Jeanne Posted February 10, 2003 Report Share Posted February 10, 2003 I had posted a message about our Emily's paw problems and thought I would post here what has happened so far. Emily had been having problems with what we and the vets thought were her hips or hind legs, some days better than others. Nothing seemed to help. X-rays were normal, but she got worse. I looked at her paws one morning and they were horribly sore. We took her to the vet the same day and he put her on antibiotics orally and a spray. Two days later we took her to the University of California at Davis Veterinanry Medicine School. She has been diagnosed with hepato-cutaneous syndrome, liver disease, terminal. There is palliative treatment of IV amino acids which in some cases returns the animal to a good quality of life of up to a year, sometimes not. She is also on zinc, essential fatty acids and a high-protein product called ProMod. She is hurting very badly right now (seems just her paws) and she goes in tomorrow for the IV of amino acids. They have told us we will know Wednesday when we pick her up if it is working or not as her paws won't be sore anymore, that soon, if it is. I have searched the Internet and can't find anything about this at all. I'm giving her milk thistle which I know is a "liver specific" herb. We are hoping the IV will help her and give us some time to try and find some way to help her. Just wanted to share this with you. Now that I've done some reading, she had symptoms going way back, including chronic ear infections! If I only knew then what I know now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary & Dogs Posted February 10, 2003 Report Share Posted February 10, 2003 I am so sorry. Have never heard of this stuff. Did they tell you anything? Is it genetic? Is it something she picked up somewhere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deb Posted February 10, 2003 Report Share Posted February 10, 2003 Hi Jeanne, I am very sorry to hear about the diagnosis on Emily. Did the UC Davis docs say anything about underlying liver or pancreatic disease, or a toxin or metabolic cause? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2 Devils Posted February 10, 2003 Report Share Posted February 10, 2003 Jeanne, Did you know there is a yahoo group for canine liver diseases and they discuss this disease. Do a google search and take out the hyphen... I would recommend getting connected with the yahoo folks. They may be able to give you some info or if nothing else, they can truly understand what you are going through. Go to Yahoo group and do a search... And thank you for letting us know about the disease. We have had 2 cancers scare with my bc mix and we have been lucky that everything comes back negative--she had 2 tumors pop up so the vets did some tests. After a few months, the tumors went away so we hope it stays that way. She is only 3 years old. Hope all works out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeanne Posted February 11, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2003 I haven't had time to sit here and type everything that has been going on with Emily, but I will tonight. I'll tell you all I know of this awful liver disease she has. Thank you all for your concern and care. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeanne Posted February 13, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2003 It turns out what Emily has is called necrolytic dermatitis, an extremely rare liver disease, for which there is no known cause and no known cure. The treatment for it, according to the vets at Davis, is amino acid infusion, which we have just completed (36 hours--slow infusion). This only helps the symptoms and can prolong her life, with good quality, for maybe 6 months to a year, possibly less, probably not more This has helped tremendously with her horrible paw pain (lesions, pads falling off, bleeding) and her energy level is remarkedly improved. It made my cry just to see her walk again, and this evening she even chased a tennis ball! She is taking essential fatty acids, zinc, and a protein supplement, plus I give her a multiple vitamin and have started her on milk thistle and am going to add Livit-2 when I get it tomorrow. I hae heard from a number of vets since I posted on the canine-liver bulletin board. Most of them have never heard of the disease, so I have faxed all the material I have to them in the hope that they may be able to help some other poor dog who is unfortunate enough to have this happen to them. The vet at Davis said she had only seen four cases of it in her whole career. If anyone wants more information on this, I can fax to you. You can write to me at mdog@cwnet.com and I'll do what I can. We may not have Emily too much longer, but I'm sure as heck doing whatever I can to keep her happy! Aren't they just the most beautiful animals? Our girl has blue, blue eyes! Breaks your heart. Am I ever blubbering on! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikw Posted February 13, 2003 Report Share Posted February 13, 2003 Jeanne, I wish you and your dog Emily the best of your lives in the coming year. Bless you for caring and loving her so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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