At Wit’s End
Posted: 28 May 2020, 09:49
Hi,
This is going to be long—sorry in advance.
My dog, Skippy is an 18 year old chihuahua. About 6-8 months ago, I noticed he started to get skinnier. Despite my feeding him the same amount and becoming more generous with food, he wouldn’t put on any weight, so I chalked this up to his old age. His vet told me it was atrophy because he is old. Ok fine, seemed logical.
Around that same time, he started needing assistance from me to poop. I hold him in one arm and gently massage and squeeze down there almost as if expressing the glands, to get him to get it out. He has suffered from some kind of spine/nerve disorder for years and years now, so it seemed reasonable that those muscles have lost their functionality, hence. His back legs are pretty much paralyzed now too, but that has been progressing since he was idk 11 or 12. I was doing the squeezing thing at times, but as time has passed it has become more frequent until now, that I haven’t seen him take a dump on his own In months.
Beginning of March, I could tell something was off. He seemed uncomfortable. I waited to see if it would pass but it got worse. I took him to the vet After he pooped something that looked like purplish jam and he was diagnosed with pancreatitis. Did the whole 9 yards iv fluids no food etc etc for a couple days and he didn’t really get better. I took him to another vet. I left him there overnight for 2 nights hoping that he would get better with round the clock care. He did. I brought him home and started his new diet of hills z/d.
He was fine for a while, but it came back some weeks later. Back to the iv fluids at vet. Brought him home, he was good another couple of weeks. And then the same thing. His vet suggested hyperbaric treatment sessions. I took him to about 15 sessions and he really did not seem any better. It was now beginning of May.
I did more bloodwork. He had become anemic. He was now so skinny that it became painful to even look at him and hold him. The vet suggested I just put him to sleep. I went home with him and was trying to spend a last few days with him but I just could not believe that this stupid thing was going to kill him and there was nothing that could be done.
I feel like my vet was kind of over treating him so often as I was taking him to the vet several times a week. You should know that in my area, he was the inky vet nearby at one point, but in the last 3 or 4 years, so many high rises have been built in my neighborhood and so many people live here now, and I could tell that he is completely slammed with patients, whether it’s right or wrong, the consequence was the same, I felt brushed off and that skippy was dismissed as just an old dog and it’s time to let him go.
I have had him for 18 years. I don’t care what the vet says. I know exactly when he is thirsty, I know when he needs to pee, I know when he needs to poop, I know when he’s in pain and I know when he is happy. It goes without saying that I KNOW there is something there that is making him sick and it’s not solely attributed to old age. He was completely fine before the pancreatitis business began in March and it’s simply not possible that from one few weeks to the next, his age just became too much for him.
So I’m spending the last few days with him before taking him to be put down but he is just inconsolable at this point. Constant crying, whining, yelping, screaming. I tried everything. I didn’t sleep for days. This was the worst week of my entire life. And for Skippy too.
I noticed that he became more agitated usually immediately or shortly after I would feed him. I also noticed that his stomach would audibly gurgle around this time too. Mealtime seemed to be triggering whatever was happening with him.
His crying would prompt me to pull out my phone and start googling things. “Dog gas pancreatitis” “dog pain after eating pancreas”..... etc. I Must have seen 1000 times the same stupid webmd pages of geneeal pancreatitis info that I already could basically like recite them from memory.
One late night like 3 am during one of these attacks, about a week after I decided I would put him down, I came across something that attributed gurgling stomach to a lack of pancreatic function. It was just a brief mention, but it was all I needed to put me searching in the right direction. From there I quickly figured it out and it made so much sense as he probably had had it since at least 8 months ago whEn he first started losing weight. And the pancreatitis May have just been a symptom of the epi, as well as the last nail in the coffin for Skippy’s pancreas that was probably already hanging on by just a thread.
I don’t know how people will react to the things I did next, but as a disclaimer, I did not have time to waste by taking him to the vets to get to is figured out. I could tell he was on his deathbed and now I was almost sure he probably was starving slowly to death for months. Anyway, why take him to the same dismissive people who failed to even bring this up to me? Like if I figured this out on google, Me, a regular joe blow.... how could it not have been like a flashing neon sign to you, as a vet, of what was going on? Were you sleepwalking all those times you checked my dog? I had spent over 5k in the matter of a month trying anything possible, anything they suggested might help, so that skippy could be ok. To think the issue had a solution so simple, the one solution that was never brought to my attention.. it was borderline insulting. So no, I did not take him to the vet.
The next morning I had pancreatin from vitamin shoppe and I was crushing it up and mixing it with his food which, I won’t even go into detail about how tough that part has been cause he will not eat food if I was even handling it and I touch the separate plate that his actual food was on without washing my hands. Long story short, I mixed it with the food, got him to eat it, and lo and behold, for the first time in a week he didn’t flip out right after he ate. I felt like freaking isaac Newton. I also began to give him metronidazole for what I assumed was SIBO.
Ever since then, the past 4 weeks have been up and down. Some days he is totally fine, actually, great, for days at a time. Then he will have a cluster of days where, although nothing like before the enzymes, they are still a trying time for the both of us. I can’t figure it out. He has gained weight thankfully. I am giving him pantenex now, which I ordered online the same night I first found out about epi as it had the same exact composition as the prescription one called viokase. And I have since stopped this z/d bs which just seemed to make everything worse for him and started him back up on chicken with pumpkin. However, because I mix his enzymes with a small amount of chicken and pumpkin in a syringe which I squirt in his mouth Right after mealtime, he started to become less of a fan of those. Lately I have been experimenting with tuna, as well as boiled, mashed squash and sweet potato. So I alternate between ground cooked chicken with squash/sweet potato as meals, followed by pantenex Dosage immediately after, and tuna with squash/sweet potato, followed by pantenex right after.
The last 3 days have been his worst in a long time. His stool has become increasingly bloody. To the point that I can see actual droplets of blood following the turds that leave his butt. He screams when he is pooping. He looks generally uncomfortable all day. His stomach is gurgling a lot and it becomes swollen immediately after eating with what I assume is gas. I give him gas x and that seems to work and calm him down and he falls asleep. But I am worried. It’s day 3 of this and it is at the worst of the 3 days now so far. I’ve tried everything but I’m at wits end. Can this be caused by too much enzymes? He has been on metro for 3 weeks now, so how could it be SIBO? The bacteria should all be dead. I am giving him probiotic chewables as well. I have tried the different combinations of food, but no improvement. I also tried putting the enzymes in capsules, still nothing.
I just tried to administer only half the usual dosage of the enzymes but 5 minutes later the gas came, the crying, the pooping with blood... I gave him gas x and he’s asleep now. But that’s not sustainable. I need to figure this out.
Could going an hour or two extra without eating cause this? Is it getting worse because I should withhold food for 24 hours? Is it the squash? Is it the tuna? Is it when he eats food that was not prepared on the same day and stored in a freezer bag in the refrigerator? He is also drinking water like crazy the last 2 weeks. I did a diabetes test on him, 2 actually, and they both came back negative.
I can’t figure it out. There are so many factors...
I tried to be this detailed in hopes that someone might see a small detail that allows you to connect some dots which I obviously am not connecting. Someone please help me/him?
EDIT: I wrote this last night but it wouldn’t let me post because it thought I was being spamful. So just a little update he pooped just now and there was no I blood it was Much more firm now. I did give him something i bought on Amazon yesterday it’s called Clay for dogs and it’s to regulate their vowels. Maybe this helped? My questions all still stand, however.
This is going to be long—sorry in advance.
My dog, Skippy is an 18 year old chihuahua. About 6-8 months ago, I noticed he started to get skinnier. Despite my feeding him the same amount and becoming more generous with food, he wouldn’t put on any weight, so I chalked this up to his old age. His vet told me it was atrophy because he is old. Ok fine, seemed logical.
Around that same time, he started needing assistance from me to poop. I hold him in one arm and gently massage and squeeze down there almost as if expressing the glands, to get him to get it out. He has suffered from some kind of spine/nerve disorder for years and years now, so it seemed reasonable that those muscles have lost their functionality, hence. His back legs are pretty much paralyzed now too, but that has been progressing since he was idk 11 or 12. I was doing the squeezing thing at times, but as time has passed it has become more frequent until now, that I haven’t seen him take a dump on his own In months.
Beginning of March, I could tell something was off. He seemed uncomfortable. I waited to see if it would pass but it got worse. I took him to the vet After he pooped something that looked like purplish jam and he was diagnosed with pancreatitis. Did the whole 9 yards iv fluids no food etc etc for a couple days and he didn’t really get better. I took him to another vet. I left him there overnight for 2 nights hoping that he would get better with round the clock care. He did. I brought him home and started his new diet of hills z/d.
He was fine for a while, but it came back some weeks later. Back to the iv fluids at vet. Brought him home, he was good another couple of weeks. And then the same thing. His vet suggested hyperbaric treatment sessions. I took him to about 15 sessions and he really did not seem any better. It was now beginning of May.
I did more bloodwork. He had become anemic. He was now so skinny that it became painful to even look at him and hold him. The vet suggested I just put him to sleep. I went home with him and was trying to spend a last few days with him but I just could not believe that this stupid thing was going to kill him and there was nothing that could be done.
I feel like my vet was kind of over treating him so often as I was taking him to the vet several times a week. You should know that in my area, he was the inky vet nearby at one point, but in the last 3 or 4 years, so many high rises have been built in my neighborhood and so many people live here now, and I could tell that he is completely slammed with patients, whether it’s right or wrong, the consequence was the same, I felt brushed off and that skippy was dismissed as just an old dog and it’s time to let him go.
I have had him for 18 years. I don’t care what the vet says. I know exactly when he is thirsty, I know when he needs to pee, I know when he needs to poop, I know when he’s in pain and I know when he is happy. It goes without saying that I KNOW there is something there that is making him sick and it’s not solely attributed to old age. He was completely fine before the pancreatitis business began in March and it’s simply not possible that from one few weeks to the next, his age just became too much for him.
So I’m spending the last few days with him before taking him to be put down but he is just inconsolable at this point. Constant crying, whining, yelping, screaming. I tried everything. I didn’t sleep for days. This was the worst week of my entire life. And for Skippy too.
I noticed that he became more agitated usually immediately or shortly after I would feed him. I also noticed that his stomach would audibly gurgle around this time too. Mealtime seemed to be triggering whatever was happening with him.
His crying would prompt me to pull out my phone and start googling things. “Dog gas pancreatitis” “dog pain after eating pancreas”..... etc. I Must have seen 1000 times the same stupid webmd pages of geneeal pancreatitis info that I already could basically like recite them from memory.
One late night like 3 am during one of these attacks, about a week after I decided I would put him down, I came across something that attributed gurgling stomach to a lack of pancreatic function. It was just a brief mention, but it was all I needed to put me searching in the right direction. From there I quickly figured it out and it made so much sense as he probably had had it since at least 8 months ago whEn he first started losing weight. And the pancreatitis May have just been a symptom of the epi, as well as the last nail in the coffin for Skippy’s pancreas that was probably already hanging on by just a thread.
I don’t know how people will react to the things I did next, but as a disclaimer, I did not have time to waste by taking him to the vets to get to is figured out. I could tell he was on his deathbed and now I was almost sure he probably was starving slowly to death for months. Anyway, why take him to the same dismissive people who failed to even bring this up to me? Like if I figured this out on google, Me, a regular joe blow.... how could it not have been like a flashing neon sign to you, as a vet, of what was going on? Were you sleepwalking all those times you checked my dog? I had spent over 5k in the matter of a month trying anything possible, anything they suggested might help, so that skippy could be ok. To think the issue had a solution so simple, the one solution that was never brought to my attention.. it was borderline insulting. So no, I did not take him to the vet.
The next morning I had pancreatin from vitamin shoppe and I was crushing it up and mixing it with his food which, I won’t even go into detail about how tough that part has been cause he will not eat food if I was even handling it and I touch the separate plate that his actual food was on without washing my hands. Long story short, I mixed it with the food, got him to eat it, and lo and behold, for the first time in a week he didn’t flip out right after he ate. I felt like freaking isaac Newton. I also began to give him metronidazole for what I assumed was SIBO.
Ever since then, the past 4 weeks have been up and down. Some days he is totally fine, actually, great, for days at a time. Then he will have a cluster of days where, although nothing like before the enzymes, they are still a trying time for the both of us. I can’t figure it out. He has gained weight thankfully. I am giving him pantenex now, which I ordered online the same night I first found out about epi as it had the same exact composition as the prescription one called viokase. And I have since stopped this z/d bs which just seemed to make everything worse for him and started him back up on chicken with pumpkin. However, because I mix his enzymes with a small amount of chicken and pumpkin in a syringe which I squirt in his mouth Right after mealtime, he started to become less of a fan of those. Lately I have been experimenting with tuna, as well as boiled, mashed squash and sweet potato. So I alternate between ground cooked chicken with squash/sweet potato as meals, followed by pantenex Dosage immediately after, and tuna with squash/sweet potato, followed by pantenex right after.
The last 3 days have been his worst in a long time. His stool has become increasingly bloody. To the point that I can see actual droplets of blood following the turds that leave his butt. He screams when he is pooping. He looks generally uncomfortable all day. His stomach is gurgling a lot and it becomes swollen immediately after eating with what I assume is gas. I give him gas x and that seems to work and calm him down and he falls asleep. But I am worried. It’s day 3 of this and it is at the worst of the 3 days now so far. I’ve tried everything but I’m at wits end. Can this be caused by too much enzymes? He has been on metro for 3 weeks now, so how could it be SIBO? The bacteria should all be dead. I am giving him probiotic chewables as well. I have tried the different combinations of food, but no improvement. I also tried putting the enzymes in capsules, still nothing.
I just tried to administer only half the usual dosage of the enzymes but 5 minutes later the gas came, the crying, the pooping with blood... I gave him gas x and he’s asleep now. But that’s not sustainable. I need to figure this out.
Could going an hour or two extra without eating cause this? Is it getting worse because I should withhold food for 24 hours? Is it the squash? Is it the tuna? Is it when he eats food that was not prepared on the same day and stored in a freezer bag in the refrigerator? He is also drinking water like crazy the last 2 weeks. I did a diabetes test on him, 2 actually, and they both came back negative.
I can’t figure it out. There are so many factors...
I tried to be this detailed in hopes that someone might see a small detail that allows you to connect some dots which I obviously am not connecting. Someone please help me/him?
EDIT: I wrote this last night but it wouldn’t let me post because it thought I was being spamful. So just a little update he pooped just now and there was no I blood it was Much more firm now. I did give him something i bought on Amazon yesterday it’s called Clay for dogs and it’s to regulate their vowels. Maybe this helped? My questions all still stand, however.