Need advice for ailing little girl in Nebraska...

[LaylaLuMom]

Hi everyone,

I'm a first time Boxer owner and I couldn't be more in love with my Layla Lu. We adopted her from a Humane Society out of state that rescued her from a "kill shelter". We have only had her since Nov 2008. They estimated she was roughly 1 year old at that time. She is not doing well at all and I am at my wits end with the vets.

She started having bloody stools at the end of January. I thought maybe she got into something and waited a day or so for them to stop. The blood became worse and started dripping from her hind end on to the stool as she strained and her poor little back legs shook like she was gonna fall over! I took her to the vet right away. They put her on a few meds to calm her tummy and an anti-biotic. I had brought in a stool sample and they tested...no worms. They thought inflammatory bowel disease.

I'll try to be brief as I have been through two vets, an urgent care vet and several blood tests, urine test, fecal tests and xrays.

Currently Layla only weighs 34 pounds!!! She dropped this weight suddenly at the end of Feb/begginning of March. The most she ever weighed was 46. We have been trying to put the weight on her since we got her from the HS where she looked a little underweight as it was. Now she looks emaciated. I cry everytime I look at her becasue I don't now how to fix her.

I have tried several different food options. Right now she is on vet Rx Duck and Potato canned food. 1/2 can twice per day. (at one point they had me feeding her 8 cups of dry food per day to see if the weight would come back on...she only gained 2 lbs.)

Her last blood test showed an overwhelming infection. Her WBC was at 22.5 and her neutrophils are up over 19,000. Her urine came back with white blood cells in it even though it's still concentrated they said. So they think she ALSO has a urinary/bladder infection. We are on her 3rd round of anti-biotics since Feb 4.

Her xrays showed no blockages but she did have thicked intestinal walls visible on the xray.

She has high cholesterol. ???? I do not feed her any type of human food, never have. ANd her cholesterol keeps going up. I have had her on every "sensitive stomach/low residue food".

I have done plenty of research and think she may have a severe case of histiocytic ulcerative colitis. She also has a whitish/crusted lump on her face which the vet thinks is a histiocytoma. But the vets won't give me a straight answer. They say the only way to know for sure is do exploratory abdominal surgery!

My question is...has anyone run into these kinds of problems...bowel problems with infections and weight loss? What are some good ideas besides medication and duck food? Because my sweet baby girl just doesn't seem to be getting any better. :(

Currently she is on Clavamox, Prednisone 40mg /day, sulfasalazine.

Any advice would be immensely appreciated,

~Adrianne
*Layla Lu ~ Brindle Adoptee Born Nov 2007 (we think)

 

[ELubas]

Poor little girl! Trying to dig in my memory as my last girl had some similiar issues and we were going to scope her-get a picture of her tummy, bowels, etc. through ultrasound (She passed before we could do it but UNRELATED so do not freak out). Is that an option that has been discussed? At least you might get some info without having to go through surgery? I will keep your little LaylaLu in my thoughts

 

[LaylaLuMom]

to scope her-get a picture of her tummy, bowels, etc. through ultrasound

my vet hasn't mentioned this possibility. They have suggested either a barium enema...which I don't know what that will show since there isn't much room for thinking she has an obstruction as the stool is passing just fine. Although the BE could show us if there was any bowel twisting...but I thought they might have seen that on the xrays since they were able to see the wall thickening.And then they suggested the surgery.

I have another appt at the vets tomorrow and I will ask about this option. Did they say that they would be able to do a biopsy of any kind with a scope? The vet said the only way to get a definitive answer would be a biopsy. I know that in humans
we can get a biopsy of heart tissue through arterial catheterzation. I'm not sure if anything similar is available for dogs. ...Back to my research.

Thank you for the great suggestion! And thank you for your thoughts. We both appreciate them.

~Adrianne

 

[ELubas]

The way I understood it was it would be a picture but far more detailed than an xray would give you. They may have planned on using barium but I am not sure. We were goign to an ultrasound clinic that does only ultrasound. She had terrible diarrhea, poor appetite, and very,very low platelet count. At the time she was being treated for a tic borne disease and was on doxy. Poor little Ailis, she was actually trembling, and then I lost her to BCM. But it really sounds like your girl. I will think good thoughts for you both.

 

[LaylaLuMom]

Your poor girl. I'm so sorry.

Layla doesn't seem to have a low platelet count and they say her heart is in good condition. Her hind quarters tremble every once in while though. Almost every day or every other day. She'll shake when we are outside and it's not that cold out anymore. When it was cold, that was understandable. I think it's because she has no fat left on her body.

I did some research based on dogfoodanalysis.com and I think I'm going to try Wellness Core or Wellness Super5mix kibble for her next. Those both got a 6 star and 5 star rating respectively. It turns out that all the foods I have been giving her, even the ones prescribed by the vet have been pretty poor quality food. And they have been corn and grain based, which I just read that boxers do not respond well to.

I'll keep on trying.

 

[jzaun]

Betty struggled with tummy problems for about 4 months before we finally ended up taking her to the University of Minnesota for an ultrasound and endoscopy. She was diagnosed with imflammatory bowel disease. Although she never really had the bloody stools, she did suffer from throwing up almost daily and weight loss. We switched her to a raw diet, and she has flourished. Now and then, I will have to give her a pepcid ac if she seems to be having a slight flare-up, but she has finally gained weight, and has not thrown up for close to a year (knock on wood). I would suggest maybe having an ultrasound and/or endoscopy done. It isn't cheap, but for the money spent running back and forth to your local vet, I feel it is money well spent to get to the bottom of it. Good luck. I know how frustrating it can be! Keep us posted on how things are going.
Julie
Mom to Betty, flashy fawn, cropped, docked

 

[djheitz]

From personal experience, I can tell you that the barium will help find any areas of diseased bowel. It will show up differently on the xray than healthy bowel does. Anytime my Crohn's flares up, my choice is either the barium or a colonoscopy to see which part of the intestine is involved and how much. Sulfasalazine is one of my daily meds, too.

I second trying out the raw diet, too. The fewer processed foods the better for IBD, and I've heard of many dogs who do a 100% turn around once they are eating raw. (haven't tried it for myself, though )

Good luck and I'll be sending some better tummy vibes your way.

 

[Gruntsmom]

Oh, your poor baby girl! :( And you must be so worried. Sending out lots of healing and positive vibes for your Layla Lu. I think I would go with a scope or even the BE too before an exploratory. Have you considered consulting with an internal medicine specialist or getting another opinion, if you haven't done so already? I keep you both in my thoughts and hope for the very best for your girl. Please keep us posted.

 

[EAO76]

Colitis is pretty common in boxers. If you haven’t already, Google “boxer colitis”. I am not an expert & I have never had a boxer with colitis but I have seen a few come in to the rescue that I volunteer for & it is very difficult to get under control. If you have a boxer rescue near you that is reputable you might want to reach out to them for a referral for a good vet that knows boxers. Some rescues just use which ever vets are cheapest but other rescues have teams of vets that know the breed very well. So it’s hit or miss but it’s worth at least making the call to see if they can point you in a good direction.

Also as another poster mentioned it might be worth seeking out your nearest university vet hospital.

Honestly I wouldn’t try the Wellness Core (or any food like that) I really think that will make her condition worse. You want foods that have very few ingredients and are easy on the stomach. Also it’s not good to do raw right off the bat. If she has open bleeding intestines you don’t want to introduce more bacteria. After she heals you could try raw but for now I would suggest home cooking (if you dont want to feed kibble or canned).

Below is a link to “The Colitis Diet that Works” which was written by a boxer rescue.
http://www.boxer-rescue-la.com/colitisdiet.html

 

[gmacleod]

Personally, I'd try raw food if the problem is colitis - especially ulcerative colitis. Very few colitis dogs can tolerate kibble, or any other highly processed foods.

The vast majority, on the other hand, seem to do extremely well on natural raw food (no grains or vegetables). There are many many threads on this board about colitis, going back for years. Most of the solutions are found in the raw feeding forum