Nasal problems continue ...

[mel07]

i haven't posted here for a while for a lot of reasons.

foremost, i feel fraudulent that i tend to come here when things are bad.

izzy is again not doing well. after another round of vet visits, we ended back at the surgeon who operated on him with what i thought was an irritated nostril, a byproduct of the surgery - lots of discharge, sneezing, a bit of blood (that was when I got worried), pain on contact.

The surgeon was immediately alarmed and prepped us for "probable invasive bone cancer". he mentioned an oncologist and another scope.

sigh.

we got the x-rays back after four tortuous hours and his bones looked ok.

so we were sent home with painkillers, antibiotics, bendryl and pepcid (!).

BUT NO ANSWERS

I have spent close to $10,000 trying to get an answer to my dog's suffering. what should be my next step?

I love this dog to pieces.

[Lola B Marie]

So sorry to hear about what you are going through with your boy. Please ,Please don't feel badly about when or why you come to the site. You are a member, if we can help you that's reason enough. I don't know about nostril problems but I know that when one of our boxers had severe skin issues, I called Cornell university of vet medicine. I was given several skin and infectious disease specialists. My vet bills at the time were over $5,000. The next thing my vet wanted to try was growing cultures of the skin infection and reinjecting the dog. This was offered at over $1,000. I said no and went to the specialist. Dog had a betahymalayic staff infection. This vet knew what it was almost immed. Dog was treated, given correct meds and got well. You may want to try calling any of the more outstanding universities for help.
Jane

[Debbie Ervin]

Mel, could this be some sort of infection? It sounds that way to me. I remember years back with my other Rottie Thor who has since passed, he was getting a bloody discharge from his nose, but hard to believe it was due to predisone! He was taking it at high doses for a immune disease and that was the side effect for him. Of course the specialist wanted to do a scope up his nostrils, and I did allow them to do a parcial scope up 4 in. and they found nothing. They actually were thinking on the lines of a tumor and wanted to do surgery(which intailed cutting his face), of course I was very upset and thank God our vet stepped in who is a graduate and funder of the Univ. where we went and discourged any surgery!!!! It did clear up and he was ok. I certainly know what you mean. The money wouldn't matter if they came up with the answers!!!!! We too spent a lot of money on Thor, but it was well worth it to have him for the extra 3 years. Good Luck and hope you clear this up with Izzy. D. Ervin
I am really thinking this is something that can be cleared up with meds, or a side effect of a med.

[mel07]

hey again
well, good news, sort of ...
we got the pathology results and it's either a staph or strep infection (my husband "forgot" which one and i'm waiting for the vet to return my call).

anyway, he's been on antibiotics for five days no, with no sign of improvement this far.

not sure if that's normal when an infection has such a stronghold.

my guess is he probably picked this bug up at the hospital and because his immunity was compromised by the prednisone, it really took hold ... or maybe he was just generally vulnerable because of all the action in the left nasal cavity - they removed the mucous membrane along with the hard palate when they operated. it was a unique surgery and very aggressive so it's anyone's guess how he'll recover and what residual effects there will be.

poor brave guy.

[Debbie Ervin]

Yes he is a BRAVE guy! It may take longer because of the severity of th infection. Wait to see what the vet say when he calls. He is not on predisone anymore is he? I really hate that steroid, but it is used for so many things. Right now my Ceasar is on it and I am not happy about it. Hope things go back to normal for your boy. D. Ervin

[mel07]

no, debbie, he's been off prednisone for several months. the only good thing about that drug was that he ate like a horse when he was on it, and at the time he really needed to regain some weight. with his nose being so painful and also the lack of smell, he was right off his food.

we spent two months making him doggie smoothies our of lean ground beef, turkey, or tuna, brown rice, and veggies in the blender four times a day! how fun!

i could search this, but out of sheer laziness, how much should a 16-month old dog weigh, ballpark?

i know his dad's 130 (which i think is a little high). izzy is nudging 90.

[fbkeays]

Originally Posted by mel07

i could search this, but out of sheer laziness, how much should a 16-month old dog weigh, ballpark?

i know his dad's 130 (which i think is a little high). izzy is nudging 90.

At 17 months my moderately boned, well muscled, 25", lean male was 105 pounds. I remember this because his non regular vet commented that he needed to LOOSE 5 pounds because no rottweiler should weigh more then 100 pounds. As soon as I heard this, I vowed to never take my dog to this vet again and to ignore the dx of HD (correctly too). It was very obvious that this vet didn't even actually LOOK at my dog. There is no way anyone would be able to find where to take that 5 pounds from.
Remember that muscle weighs more then fat. I would not be overly concerned as long as my dog was continuing to eat. Adding weight slowly is much healthier then fast. Concentrate on keeping him healthy and the weight will take care of its self.

[fbkeays]

What kind of scale does your vet have? I recently went to another vet practice because my vet was on vacation. My Duncan was discovered to have cancer (doing fine). One of the things that put me in an emotional tail spin was at my regular vet a couple of months earlier he was 103 pounds. At this vet's scale, he was 93 pounds- a 10 pound difference. One of the main signs of cancer is unexplained weight loss. I was fearing the worst and kicking myself for not noticing him "wasting away".
My vet has an electronic scale that is less than a year old and is in calibration. This other vet scale is a "spring" scale and has no calibration sticker. Being an engineer I always look for cal stickers. Also being an engineer, I know that spring scales can be wrong(light) and the heavier the dog, the more "off" it can be.
If your vet has a spring scale, your dog just might really weight more then you think. My dog hasn't lost any weight, another sign that we discovered the cancer at an early stage.
Just throwing this out as a possibility.

[frontierrots]

Did they do a culture? I'm guessing yes

get a copy of the report.

I had a male that we fought a nasal infection for over a year. Several kinds of antibiotics including Baytril nothing worked. He had Staphlococcus Aureus most likely from a cat bite

The holistic vet suggested Nutribiotic plus capsules and after 2 bottles (given 3 times a day) and Vit C twice a day the infection was gone never to return.

This product is used in aids patients with respiratory infections. You should ask your vet about trying it

[Debbie Ervin]

How is Izzy doing now? Hopefully there is alittle change for the better. If not it may take a different antibotic. Its so stressful as sometimes these things take time and also because they can't tell us whats wrong its a elimation game sometimes which is horrible and very fustrating. Well we know its not the predisone since he has been off it for some time now. As far as weight he should be alittle more heavier, but at 16 months he is actually still filling out. I know my Rotties were X-large, Thor weighed 145, which he had to loss weight when his hips were bad and he got the arthritis, he went down to 120 which our vet thought was great. Ceasar on the other had was bigger then Thor and he weighed 165 at his peak, our vet said he was fine for his built, but he had thyroid issues and was on thyro for a year and lost weight which because he is a old man its best for him anyway. He went down to 132 and our vet got concerned, and next thing we knew his thyroid was normal and he was off the pills. He actually was loosing muscle mass and that concerned me the pills were working overtime. He is now about 135 and of course if you have read my colits and seizure threads is having some other issues that we are hopefully(trying to clear up). Females are smaller and usually weigh 90-110 lbs some smaller. If his dad weighed 130 he will fill out, like I said he is still growing!!!!! You want him to be healthy that is the main thing! Hope he is feeling better! D. Ervin Let us know

[kala]

I had a Doberman years ago who had a terrible nasal problem. Lots of mucus, sneezing and not being able to eat. After many tests and different treatments they scoped her and found a pocket in her sinus and a fungus in there. Anti fungal meds and cutting out some of the tissue worked.
sue