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!

 

Pancreatitis 2 and crystal in his urine

4/20/2014

Today vet called me about the result of his urine test. It looks like they found crystal(magnesium, ammonium, phosphate) in his urine. However, there are no drug I could give him at this point.

I asked him what should I do? The vet told me that Big Steve need to drink a lot of water so that crystal might come out with pee. The vet also told me that we can give him urinary health diet food for dog.

In terms of water, vet recommended me to give him just a pinch of lite salt in his food to make him thirsty or give ice cube. I tried ice cube, but he didn’t like it.  I have been using a syringe to give him water in his mouth, but it’s a tough job since he spills the water I just gave him from the side of his mouth.

At this point, I just need to be extra careful if he is straining when he is peeing.

 

Pancreatitis

It’s been a long time since the last post. Big Steve has been doing great and enjoy the weather in here and some social time at dog park every weekend. Today, I just want to update his medical history.

Feb. 17 2014

Big Steve had to take his teeth out. He took 10 teeth out! (>_<。)

 

Mar. 20th 2014

Big Steve throw up twice at night.

Mar. 21st 2014

He didn’t have much apatite. He also had a soft stool around that time, so we thought something must bothered his stomach.

Mar. 24th 2014

He was eating fine but looked a bit lethargic and his fart smelled bad.

Some time that week we noticed his pee color looked a bit darker yellow.

April 1st 2014

I took Big Steve to his vet. The vet said he has jaundice. His eyes and ear color got yellowish. After the exam and hearing my explanation about what is going on with Big Steve, he checked his blood and took X-Ray. The vet told me that vomiting, stinky fart, and loss of apatite may indicate liver damage.  However, the result of blood test and X-Ray didn’t show the damage of his liver. In order to find the problem, Big Steve needed to take ultrasound. Since the vet didn’t have the machine, I took him to another vet close by.

That day I got Clavamox 1/2 every 12 hours and Denamarin 1 tablet with empty stomach 1 hour before meal everyday. Clavamox is Antibiotic and used for Bacterial infections. Denamarin is for his liver.

April 4th 2014

Big Steve got ultrasound. The vet found out that Big Steve has pancreatitis that could cause liver damage or gallbladder problem. The vet told us to keep the medications we got from our primary vet and also added 2 more pills.

Ursodiol 1/2 every day and Cerenia 1 tablet for 4 days. Ursodiol is used to dissolve gallstones. Cerenia is used for antinausea.

I attached the part of the document I received from the vet.
*Prednisolone is a pill Big Steve has been taking since he has autoimmune hemolytic anemia.

We also got some sample of low fat canned food from the vet. It contains crude fat (min)1% ~ crude fat(max)2.5%. This is a very low fat content, but I also see by-products listed as an ingredient. So I tried to find a low fat canned food without by-product at pet food express which is known as a healthy pet food store. However, the best I could find was crude fat (min) 3%. I put photo of the canned food I got at the vet and the label. Hope you can see it.

BTW, Big Steve really loved it and got his apatite back!

 

April 6th 2014.

I could see his jaundice has gotten better.

April 7th 2014.

I went to the vet to get 4 more Cerenias.

April 16th 2014.

I still give him a low fat canned food the best I can find at pet food express. He loves it! I called the 2nd vet as I was directed to do so. The person I talked to told me that Big Steve need to be checked the chemistry, PCB. I had no idea what that means. She didn’t explained what that is, but she said the vet will know what that is… Since she told me that I can take him to his primary vet, I brought Big Steve to his primary vet to check his blood. The result showed his condition has gotten a lot better, but still not the normal level.

April 18th 2014.

Big Steve is not peeing enough as usual and my husband was so worried about him, so we took Big Steve to our primary vet today. They took his urine sample to check if there is any sand, crystal, blood… What they did was put the tube in his penis and if it doesn’t go through that means there are something piling up, but the tube went through which was a good news. They will call and let  us know the result and the course of treatment tomorrow.

I also bought more low fat canned food at this vet since the price was lower here than the other vet.