broth,with no baby food, yet. So finally the reglan is doing it's job. We will at this point be back at the vets. first thing in the morning unless something drastic happens, we'll then get in touch with the emergency vet. right away.

I'm ready to pull out my hair. All that Rusty is going through and has gone through, esp. in the past 2 weeks, is breaking mine and my husbands hearts.

I would like once again, thank you all for your prayers, warm welcomes and your advice.

I wish I could call in Dr. Greg House at this point. hehehe. http://www.fox.com/house/ He'd solve this mystery and have Rusty fixed PDQ...

[dcapper]

Prednisone isn't as hard on a dog than it is on a human from what I have been reading. Toby is 16 and has been taking it for around 8 years now. He's still in incredible shape! Ask your vet. Senior dogs need drugs just like humans unfortunately.

[rammer]

We brought Rusty home from the vet on Saturday past. Saturday he had some rather good moments however Sunday went downhill and did not get better. The little guy was constantly throwing up and not taking any nourishment, not even keeping water down. Monday morning we returned to the vet and still no answers, rhyme or reason, the vet gave him a shot that supposedly would keep him from throwing up for 24 hours. He threw up on the way home in the car and by 1pm had thrown up another 4 or 5 times. At this pont his throwing up was becoming increasingly more violent, still with the stitches in his abdomen from the surgery and inside he was obviously in pain.

At about 5pm with great reluctance and fear on making the decision we came to the conclusion that it was no humane to let the little guy suffer any more.
I have been in the Canadian Navy and equivalent to your Seals, rode motorcycles, and now for the second time in my lif tears flowed down my cheeks like a baby as I held this innocent little fellow as he so peacefully went to the Rainbowbridge to be with his brother Rags.

I seem to be leaking again now so, peace to all and may the Good Lord look out for all the little innocent puppies in the world.

[Jody Renfroe]

I'm so sorry for your loss. At least Rusty is at peace, no longer in pain and playing with his brother Rags. You did what was best for him - be at peace with that. Again, I'm so sorry.

[dcapper]

I'm so sorry to hear about Rusty. You tried as much as you could. RIP little guy.

[dcapper]

I read these posts over and over again and I feel so sorry for you and Rusty, so I had to post again. This is going to stump me what happened to Rusty for a long time. I thought the prednisone could work for him but he obviously could not wait for that pill or any other to work. Again I am so sorry for your loss. I wish we all on yt had better answers for you.

RIP Rusty

[rammer]

It is absolutly incredible how a small innocent ball of fur can turn a grown man who fears no man or no thing on the face of the earth into a blubbering mess. I have rode with Devils and drank with Angels ( a few may understand that ) and still when it comes to a small innocent Yorkshire Terrier, I am brought to my knees.

I sincerly thank you for your concerns, and I guess as they say the Lord works in mysterious ways. And also, yeah I am starting or have mellowed quite a bit with age.

As I said peace to all, and may the good Lord look after every Yorkie on the earth.

[dcapper]

I hope you and your wife stay here on YT and read some of the wonderful posts people write. Unfortunately there is some terrible news like you and your family experienced. I myself joined here when my Yorkie became sick in June, but I find I read posts here everyday. Know that Rusty and Rags will be waiting for you when its your time to go. Again heartfelt loss for you and your family. I know when Toby goes I'll be here looking for consolation. I too being a male will be a basket case. You are a good man and you did what you could and what was best as hard as it was.

Derek