Big Steve lost his weight?

May 27th 2014

Big Steve has been eating GI low fat canned food since this April. I can see he lost his weight. When I touch around his berry, I can stretch his belly skin. Whenever I go to the kitchen, he comes with me expecting he could get some food.

Since he got some rash (because of food?), I didn’t want to risk anything to cause any health problem on him. So I only give him what his vet told me that I can give him.

Today, I called the vet to ask if I can give him steamed sweet potatoes and carrots. They said that I can give him both of them. So, I started to give him seamed sweet potatoes!

Dog Park

May 24th 2014

Big Steve is not scratching since I stop giving SO. I don’t know if he has allergy or not, but I don’t want him to suffer anymore. At this point, he’s been eating and peeing well, and his pee color is fine, and we make sure to take him outside to pee.

My recent concern is that I sometimes find him drooling while he is walking outside to pee. It looks like brownish a bit. I think it’s the canned food. I wonder if this is because of the heat? or is this because we put water in his food? Is it too much water for him? However, since we can’t treat him with SO, we need to make sure that he is drinking enough and pees a lot to prevent forming crystal. We keep a close eye on him. We hope he is okay.

Well other than my concern, he seems pretty healthy, easy going, and happy boy as usual.:) The photos are from French Bulldog meet up!

My dog is scratching again.

May 22nd 2014

Yesterday. the May 21st, Big Steve started to scratch himself again. It’s not that bad, and we couldn’t find any rash on his body. However, this morning Big Steve was scratching himself again and there was red spot under his arm and small rash around his inner hind leg. I wander what the vet would think and do about this, so I called the vet and explained his condition.

They told me to stop giving him SO again and said that they will call me sometime next week.

 

Start adding SO to his food again.

May 16th 2014

Today, I went to the Vet to get his GI low fat canned food. Big Steve’s primary vet told me that I should start to give him SO again. I was a bit surprised to be told to do so since Big Steve had rash that was unsure of an exact cause. I asked them if there are other urinary healthy type of canned food. They told me that there are some brand, but they all are kind of high fat content.

I had no choice but to start to add few SO to his GI low fat canned food again.

having fun at a dog park

May 10th. 2014

Big Steve is doing great everyday. He is enjoying cool breath and sunlight.

If he is doing fine, we take him to the dog park every Saturday. Since he is doing great, we took him to the dog park. All he needs is something to eat and drink and pee & poo and fun social time! 🙂

His rash has gone!

May 9th 2014

It looks like Benadryl worked! He is not scratching or licking anymore.

I wonder what was the cause of all this? Urinary SO, maybe? Now he is off from the Urinary SO and only getting GI low fat canned food as his vet directed to us. Also the vet changed the dosage of his prednisolone. He is going to take only a half prednisolone a week. I hope he is going to be okay with the change.  Anyway, I’m glad he is not being  itchy so bad.:)

I have’n been taking him to trail since he got foxtail, but it’s been a nice weather for walk, so recently, I take him to nearby trail again. I bring stroller with us so that when Big Steve gets tired or where there are foxtails, I can put him on the stroller. I think he kinda like it! 🙂

Everything is coming together and I’m really happy to see him being healthy and happy.

Photo is at a dog park nearby in 2012. Sep. 8th. Big Steve and Sophie(It’s not our Sophie:))

He has gotten a lot better from Pancreatitis, but He has skin rash now.

4/28/2014

Because the vet found tiny amount of crystal in his urine, they gave us a sample of Urinary SO, the one it’s a moderate calorie from Royal Canin. They  wanted me to switch to Urinary SO slowly, so I’m adding a little bit of Urinary SO to his GI low fat canned food diet. Vet recommend us to give him a lot of water. 600mg is recommended for his size. However, he won’t drink water. So I’m giving him food with water I am measuring each time. He’s been getting a lot of water now!:)

5/5/2014

He liked the food, and now his urine color looks normal, and I can tell he is doing great just by looking at him. He had his blood test on May 5th, and result came out 100% normal and it looks great. So vet told me to stop the remaining medication that I have been giving to him, Denamarin andUrsodiol.

5/8 (Thursday)

Big Steve threw up this morning. I know he was licking himself from 2 to 3 am last night. I took him out to pee. After that he went to sleep. However, at 6:00 am this morning, he threw up. He was also scratching himself.

At around 4:00 pm, my husband found that Big Steve had some hives on his skin. So, we gave him ½ tablet of allergy pill(12.5mg) since we remembered in the past when Big Steve had allergy reaction, the vet told us to give him a ½ tablet of Benadryl. After that, I called the vet to tell about it. The nurse asked me if I could take him to the vet soon, so I took him to the vet immediately.

Big Steve’s vet was not at the office today, so the other DR. had to learn about him and examined him.

The vet was not sure the reason of all this or why he threw up, but he suspect food allergy, chicken? wheat? in Urinary SO… or other allergy?

The instruction I got was as followed.

1. Continue Benadryl (Diphenhydramine) non-cold formula 25mg 1 tablet every 8 hours until hives resolve
2. Give ½ Benadryl when I get home (since I already gave ½ tablet)
3. Give 5mg prednisolone tonight (We usually give him prednisolone 2.5mg on Mon. and Friday)

Anyway Big Steve’s vet is gonna be at office tomorrow and we’ll talk about Big Steve.

BTW, he is not scratching himself anymore and sleeping now. Also his hives has almost all gone already. Great!