HUC? Kidney Failure? Cancer?

[fitchmeister]

I will try to be brief but it is hard. My man Fitch is very sick and nothing points to anything. The first strange thing I noticed about him was when he was about 4 months old. He urinated in his sleep on about three different occasions. I passed it off as his being tired from playing so hard with the girls. The urination in his sleep stopped when he was about 6 months old and I never gave it a second thought. Until when he was about 16 months old and he did it again, and again. So needless to say, he was banned from sleeping with us. This did not happen very often, I'd say 5 times from the age of 4 months til 18 months. At 19 months(about 2 months ago) we began to notice he was eating grass and throwing up, again nothing alarming for me as I have seen dogs do this quite often, and having worked for a vet in my younger years knew this was not a tell tale sign of "worms". The vomiting became more frequent and being a single mom on a very low income, I decided to give him some worm med borrowed from a friend who has hunting dogs. This med only covered tape worms. All the while knowing I should be visiting a vet, I struggled with my finances. Finally, when he began to lose weight and no longer would eat his cheese treat when kenneling, I knew it was past time to go to a vet. I will just list what has taken place since then:

1st Visit (Weight 49 lbs)
1. two x-rays (nothing seen in the stomach or intestines)
2. dexamethasone injection
3. metronidazole (5 days worth)
4. Proplan EN (canned)(discontinued normal food-Science Diet)

2nd Visit (less than a week still vomiting violently and becoming lethargic;bouts of diarrhea; humped back)
1. barium study
2. stayed overnight (Pro Plan EN kept down)
3. Discontinued metronidazole

3rd Visit (Having trouble urinating or urinating frequently;drinking like crazy, lethargic)(46lbs) (no vomiting)(refusing to eat)
1. Urinalysis done on urine collected from the floor in the waiting room bc he had an accident.
2. Results: Blood in urine, HIGH whiteblood cell count, and casts
3. Vet suggested after hearing history, Kidney disease but treated for UTI
4. Cephalexin perscribed

4th Visit (Different Vet)
1. Blood work to check Kidney functions
2. Results: All within the normal ranges
3. Administered Tapeworm medicine
4. Baytril perscribed (cephalexin discontinued)
5. Told me to feed him whatever I could get him to eat(ate canned puppy science diet)
6. Discussed exploratory surgery with chance of finding possibly cancer and final decision made.

5th Visit (bright orange mucosy stool; very lethargic and humped back) (decided to bring for surgery)
1. Vet felt surgery was not necessary since he was eating and walking on his own
2. Discontinued Baytril
3. Perscribed Metronidazole
4. Back on EN
5. pack of probiotic daily on food

Five visits in as many or less weeks/$800/two vets/5 medications later and still no real diagnosis.

I will be giving him his last dose of Metronadizole tomorrow. Many ups and downs; mostly lethargic but will play sometimes. Stool still looks like sweet potato baby food. Tonight he wimpered when i urged him to get up from the pillow in the living room and come to my room. Was wabbly in the rear. Then walked slowly to my room and ploped down. Still there.

Teetering between watching the love of my life starve and the humane thing. This has been my life for many weeks now and it hurts like heck. He is my little buddy!!!!

Thanks for your patience, as I know this was very long, any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Gatorblu]

I don't understand why your first vet treated for a UTI if he thought it was kidney disease. And it does sound like kidney disease to me as well. Here is an article explaining kidney disease Kidney Disease: Causes, Signs, Diagnosis and Treatment in Dogs and Cats I just went thru this with my boy in Dec and it was very scary. If it is kidney disease at this point your pup will need to stay at the vets and be put on fluids to help him, and then go on a low protein diet, at least for a while. You can do a search on the internet and see if there is any programs nearby that can help with the costs. One program that might be able to help is United Animal Nations : Programs : LifeLine Grants Or maybe you can get a care credit card which will allow you to pay over time. Good luck and we're sending healthy ((vibes)) to Fitch.

 

[fitchmeister]

Thank You

Thank you for the info. I will check it out tonight. He threw up this morning for the first time in 6 days. He seems to be in alot of pain. My poor Man!

 

[Cami]

If the blood work showed normal kidney values it would be hard to say the kidneys were failing or diseased. The elevated white blood count could easily be a urinary tract, bladder or kidney infection.
I understand treating for the infection. Antibiotics can cause diarrhea, vomiting or both.
When you had the urinalysis done did they tell you the specific gravity? That is also a good indicator of the kidney function.
I'd almost want another urinalysis done and a clear sample not a free catch just to have no doubts. Depending on the results of that I would then ask for an ultrasound. Far better look at the insides in comparison to an x-ray.
The humped back is a good indicator if pain. Of course you have no idea where it is coming from. Could be refusing food due to not feeling well.
Doesn't seem the Metronidazole has ever made a difference. I know some use it long term for the anti-inflammatory properties but you have gone two rounds now with no change.
I'd almost have to break down and think about the use of short term prednisone (or similar) to see if the GI tract is just so overly inflamed that it is causing increased pain/discomfort/diarrhea issues.
Anything else OFF in the blood work or even low normal or high normal?
Would maybe take him off of all dog food and try a home cooked bland diet to give his internals a rest. So many changes in food and of course I am sure you trying whatever you could think of to offer him in an attempt to get him to eat.
How is his hydration? Might be safe to assume he could be dehydrated with so much vomiting, diarrhea, little moisture from not eating enough.
Dehydration can make them feel terribly nauseated as well.
Another thought....but not sure how the kidneys could be involved unless it was just coincidence.
Intestinal Lymphangiectasia?

 

[lmorey]

I agree with Cami about it not sounding like kidney failure. My male was diagnosed with JRD (juvenile renal dysplasia - aka kidney disease) at 10 months, and he was treated for a UTI at first also (Cephalexin, which he got violently ill from). He was also wetting the bed in his sleep frequently, and was prescribed Prion which had no effect. After rounds of urine tests, all of which came back extremely dilute (specific gravity very low), they decided to do a blood test that revealed that all of the major indicators of decreasing kidney function were there. We took him to a different vet to perform the ultrasound to confirm, and have treated him with various supplements and such since. You can search for older posts of mine to see what all we give him. Since his last blood work in January a little over a year after being diagnosed, all of his levels are now normal with the exception of creatine!
I would also agree with Cami about the bland diet. Cash wasn't wanting to eat much when he was first diagnosed, and our vet recommended boiling boneless, skinless chicken breasts and rice when his appetite wasn't there.
Good luck with your boy - I know how frustrating this can be!

 

[fitchmeister]

Update: Called vet today to see what was next as Fitch is done with the metronidazole and nearly done with the case of EN that I bought last week. Explained his apparent weekness and still lethargic behavior as well as the fact that he vomited this morning. Vet wants to go through with the exploratory surgery with the possibility of finding something like cancer and making the big decision at that point.

I have decided to wait on the surgery as I am not ready to let him go yet. I think I will try some of the things I have found in my research on Boxer colitus. I added one tblsp of pumpkin to his diet and will continue the probiotic. I also purchased pepcid AC and will start him tomorrow on it. As for his food, I think I will continue with the EN for now since he is eating it vigorously and doesn't throw it up. My delima right now is whether or not to start him back on baytril as I have several days worth left from two weeks ago when it was discontinued and to order some more online to give him a good three weeks of it. Not sure if this is the responsible thing to do. It just feels like the right thing for now bc I am not wanting him to have exploratory surgery.

If there is anyone out there who could share diet advice I would greatly appreciate it, I am at a loss on the diet part. Will he ever be able to eat hard food again?

 

[crazychopper]

Just another idea, ultrasound see if a vet in your area does it. They could see if there was tumors and the architecutre of the organs. It may tell you what you need to know without doing surgery

 

[fitchmeister]

I would love to be able to afford an ultrasound. For now I am just trying to help him as much as I can on what I can afford. The exploratory surgery was a last resort offer from his vet, pro bono. I am trying to give his system a break and him a chance since there have been so many changes in meds, and foods lately.

He has improved the last couple of days with the pepcid AC, pumpkin, EN, and probiotic. I boiled chicken tonight for him and he ate very good. His appetite has improved greatly and he seems to be up for longer periods of time. I will continue to do this as long as he improves and hopefully buy some time to save for an ultrasound if I can find a vet that has an ultrasound machine. I live in Southern Louisiana so the vets are not advanced in equipment in the area I live in. Sort of still in the "old school" way of doing things here.

Not sure how other vet schools are in other states, but the LSU vet school is very expensive and your dog has to meet certain requirements for them to even be seen there, so that is not an option for me either. The last thing I want to do is put him through an unnecessary surgery.

 

[BostonGeorge]

What part of Southern Louisiana are you from? Most should have that type of equipment or be able to refer you to a vet or specialist that does. Have you been in touch with the LSU vet school?? Most of the time you just need your vet to call for you. I know they can be expensive, but I've also heard about them being very flexible with payment schedules.