Eating problems

[Chance]

I have just found this site, and am I ever glad I did. We, myself and my boyfriend, have a 2 year old male rottie, his name is Chance, we call him rudy, I don't know why. We purchased him from a lady selling puppies that she claimed where pure Rottie. There was 13 puppies in the litter and he was the the only one that had not been spoken for. He was the 2nd largest in the litter, and we thought that it was kind of strange that he hadn't been choosen, any way we took him home at 7weeks old. He is the sweetest dog there is, he is so kind and gentle we ador him. But when Chance was about 6 months old the problems started. We first noticed a limp in his front leg that just kept getting worse, we took him to 2 different vets before we finally got refered to a speacialist. After spending quite a bit of money on numerous x-rays we were told that he could have any of the following: Elbow Displasia, early arthritis, FAP(Fragmented Coronoid process), OCD(Osteochondrosis), knee ligament problems.:( This did not give us much hope. They gave us some Metacam DS pills to put him on, they said that the only thing that we could do was a surgery that they could not promise would do anything, they told us that only 1 in 3 of the surgeries were succesful. We gave him the pills and then we started giving him glucosamine, 1000mg twice a day. He started to get better and soon he had stopped limping altogether. But this was only the begining, he soon after developed an incontenance problem, he is now on Ephedrine 100mg twice a day. This seems to be working, but he will have to stay on them forever. I am telling you all this to give you a history of our dog, we have been struggling for 2 years now and to be honest we have lost a lot of faith in the vets in our area. The biggest problem that we have been facing is ongoing, his "supposed" bowel disease. He started last summer to throw up all the time, he had no appetiate and he had very runny stool. They thought that he had a parisite, but when the stool and blood samples were done he did not. They said that he probably had bowel disease. They couldn't tell us for sure without doing a biopsy which would start at $900.00 canadian, and they said that if it was bowel disease, he would need further surgery and ongoing treatment afterward. B/c we didn't want to rush into anything we were to put him on this Hills canine Z/D and Metronidazole to see if that helped at all. Well he wouldn't eat at all. He was losing weight and looked like a walking skeleton. We have tried everything to get him to eat this food but he wouldn't, so we put him on the same food our lab puppy was eating, he seemed to like it and we didn't care as long as he ate something. Now this is where we are, Chance still have very loose stool, he is so picky about what he eats but he is no longer throwing up. I read a lot of the postings yesterday, and I have ordered 2 bags of the Candiae kibble and last night I mixed yogurt into his food and he ate it all up, I was so excited. I was just hoping that someone else out there might have some words of wisdom for us. We love our dog so much and want to see him looking and feeling healthy. He had, at his last vet appointment gained 4 pounds.:D To give you an idea, Chance is 30 inches tall at the shoulder and 26 inches long from should blades to tip of the rump. He is a very large dog that only weighs 115lbs. He still looks thin but now you can't see his ribs so much. If any one has any advice we would love to hear it. Thanks for listening!;)

[DixieGrl113]

Sorry to her about your baby. My advice to you is to work out a payment plan with your vet and get those tests done. That is the only way your going to find out what is or isn't wrong. I know how expensive those tests can be. I have 4 Rotts. They do get expensive but that is something I'll have to live with because I made a pact with each of them when I brought them home that no matter what, until the day they passed on the Rainbow Bridge, I would take care of them and love them. That means having to pay for everything and anything nessessary for their well being, health and quality of life. My vet is more than willing to work with me on any payment plan nessessary. What good vet wouldn't be though? They know that the majority of people they see aren't walking around with a million dollars in their pocket.

If you don't trust your vet, find one you can/do trust. It is important to work with someone you know is looking out for your pet not the almight dollar. Also, make sure they work well with Rotts. There are some Vets out there who are reluctant to handle them and so often miss important clues as to what is going on. If you are so inclined, get a second opinion after the tests are done. If you have a good Veterinary University Hospital close call them, see what they think. I've had to do this a couple of times with my horses. I didn't see where it said you from so I can't tell you which Vet school you could call. When in TN I have University of Tennessee at Knoxville and when in WI I have UW Madison (where I was supposed to go to vet school).

At any rate, I really hope you can get to the bottom of this. No healthy dog will starve itself. Make sure none of the medications for his limping are causing the digestive upsets. Of course the only way to do that would be to work with your vet. Hope this helped a little if any. I tend to ramble lol Good Luck! I hope Chance will get well! :)

[Homerhomer]

Hi Chance.
Sorry to hear about everything you have to go through.
Have you considered holistic vets? Seems like everything you are doing right now isn't working and perhaps holistic approach would help to solve few problems.
The vet that I go to is called East York Animal Clinic (you could find them in yellow pages if interested) near Eglinton and DVP. There is alos Sharon Kopiniak in Rockwood, many swear by her being the best in the business.
Have you considered natural raw feeding? Although it would be stupid to assume that raw feeding will fix all your problems, yet thousands (including myself) swear by this diet and the improved health and appearance after the switch from commercial food to raw.

[Homerhomer]

ahem, ahem ..for some unexplainable reason I assumed that your location is Richmond Hill, not Richmond, so forget about my "helpfull" vet suggestions.:D
Anyway if you are interested in any holistic vets I am sure you will be able to find someone good in your area.

[Barbara Surplus]

Welcome Chance. So glad you found us - perhaps we can help you a little. Sounds as though you've got a whole lot of problems with this boy and I don't blame you for feeling discouraged.

First of all, try this www.altvetmed.com to locate an holistic vet in your area. Seems to me your vets are doing a lot of guesswork here and nobody actually knows what the crux of the matter is. Throwing a bunch of medications at a dog without really knowing why is a complete waste of time and dangerous to the dog. He could be suffering from something that's entirely treatable but he may not be getting the proper treatment which could lead to many more complications down the road.

I've switched to an holistic vet and can't believe the difference in her attitude towards the animals. She looks beyond the obvious and has helped me a couple of times. I wish I'd known about her when my first boy was ill - turns out he had osteosarcoma and three other vets couldn't figure it out. We finally had to put him down after the diagnosis came in - he was suffering terribly by then and it was breaking our hearts to see such a wonderful animal be reduced to a shadow of his former self. I'm not saying she could have cured him but she most certainly would have treated him accordingly and, at the very least, given him relief from his pain during his last few months with us.

My advice to you is simple - aside from finding a new vet, feed him a high quality dog food (which it sounds as though you are about to do). That will get you moving in the right direction and will have an enormous impact on the state of his health. A poor diet and a weak genetic foundation along with the potential side-effects of some very potent drugs could be responsible for his present illness.

Please let us know how you fare - we love our dogs and know how much joy they bring. We'd like you to be able to enjoy him and not have to live with the stress and constant worry associated with living with a sick dog. Good luck!
Barbara

[Chance]

I just want to say thank you, for your suggestions and for taking the time to respond. I am so glad that I found this site, until now I have tried to tell people about Chance's problems and most people say that if he is sick we should put him down, but when he is playing with you or cuddled up to you on the floor it is hard to even think about that. I am going to call around for a new vet and see about getting the biopsy done. I do thak you again, and it is wonderful to have a place to go where people love their dogs as much as you do. I tell people that they are like my children and I wouldn't put a child down if it was sick so why would I give up on my dog. I will keep you posted!

Thanks

[Homerhomer]

ok, let's try again, this one may be a bit closer to you.
Dr. Beltrand (or Beltram - not certain of spelling the name), Ottawa, Blair Road Animal Hospital tel: 746-2443.

[moondog]

Originally posted by Chance
......until now I have tried to tell people about Chance's problems and most people say that if he is sick we should put him down

My dog has an intestinal disease that struck suddenly almost one year ago. If I had listened to what I was being told on the day she was diagnosed, she'd be dead. If you would like to read a bit about the ride we have taken to bring her back, there's a thread in the Vet's Corner titled "85 Pounds, WOO HOO" that may be of interest. A search for Irritable Bowel Disease or IBD will bring up all the older posts when she was pretty darn sick. You could also try a search using "Luna". Your dog sounds like he's going through a very similar experience to mine when she first became ill, except your dog doesn't sound as sick. This is not a death sentence, my dog is proof of it. ;)