Joined
·
8 Posts
Hello Everyone! I apologize in advance for the lengthy post, but need to put the whole history out there to see if anyone could help. This is my first time posting, but I have long browsed these forums.
I'm unfortunately writing to share some intense medical issues we our currently facing with our wonderful golden retriever, Stanley. To be clear there are two major issues we are trying to work through: the first is episodes of severe gastrointestinal inflammation which causes our poor guy to vomit uncontrollably and the second is a very stubborn staph infection.
Vomiting Issue
The more concerning of the two is the vomiting issue. The first episode happened when he was a pup, only 2-3 months old. He began vomiting late one night after dinner and would do so about every 30 minutes until there was nothing but stomach bile left, and even then kept heaving and vomiting. We hurried him to the vet as soon as they opened and after some inconclusive x-rays they recommended opening him up through surgery, stating the most likely cause was a blockage from something he may have swallowed. After cutting him open they immediately realized it was severe inflammation of the intestines causing the blockage, not a foreign object, and after being given fluid, Cerenia injections and famotidine to coat his stomach he was good to go after 12 hours of observation. His lymph nodes were very swollen but other than that throughout the whole episode he acted normal between vomiting, wanting to still play and not acting lethargic.
Fast foward to 8/2/13 and this problem reared its ugly head again after nearly 3 years. Once he started throwing up I had a terrible feeling it was the same thing, and sure enough all night long we went through the routine and got him to the vet asap. Again they did x-rays and knowing his history, treated him by coating his stomach and calming his internal system down. Again he didn't act lethargic or abnormal, just couldn't stop throwing up....
Then it happened again last week, and this time they ran a series of tests to rule out addisons/cushings (which thankfully came back negative). He's been on the Science Diet Z/D food for 8 weeks now because we've been trying to clear up a skin rash that we thought might be food related, so it seems we could also rule out a food triggering these symptoms considering his diet has been so strict. Unfortunately though at this point they said there isn't much else they can test/rule out and have recommended I take him to a specialist to get scoped and a stomach/intestine biopsy. This procedure is VERY expensive and may or may not be conclusive on what is cause my poor pups issues!
So my main reason to share this is to see if anyone else had gone through a similar situation, and see what everyone would advise in my situation. It's been very frustrating for us only ruling out what he doesn't have and treating it as it comes, instead of finding out the cause of these problems!
Staph Infection
Finally, to top it off, we have been battling a very tough staph infection. The vet first prescribed Cefpodoxime which had no effect. We then had a skin biopsy sent to a dermatologist, and got the strain analyzed. It was resistant to everything but: gentamicin, amikacin, mupirocin, chloramphenicol and rifampin. So, per our vets recommendation, spent several hundred on a two week bout of daily injections of amikacin. Although by the end of two weeks it was looking great, but as soon as we stopped the injections the staph came right back. According to the vet any more than two weeks on amikacin puts the dog at risk of kidney damage.
From what we are told the next step would be an even more expensive medication, the chloramphenicol, which involves 3x/day pills which have to be handled with rubber gloves. This would be done for 3-4 weeks. Before I venture down this road after two failed trials of antibiotics, does anyone have thoughts on this situation?
Sorry for the long post. Again it's been a long road the past few months trying to keep our little boy healthy! Any thoughts, help or even kind posts would be great at this point!!
I'm unfortunately writing to share some intense medical issues we our currently facing with our wonderful golden retriever, Stanley. To be clear there are two major issues we are trying to work through: the first is episodes of severe gastrointestinal inflammation which causes our poor guy to vomit uncontrollably and the second is a very stubborn staph infection.
Vomiting Issue
The more concerning of the two is the vomiting issue. The first episode happened when he was a pup, only 2-3 months old. He began vomiting late one night after dinner and would do so about every 30 minutes until there was nothing but stomach bile left, and even then kept heaving and vomiting. We hurried him to the vet as soon as they opened and after some inconclusive x-rays they recommended opening him up through surgery, stating the most likely cause was a blockage from something he may have swallowed. After cutting him open they immediately realized it was severe inflammation of the intestines causing the blockage, not a foreign object, and after being given fluid, Cerenia injections and famotidine to coat his stomach he was good to go after 12 hours of observation. His lymph nodes were very swollen but other than that throughout the whole episode he acted normal between vomiting, wanting to still play and not acting lethargic.
Fast foward to 8/2/13 and this problem reared its ugly head again after nearly 3 years. Once he started throwing up I had a terrible feeling it was the same thing, and sure enough all night long we went through the routine and got him to the vet asap. Again they did x-rays and knowing his history, treated him by coating his stomach and calming his internal system down. Again he didn't act lethargic or abnormal, just couldn't stop throwing up....
Then it happened again last week, and this time they ran a series of tests to rule out addisons/cushings (which thankfully came back negative). He's been on the Science Diet Z/D food for 8 weeks now because we've been trying to clear up a skin rash that we thought might be food related, so it seems we could also rule out a food triggering these symptoms considering his diet has been so strict. Unfortunately though at this point they said there isn't much else they can test/rule out and have recommended I take him to a specialist to get scoped and a stomach/intestine biopsy. This procedure is VERY expensive and may or may not be conclusive on what is cause my poor pups issues!
So my main reason to share this is to see if anyone else had gone through a similar situation, and see what everyone would advise in my situation. It's been very frustrating for us only ruling out what he doesn't have and treating it as it comes, instead of finding out the cause of these problems!
Staph Infection
Finally, to top it off, we have been battling a very tough staph infection. The vet first prescribed Cefpodoxime which had no effect. We then had a skin biopsy sent to a dermatologist, and got the strain analyzed. It was resistant to everything but: gentamicin, amikacin, mupirocin, chloramphenicol and rifampin. So, per our vets recommendation, spent several hundred on a two week bout of daily injections of amikacin. Although by the end of two weeks it was looking great, but as soon as we stopped the injections the staph came right back. According to the vet any more than two weeks on amikacin puts the dog at risk of kidney damage.
From what we are told the next step would be an even more expensive medication, the chloramphenicol, which involves 3x/day pills which have to be handled with rubber gloves. This would be done for 3-4 weeks. Before I venture down this road after two failed trials of antibiotics, does anyone have thoughts on this situation?
Sorry for the long post. Again it's been a long road the past few months trying to keep our little boy healthy! Any thoughts, help or even kind posts would be great at this point!!
