My dogs liver's failing

Francesanne

dawnie1972 wrote: »

Hi everyone, thank you for your kind thoughts. Milo did not improve over the weekend except for eventually yesterday taking some cooled fishy water (i'd boiled some fish and drained the juices) that I put into a syringe then squirted onto my hand as he licked it off so this morning he was admitted to the vet hospital. The vet was fantastic and explained everything thoroughly to me and I left him there to have ultrasounds etc, an hour later the vet rang to say that there are no tumours on the liver or anywhere else, what he does have is a massive inflamation of the gall bladder and a thickening of the fluids in that area (think i've got that right), the vet is hopeful that this is a major infection that has affected other parts of his body so he is on a fluid drip with antibiotics and the vet is hopeful of some improvement in the next 36 hours, if not he will have to have a biopsy, so whilst the news this morning was better than expected we still have a long way to go but are hopefully on the right path. Feel like i've lost my right arm and this weekend my heart has been ripped to shreds, I have 3 dogs but Milo and I are a unit, we fit together, he doesnt work without me and I dont work without him. Please keep praying for him. x

Praying very hard that Milo makes a full & fast recovery. Can imagine what you're going through & hope you're coping OK. Stay strong for Milo. Lots of get well vibes being sent his way. xxx

dawnie1972

Hi guys - thanks for all your good wishes.
After a very restless night and being awake since 4.00am and spending all morning feeling nervously sick 9.30am finally came so i could ring up about Milo. Had a chat with the head nurse who was fantastic, he's doing ok and fighting it, the vet strongly believes he has collagel hepatitis so they have started him on a further medication this morning and hopefully that'll do the trick, he's perked up a bit since yesterday but is still very poorly, she said that he will never ever have a fully functioning liver again but that shouldnt affect his quality of life etc but obviously its going to make a big change to his way of life etc. However, my little boy is causing them a few problems as he's chewing through the muzzle, the buster collar and the drip feed!! She said he really really doesnt wanna be there and has even managed to work out that if he gets his buster collar into the corner of the cage in such a way he can rip his drip feed down! if there's someone in the room with him he's fine but the minute they turn their backs on him or leave the room he's off again!! It did make me chuckle (havent done that for a while) and she said that whilst i took in a yellow banana yesterday they now have a monkey with a yellow banana! But the good thing to take out of it is that he's obviously feeling a little better and well enough to misbehave! If however he continues with these antics and gets more stressed at being there they would consider sending him home with 24hr backup care but he would have to be supervised 24/7. She said he's still a very poorly dog and is still in the "forest" but that the routes out of the forest are looking clearer. If he has a good day today they are going to redo the blood tests tomorrow and hopefully if those have improved they are on the right tracks. She said realistic not to expect him home bfore Thursday or Friday. I asked if this could of been avoided ie with vaccination and she said no, I also asked about my concerns that this may have had something to do with what he ate on the river bank a couple of weeks ago and she said whilst it may have had a contribution to it they feel that this has been brewing for a while due to the severity of it etc. If I get him home its gonna be a massive learning curve and he's going to have to be watched closely to ensure he doesnt steal anything he shouldnt eat etc - i may also have to consider muzzling him when out walking to prevent him from eating anything. But, a bit more positive news. So fingers crossed he'll continue to make progress and be back home with me very soon.

Pulliptears will pm you my email address as any information you have would be a great help. Thank you

SnowyOwl_2

That is very very encouraging Dawnie - I hope he's back home sooner rather than later. I know you'll move heaven and earth to get him onto the right road to recovery. Your vet and vet nurses sound like they are doing a fantastic job as well.

I'll keep my fingers Xed that things continue to improve.

pulliptears

Very encouraging indeed! He sounds like a fighter!

I've met a few people now who have hepatic dogs, depending on how much liver function is left they can live very well if the condition is managed, and it sounds like Milo was picked up fairly quickly. It usually involves permanent antibiotics to flush the toxins and Jack is also on something called 'Distamine' (a human arthritic medicine by accounts!) which stops copper adhering to his liver, the cause of his hepatitis in the first place.

You need to take care with infections etc, Jack can't have his boosters because at present they simply won't work so I have to be careful where he goes. Liver dogs are more prone to infection but the antibiotics usually keep you on top of that. They are also more prone to skin conditions, we are currently fighting a battle to get his face under control as he's broken out in spots and scabs.

I was very doom and gloom for a while when Jack was diagnosed, but came to the conclusion that every day I have a waggy dog is a bonus.

One thing I forgot to mention, though I think its in the PDF I sent you, we read in several places that feeding boiled water rather than tap water is beneficial. Jack has his own fridge in the porch full of bottles of his water and his food hehe

Fingers crossed this is the start of recovery for Milo and that he goes on to be your little boy for many years to come

dawnie1972

Thanks Pulliptears I will look at the info this evening.
Milo isnt vaccinated - its personal choice and i did a lot of research and took a lot of advice and live by the rule that we are just adding chemicals to their natural immune system, i have been told today that as a result of this illness he may not be able to be vaccinated now due to adding more chemicals to his body. I'm going to get as much info as I can from the vets - one of his readings was 2000 when the highest it should have been was 200. The other thing I need to bear in mind is that he has a problem with one of his legs - he's fine until he runs at full stretch then he stiffens up and can hardly walk the next day, he was on joint aid and going to hydrotherapy but I stopped that and put him on a food called Symply which had high levels of gluacosamin etc and he's been a lot better since so i need to find out how to manage that. Milo's never had skin problems although one of my other dogs used to, she used to get eaten alive by field mights etc and we tried everything until we found a miracle cure - Wilkinsons Eucalyptus shampoo - she went from a dog that hated water to one that used to sit by the bath every time we came home from a walk and I'd bath her in this shampoo - she's been problem free for about 2 years now. If you want to try that i would highly recommend it - if you cant find it in your shop let me know as I'm sure i've got a spare bottle at home as havent had to use it on dolly for ages.
And yes, I will fight till my dying breath to keep him with me, I have 3 dogs and love all 3 but with Milo its different, me and him are soulmates, we fit together, and we dont work without each other, this week has truly been the worst week of my life and last night was the worst night ever - theres such a massive hole in my life at the moment. I hope that he has age on his side as he's only 8 years old and has a very high natural reactive system so if anything bad gets into him normally he gets rid of it quite quickly. I'm counting the hours/days till he's back on my sofa having mummy cuddles.

pulliptears

Thanks Dawn. I have a bottle of Eucalyptus I use on my Westie, never occurred to try it on Jack as we just use the prescription shampoo that doesn't seem to do a lot. I might give him a bath in that tomorrow and see if it helps. I'm currently using a little zinc cream on his nose too as it seems to help a bit. Our worry though is he has a further complication with something called Heptacutanous Disease, which is directly linked to his condition.
Jack has a glucosamine tablet every day. The lady in our local health shop is really helpful and she will work out what he needs and at what dosage, can't thank her enough really she's been fabulous!

What complicated Jack was his first set of liver readings were also 2000, with him being a Scottie there were 2 lines of thinking initially, 1, Scotties can have naturally high readings and 2, Scotties are prone to cushings disease. It seemed like an eternity to finally get to the diagnosis but Copper Storage is so incredibly rare (and rarer still in his breed) it was the last thing anyone would have guessed. Jack was also 8 on diagnosis, he's 9 now, a day we didn't think we'd see, that said we never thought we'd see Christmas so we are over the moon at the moment.

All you can do is keep hoping, keep trying and be there for them. Its so hard isn't it.
xx

dawnie1972

Just to let you know Milo came home last night, he's still very very poorly and on the seesaw (ie could tip any way) but vet felt that a weekend at home was the boost that he needed, so we're having lots of cuddles n chilling out (and trying not to think about the bill I paid last night).

rising_from_the_ashes

So glad he's home Dawnie & I do think being there will perk him up (they so hate being away from loved ones) - please give him a big squeeze from me.

winterwhite11

hi, hows your dog, i hope he is ok.

dawnie1972

He's ok thank you - has his good days but has his bad days as well, he's maintaining his weight and the jaundice is getting better, getting him to eat is a struggle but i think its all a big game to him, they wanted him to eat Royal Canin Hepatic and gave me some of the wet food to try - he wasnt having any of that (luckily for me or would've cost me £178 a month to feed him that!) but he is eating the dry version so that will help if he can eventually eat the required amount. I got quite worried about his eating just before xmas and took him back to vets as he'd hardly eaten for 2 days, vet opened a pouch of pedigree which he promptly scoffed down almost taking the dish as well - made me look like a right idiot!, but he's back at vets next Monday so hopefully he'll have either put on weight or maintained it, its one day at a time at the moment but his old character is coming back a little and he's happy enough in himself. Apparently he even had the senior vet nurse climbing into his cage with him when he was at the vet hospital in an attempt to get him to eat, he's such an attention seeker!