An Enigma named Billy

[sea4th]

Billy is the rescue that came to stay, pretty much because he was unadoptable. Still is. Billy is now about 10 yrs. old and I've had him since he was about 3 yrs. old.

 

Billy is sick and it's really got me concerned.

 

Billy is a nicely bred BC, but something went wrong. I got a call from a shelter back in 1988 that they had a border collie turned in and he wasn't doing well at the shelter. When I got there, it just so happened that I knew this dog who by this time had gone through several owners and wound up on an Amish dairy farm. They were the folks that turned him into the shelter. The reason why would become evident. I traced Billy's history and it seems at 4 months of age, he got into a toxic houseplant and went through a severe bout of seizures after which he was never really "right". He's never had a seizure since, but he was subsequently bounced around, winding up and being thrown out of two dairy farms.

 

I don't have the money to do neurological testing, so I can only describe what vet examinations revealed and what I've witnessed.

 

Billy's eyes don't track, which accounts for the way he postures himself, staring at a dog, as though focusing and then explodes in a Tasmanian devil impression throwing himself at the dog (always a new dog, never one of the pack). New dogs don't know any better and are scared to death of him. Eventually though, they figure it out, that it's all an act, Billy never hurts anyone, but has had his own butt kicked because of it, once a dog has him figured out.

 

Billy antagonizes the "young punk BC's, Joe and Satch" at my house (but only when there are crate bars in between him and them--he's nuts, but he's not stupid), but Billy is OK with bitches and the alpha, Tam---and he is absolutely a love with pups. But it's this aberrant behavior on Billy's part that he probably lost his home on both dairy farms, probaby because he went after the cows, the same way I've saw him go after dogs, and I'm sure he caught a few kicks in the process.

 

Billy is also debarked. The dog has no off switch and barked more than any sheltie or my friends collies ever did, certainly more than any BC I've ever heard. (He still has the pleasure of barking, but now it's like a loud whisper).

 

Billy has always been roached-backed, with an odd gait, throwing his back legs out to the side when trotting. He's never been in pain.

 

Billy also has muscle atrophy from the top of his head down his back. The top of Billy's head has an oddly domed shape. If you would feel his spine only, you'd think that he was anorexic, but when you run your hands down his sides, he has some padding on the ribs and feels normal.

 

Whereas all the other dogs thrive on raw, Billy cannot tolerate it. The only raw he can eat is premade Morigins and on that he does well. Other than that, he eats 3-3 1/2 c. of kibble a day. If Billy eats raw in any other form, he is sick for two days, going off his food, with some vomiting and diahrrea, so we stick with kibble as a rule.

 

Billy also has another habit. He has to stimulate himself to urinate by licking himself. At one time, he appeared to be drinking his urine, a habit that I have only heard of dogs who have been deprived of water doing---i.e., urinating to drink. (That no longer appears to be the case.)

 

Billy went off his food this past Sunday. I thought at first, that is yet another episode that would pass in a couple of days. It didn't. Wednesday, we went to the vet. She said he looked kind of rough, down to 28 from 32 lbs. He also had an elevated temp. of 103. She hydrated him, drew blood and sent us home with a canned low residue diet and an antibiotic. The bloodwork came back on Thursday and showed everything well within normal ranges.

 

In the meantime, although there is slight improvement, it's not what I was hoping for. Billy is still off. The low residue diet doesn't interest him. His kibble does, but only a little. This morning I gave him some green tripe which he ate.

 

Our next step will be to x-ray chest, abdomen, and spine.

 

While all these issues might appear to be separate, I think they are now working together, causing one sick dog. I don't know if that even makes sense.

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks--from me & Billy

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Tick borne disease. I'd beg my vet to start him RIGHT NOW on doxy, just in case, please don't wait for the test your vet will probably want to do.

 

The next symptom will be seizures, loss of bodily function, complete immune shutdown.

 

The stage of disease he seems to be in has very few symptoms, shows very little or nothing in the bloodwork, and often the tests even come back negative because the organism is hiding in his bone tissue, not his blood necessarily.

 

The ataxia (sidewinding step) and muscle atrophy were big warning signs for me. Everything else I've seen, too. I adopted two dogs in a row who came to me with chronic tick borne disease and those two things were both evident. Is his hair thin? Does he tend to get little infections, either hotspots or stomach bugs or both? Does he seem to have better times and worse times - with the worse times associated with stresses like a new dog in the pack, a fight, training, or travel?

 

I hope this helps!!!!

 

By the way, the self stimulation was something my first dog with chronic TBD did. Much later on, his kidneys failed - I'd advise anyone with an older dog with TBD to check kidney function twice a year at least.

[Kadie]

wow. How long has the muscle atrophy been going on? I lost my beloved first dog, Bear, to cancer. My first indication that something was wrong was he lost mass along his neck and spine, while maintaining the mass on the rest of his body. I dont know why this was, but maybe your bloodwork would have picked up cancer if that was the problem? He was seven. My second clue was that he went off his food. Hope this is not the case. My thoughts are with you both.

Kadie

[sea4th]

Rebecca,

 

Billy has a gorgeous coat. Never any skin issues. The symptoms I'm describing have been for the duration of time that I've had him---7 yrs. It's just that he has never gone off his food for longer than a couple of days and he is just not bouncing back----I will call the vet though and ask for doxycilin(?) & a TBD test---that never occurred to me. (Should it not have occurred to the vet though?)

[sea4th]

My beloved GSD, Major, also a rescue, became ill and died within 5 weeks. His muscle mass just melted off him. Diagnoses ranged from myasthenia gravis to Lou Gehrig's disease, to a brain tumor (since toward the end, one eye bulged). We didn't do an autopsy on Maj, but Billy's back feels a lot like Maj's did.

 

Again though, the atrophy has been going on for a while---just a part of this strange little dog and all of his problems.

[sea4th]

Since these problems of Billy have been around for while, I have to ask----is it possible for a dog to have a TBD which lies dormant for a long time before it flares up? What's the usual pattern of TBD's?

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Yes, Ben had it for two years, my old Bubo was probably first infected six or more years previous to our figuring out what was going on. He had been in rescue with those symptoms for five years (yes, he was!. Then we had him for a year, believing the story they told us about him, that he had had a head trauma (this turned out to be a "just so" story to account for the time he was with a supposed foster home who was really a "collector").

 

The only thing that is really known for sure about these diseases is that no one knows anything "for sure" about them. It wouldn't hurt him to ask for a course of doxycycline. It's very inexpensive, and isn't effective against much except TBDs so if he gets substantially better in three days to a week you'll have your answer. As my former vet (a TBD specialist, as it happened) said, it's a better test than the test.

 

Bubo, who seemed at death's door, was a different dog in two weeks of treatment, with some changes within a few days, though there was permanent damage from the ravages of long-term infection and immunosuppression. Ben also became a different dog - from "old" seeming to almost puppyish. There was damage there, though, probably the main reason for his cognitive dysfunction setting in at eight years old.

 

"Subclinical" is the phase where you don't see any symptoms except the immune suppression.

 

Here's a good overview of Erhlichia, what Bubo had:

 

http://www.workingdogs.com/doc0045.htm

 

Good luck!

[sea4th]

Thanks for the info, Rebecca. It really is invaluable.

 

When I got home from work, Billy appeared to be feeling much better. He cleaned his bowl for the first time in days. He is perkier, made some attempts to play with me---IOW, on the way to being back to his old self? I hope so.

 

But I still have a lot of unanswered questions. Hoping more tests will answer some of them.

[sea4th]

Billy is back to "normal"----uh, "normal" for Billy.

 

P.S. Rebecca, I talked to my vet about the possibility to TBD, and she said it's not all that common around here, although it does exist. She said if I'd have said that I had him south of here or that he'd been running in tall grass, than she would have given it some consideration. Neither was the case, which is why she didn't.

 

She does think he's got 'something' going on, so more testing is in order. Whatever that something is, wondering if it will reverse the atrophy along his top, if his eyes will be "normal", if it'll change that odd gait of his or change his behavior. I don't think so.

 

At one point in time, he was called "Poor Billy". He's happy now, so we just call him "Crazy Billy"---and that's OK. Everyone has a crazy relative tucked away somewhere. Billy is that crazy relation in the pack.