Well…isn’t this an improvement.  I am optimistic at the moment.  People reading this will probably think that I am very strange….but the other night I was laying on the couch in a real funk, looking at my emaciated dog, tears coming to my eyes thinking of her death….So, then I asked Yanert (that is another lonnnggg blog post that since his death at 3.5 years old last November I haven’t been barely able to even talk about him) to send me some advice about Onyx.  Well, this “thing” just popped into my mind and I decided to try it.  I’m not going to say what it is at the moment for I know that Onyx sometimes has a little “bloop” where she can be OK for a day and I think I have got the problem licked…..but after 2 days of this new regime she is not splatting, her stools actually have “turd forms” to them and she isn’t going out through the night.  She seems very chipper.

This might seem “new age”, spiritual or just plain crazy to some, but I do believe that if you leave yourself open to the thoughts and feelings of the universe, often you will hear and see things that you normally would pass over.

She may relapse and start splatting again and then this post WILL be crazy….but for the moment I have hope again.

Well….the new drug doesn’t seem to be working.  I had high hopes last night as I fed her late and added some of the cholestyramine powder.  It is made for humans and comes in “delicious” orange flavor.  I just  mixed part of a packet with her food.  For the first night in years she didn’t go out at all through the night.  This morning she had splats but nothing severe.  As the day wore on though it seemed she got worse.  I don’t know if it is the combination of all the drugs or that this particular one she is reacting to.  She had liquid diarrhea most of the day, including in the house and into my yard shoes……

So tonight I just gave her a little food, soaked with some of the cholestyramine.  So far so good.  Maybe it is too much food.  Maybe the drug combo…maybe maybe maybe.  It is frustrating and heartbreaking when no one can figure out what can help this dog.  In the meantime I look at her emaciated skinny body and wonder how much longer she can go on.

sigh.

Well, we are into the chemical soup now.  She had a very bad night last night.  A lot of diarrhea.  I think she went outside 5 times through the night.  Food just goes straight through her.

So I called the vet and she called in 2 more drugs that I picked up tonight at Fred Meyer’s.  Metronidazole is one of them.  This is commonly used for diarrhea if something like giardia is suspected.  But Onyx has been tested for that and doesn’t have it but often it can flare up with repeated diarrhea episodes.

I also was given a drug that is often used in people to lower cholesterol.   But it is also supposed to stop diarrhea.  It is called cholestyramine.  It comes in packets of orange flavored powder you mix with water.  yum.  sounds delicious…..for a dog??…..So when I got home from work tonight I sprinkled some on her food.  With her weight only being 33 pounds (she has gained a pound back in the last week amazingly enough) I doubt she is supposed to get the whole packet.  So I will be curious to see if it does work.  I think if we can just get this horrid diarrhea stopped then maybe she can absorb some nutrients.

Never in my life did I think I would have a dog on this many drugs.   I myself wouldn’t take this kind of chemical soup but when it seems to be the last resort, well, I guess I’m willing to try almost anything for Onyx.

 
Just a beautiful picture of Chanel.

The name kind of makes the pit of my stomach turn and my heart lurch.  This is a disease mainly of older dogs where they get tumors either on the adrenal glands or on the pituitary.  The result is an extreme over production of cortisol which can cause all kinds of havoc in a dog.  Chanel may have it.  Chanel is one of very few dogs that I have had since an 8 week old puppy.  She was a wheezer and there wasn’t much hope for her life.  I took her thinking that at least I could give her a good year of life rather than her being put down at a young age.  Well…Chanel turned 13 years old on June 4th and ran great all last winter.

But this spring she started drinking huge quantities of water and being pretty lethargic.  I took her in for blood work and her liver enzymes are elevated plus her white count is low.  Both signs, along with the increased thirst, of Cushings.  I didn’t do anything for a couple of weeks as I researched the disease.  Some people opt not to treat at all.  The prognosis is about the same….a life expentancy of 2 more years.  But without treatment, a cushings dog pants a lot, drinks tons of water, can become incontinent (luckily Chanel can hold it for a long time and rarely goes in the house) and gets a large layer of fat that develops around their abdomen resulting in a very big pot belly.  Their joints start to disintegrate, their muscles mass disappears and infections are common.  But they can live 2 years like this as the disease progresses.  Or you can treat….there are many different drugs and some of them have bad side effects.  But, if one can work then it can hold the disease at bay for awhile with a better quality of life.

Chanel went in for the Cushings test yesterday.  After fasting and initial blood draw, they give them a very low dose of dexamethiprine then take blood at 6 hours and 8 hours.  I brought her home after the initial blood draw and Don took her back (I was working that day) at 6 hours and I picked her up an hour later and sat with her until the 8 hour draw.  It was sent out and the cortisol levels will be checked.  We won’t get results back for 2 weeks so I will be reading and thinking about the treatments. 

On one hand, she has had an amazing life.  And to make it to 13 years is great for a wheezer!!  (also her 2 brothers have already died of other things).  But, selfishly, I don’t want to put her down if I can make her more comfortable for awhile and dampen back some of these symptoms.

I’ll update when we get results.

Well, at least we know.  Diagnosis from the biopsy: Moderate to severe lymphoplasmacytic and eosinophilic enteritis with central lacteal dilation, mild multifocal chronic LP gastritis…..

We have done just about everything diet wise as you have read in previous posts.  Even the supplements like Digestin and GI Cell support that have worked really great for a couple of our other senstive digestive dogs have not helped Onyx.  From an expert in Seattle the only treatment are 2 different immunosuppresant drugs.  Since Onyx did terrible before on prednisone she is now on Budesonide every day.  Added to that is Azathioprine.  That is the “nasty” drug.  Careful monitoring of neutrophils is critical as this drug is very toxic.  But….if we don’t try something then Onyx will die.  The vet in Seattle said only 50% of these dogs get better and live.  sigh.

She is down to 32 pounds.  A bag of bones.  Her energy levels and attitude though are almost like any other dog.  She still has her beautiful sleek black coat (even while shedding!) and her eyes are bright and cheery.

We have also switched her food.  Something I swore that I would never do (and I become quite obnoxious on my soap box about this) is to feed a “dog food” with corn in it.  We have Onyx on Science Diet I/D both dry and canned.  The dry food has the first ingredient as corn.  No dog should eat a diet of corn!!  I’m so against all these dogs foods that have corn, especially as the first ingredient.  But obviously Onyx can’t process anything else.  So, now her stools are nothing but yellow corn.  ugh.  BUT…our vet has ordered a different very low fat dog food.  It should be in soon.  I’m curious to see what the ingredients are.  It is not a Science Diet food.  (If you read most of the labels on all the Hills/Science Diet regular foods, they are full of corn and corn products.  Why????—cheap fillers that turns to fat.  No wonder our pet population is obese)

She doesn’t seem to be processing this food either.  The vet did say it could get a little worse before her body starts to react to the drugs and begin the healing process.  She is on pretty high doses right now and the object is to get her stabilized and digesting food, then start to slowly wean her off the high doses to where she can maintain with the smallest amount of drugs.

So we continue to battle with this disease.  I will keep this updated as to her progress.

Well….after months (years) of going around and around with Onyx and her diet, she had exploratory surgery today.  In the past we kind of managed to keep her at 40 pounds by changing her diet frequently.  Seemed that she would do well on one food but after a week start having blowouts again.  We would change the food and it would happen again.  We tried dog food of various kinds and cooked chicken.  We had her on many different drugs (metronidizole, prednisone) none of which worked and only made it worse.  She took Digestin and GI Cell Support for months which really helped another one of our sensitive dogs, but they didn’t work for her.  Her weight has been dropping and her protein levels in her body are low.  So she is basically starving to death even while eating 4 times a day.

So she got 7 samples taken from her intestines, stomach and liver.  The results should be in early next week and we can maybe find out what is really going on with this girls body.