Aa
What could this possibly be?
Our 12-13 yr old Great Pyrenees, JJ has developed some strange symptoms. We were out of town and had a caretaker checking on him and our 10 yr old Barney. When we got home, he was exhibiting these symptoms: Listless, excessive drinking of water, third-eyelid covering eyes so that he appears to be blind, not really able to eat solid food, just laps at a soupy mixture of wet and dry food mashed. We can't imagine what must have happened to him....the caretaker had no clue what it could be. No fever, anyone ever run into anything like this? We do live out in the country, no close neighbors so don't think he got into something poisonous. Possibly a snakebite..... but couldn't see any puncture marks anywhere.
Hi. Oh that is so disappointing. I thought the A&M were going to be so much better than that. Any vet that thinks JJ is a wolfhound clearly doesn't know his dog breeds. I think Connie has asked some good things there - being in the UK I wouldn't even have thought about those kind of problems. Give JJ a big hug from me and let us know how he is tomorrow. Tony
I'm just brainstorming here....You mentioned the mouth lesions...and the fact that your vet is suggesting some type of toxicity....you have also mentioned possible snakebite...You live in Texas. In the country...could it possibly be that he grabbed a spider, some type of frog, or scorpion with his mouth...? Like I said...I'm just brainstorming and thought I would throw it out there. Also, I don't know if you have ticks in Texas, but could it be a tick borne disease....?
Connie
Connie
Well, when I talked to our Vet this afternoon she said if we could take him this afternoon it would be better than waiting until tomorrow so she sent over the referral and we went and got him and took him over. She said she would fax over all her notes and blood test results, etc. When we got there we talked to a Med student at length about JJ's situation. He said we'd be talking to Dr X, whom he said was an excellent Dr. He then went and relayed the information and when he returned, a different Dr. for the evening hrs was with him.
Dr Y said he had examined JJ and said he thought JJ had a lot of wasting of muscle mass, more than he should have at his age. He said it could be an underlying disease like cancer or any number of things. He thought JJ was a Wolfhound, the student corrected him and he said they'd had a lot of large breed dogs in today. Gee... With the questions he was asking I wondered if he'd even looked at my Vet's fax. He said nothing showed up on the fax log.
JJ's eyes seemed about 75% better than from Sat. Both the student and the Dr. said they'd never seen a dog's eyes look like that before. They seemed to downplay my dog's symptoms, the lesions in his mouth ( Dr Y said they had scabbed over and his tongue looked fine.) I asked about the swallowing problem and they said even if they offered him water he probably wouldn't drink because of the stress of being there....what? I asked if they could get him a bowl of water to try and see if he was able to drink and the student got one. JJ almost immediately started lapping the water for a long period of time. They said they thought he was swallowing but he really wasn't. He was drooling into the water while he was lapping.
They said if we admitted him, for the tests, MRI, ultrasound of abdomen and a complete battery of tests, it would be about $2,000. They suggested we take him home and monitor him and coax him to try to eat and drink and he doesn't get better we can bring him in and they would admit him. With Christmas and all, it will probably cost a lot more. So JJ is here in our garage (it's storming outside) and we will be watching him closely. They only charged us $!28 for the visit but they really didn't have any idea what the problem is. I will call our vet in the morning and find out if she did indeed send the fax and pick up antibiotics and possibly steroids for inflammation. His eyes still look very red but at least we can see his irises. Sorry this is so long....I will post tomorrow and let you all know how he's doing. Those lesions are mysterious, but I truly am more worried and afraid if he can't drink or eat he has some kind of pharyngeal paralysis. I'll see if he shows any improvement overnight.
Dr Y said he had examined JJ and said he thought JJ had a lot of wasting of muscle mass, more than he should have at his age. He said it could be an underlying disease like cancer or any number of things. He thought JJ was a Wolfhound, the student corrected him and he said they'd had a lot of large breed dogs in today. Gee... With the questions he was asking I wondered if he'd even looked at my Vet's fax. He said nothing showed up on the fax log.
JJ's eyes seemed about 75% better than from Sat. Both the student and the Dr. said they'd never seen a dog's eyes look like that before. They seemed to downplay my dog's symptoms, the lesions in his mouth ( Dr Y said they had scabbed over and his tongue looked fine.) I asked about the swallowing problem and they said even if they offered him water he probably wouldn't drink because of the stress of being there....what? I asked if they could get him a bowl of water to try and see if he was able to drink and the student got one. JJ almost immediately started lapping the water for a long period of time. They said they thought he was swallowing but he really wasn't. He was drooling into the water while he was lapping.
They said if we admitted him, for the tests, MRI, ultrasound of abdomen and a complete battery of tests, it would be about $2,000. They suggested we take him home and monitor him and coax him to try to eat and drink and he doesn't get better we can bring him in and they would admit him. With Christmas and all, it will probably cost a lot more. So JJ is here in our garage (it's storming outside) and we will be watching him closely. They only charged us $!28 for the visit but they really didn't have any idea what the problem is. I will call our vet in the morning and find out if she did indeed send the fax and pick up antibiotics and possibly steroids for inflammation. His eyes still look very red but at least we can see his irises. Sorry this is so long....I will post tomorrow and let you all know how he's doing. Those lesions are mysterious, but I truly am more worried and afraid if he can't drink or eat he has some kind of pharyngeal paralysis. I'll see if he shows any improvement overnight.
Hi Linda. Its good news about getting JJ to the Texas A&M for a diagnosis. I would make sure you mention the cattle feed and anything else you think it is possible JJ could have ingested, as this may help the A&M staff direct their diagnosis and subsequent treatment. Do keep us posted. Hope everything works out and you get a diagnosis - at least then you will have something to work on. Big hugs, Tony
Hi Linda, no worries. Since I read your post about him having lesions in his mouth I don't really know now that the laryngeal paralysis would be a consideration any more. It certainly does sound more like there is some type of toxicity at work here. Hopefully they will be able to figure it out at A&M. In the meantime, thoughts and prayers for JJ's recovery will continue. Thanks for keeping us all posted.
Ghilly
Ghilly
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He was a fantastic dog and his memory will live on in all of us. I am so very sorry for your loss - and for the far too many other tragedies that you have experienced recently. Give your puppies an extra cuddle from me today and feel free to come here as often as you like to talk about JJ. Big big hugs from the UK, Tony x