zinc toxicity

[Teddybearlover]

Hello everyone,

It's been a while since I was on here but I hope somebody could help me make sense of my life right now. My baby Belle (1.5 yr old, 16 lb. shih tzu/bischon mix) started Saturday by peeing all over the floor (she has been housed trained for a year now) then commenced to vomit orange followed by orange and bloody diarrhea. So I rushed her to the Animal Urgent Care. The vet ran x-rays to find out that Belle had swallowed a coin and within a few hours was performing surgery to remove the coin since inducing vomiting did not successful dislodge the coin.  The vet told me everything went well, she had actually gathered 3 quarters, a dime and a arcade token from inside her stomach, so I had to leave her over the weekend for observation and fluids. I agreed, however now Belle’s health keeps yo-yoing back and forth. She was fine and tolerated some water and a few bites to eat and then the next time I talked to them she had peed bright orange was turning yellow and needed a blood transfusion. She is in the middle of her 80 ml. blood transfusion right now. They promised me she did not seem to be in pain and that other than the discoloration and declined labs she seems to be okay. They assured me she wags her tail when they come to the cage but explained she is not out of the woods yet. The urgent care closes tomorrow morning at 8 so I have to pick her up and take her to my vets’ office. Has anyone dealt with this type of thing before? They said its anemia due to the zinc toxicity. Has anyone’s baby bounced back from something like this? They have not spoken any words of organ failures so as far as I know that is not a concern. I’m just worried and not sure if I should be asking for something else to be done. Thanks in advance for any insight anyone can offer.

[Teddybearlover]

So, I took Belle back to the vet today to recheck her liver values. They are still as high as they were last week. She is not optimistic, she said she needs to call the vet university and will talk to me when they guide her. I am so scared they are going to say its not reversible. I am trying to stay optimistic.

[Teddybearlover]

So, from bad to worse. I took Belle in Monday to get checked. Her liver was still not right, but the sutures were bothering her so the vet took them out and explained the skin would not heal properly because the sutures were lined up wrong. She told me to keep an eye on it and bring her back if things don't seem right. So last night I started seeing a white discharge and Belle didn't seem right. Her incision was coming open. I rushed to the vet first thing this morning. The vet to ld me she would need to sedate and resuture Belle but first needed to cut away some of the skin from the incision as it had become infected. But since she was doing this she wanted permission to open the chest cavity back up and see what the urgent care vet had done since the outsie sutures were not very good. When the vet got in to Belle's body she said everything was infected. Her bowels and intestines were infected to the point that she had to remove a golfball size puss ball from her intestines. She explained that the zinc toxicity was probably so bad that her body didn't have a chance to properly heal. She had to clean everything and took part of her stomach and intestines that had gotten badly infected probably from the body trying to rid itself of the zinc. So she is in excruciating pain  but will only drink water-she won't take the pain medication or antibiotics so I will keep trying. I had already reserved for her to go back to the vets tomorrow so thwy can watch her and hook her back up to the iv fluids so I will ask for them to administer the pain meds iv tomorrow before I pick her up. I pray everything wors out and this turns around sooner than later. The way she wailed really made me wonder if this surgery was the best thing for her. I love her and do want her around but I do not want her in the pain and agony that she is in.

[Margot49]

Thanks for the update!  Keeping good thoughts she continues to improve!!

[Margot49]

Poor thing.  Thanks for the update and hoping she will recover and be able to go home.
If they have the big plastic cone on her, ask if they have the inflatable soft collars.  Sometimes those are more comfortable, esp for the small dogs.

[Teddybearlover]

Yesterday was a crazy day. When my daughter and I stopped at the vets office to visit Belle they went to look for the doctor so she could give us an update on her blood work. But she was in with another family, so they came back to let me know I coud check Belle out while I waited for the docs discharge orders. I got so excited she was coming home I ran back to my jeep and locked my keys in the jeep! But I was able to bring her home yesterday. The vet said her red blood cell count had stabilized although her liver panel was not where she wanted she was able to tolerate food and water. So instead of me paying them to watch her she could come home and rest here while we watch her. I have to take her back in Monday though for another blood draw.  They sent her home with pepcid and amoxicillin to be given twice a day with food. She has tolerated and enjoyed it so far. But has only peed once since I brought her home. The vet said she knows she is plenty hydrated today because she just came off the iv fluids yesterday. But wants to see her tomorrow if she still has not gone. She is having the same issues she had when she had her spay, she doesn't want to walk and when she does its only to get to one place and stay there.Other than that she just lays in her bed unless she is in pain then she digs in her bed and pants. I really hope she starts to feel better soon. It took her three weeks to recover from her spay.  

[Teddybearlover]

Thank you.

[Teddybearlover]

I hung out at the vets office with Belle today. She was able to eat but got sick on the stomach at some point before I arrived so they gave her something to ease the nausea. Her red blood count stabilized, but her liver values increased. The vet said not enough for her to be worried as it could just be from the body healing itself. Her eyes and skin do not look as yellow as it was yesterday which is great. She is finally alert enough to realize her stomach has been cut open so they had to put an e-collar on her to stop her from going after her incision. I am just praying and hoping that she makes it through and is not suffering.

[Margot49]

I have never personally dealt with this but was reading up some on it.  Hope Ghilly or ginger might see this.
From what I have read, all the right things are being done.  Yes, you have to watch for organ failure so hoping her liver tests will improve.  
You must be exhausted.  Good luck and please come back to update.

[Teddybearlover]

Thank you.

[Teddybearlover]

So, I transported Belle from urgent care to her regular vet this morning. For her vet to inform me that although the urgent care addressed the toxicity and anemia- Belle is actually in liver failure right now. She doesn't want to overstress her so she hooked her up to an iv all day and I brought the extra blood from the urgent care to them. She did not need another transfusion today since her status has not changed. I am trying to be optimistic and say because the body is healing and about to improve. I stayed with her dor about an hour and actually was able to get her to eat a little. Her urine is still really dark but as I type this I hope and pray it gets lighter and her liver works everything out. The vet will redraw labs in the morning andI will stop in tomorrow as well to help encourage her to get better but not to overwhelm her too much so she can rest and hopefully come home. Thanks for listening.