What does this sound like?

[sea4th]

Doesn't involve my dogs, thank goodness. It's a friend , a breeder, who has dogs of another breed.

 

Onset appears rather sudden. Four dogs so far are down. One might not make it through the night.

 

Similarites are that she first notices that they "look like they've lost a lot of weight"--almost over night.

 

The dogs then run a high fever--it's ranged from 103 1/2 to over 106. When the fever is at it's highest, white blood count drops WAY down. The dog who might not survive (currently on IV's at the ER) had a white blood count of 265!!! Red cell count also goes down, in one dog, bordering on anemic. As the fever goes down, then both the white and red cell counts go up. The four most severely affected dogs have been on IV's at the ER. Two are better and are home. Two are there now. One might not survive. He was hit with pancreatitis, complicating what is so far, an unknown condition.

 

Another interesting thing is that each dog affected has a kennel mate who isn't.

 

Two other dogs were also affected, but were only off for a couple of days and never crashed.

 

The dog who is the worst, my friend came back with the first dog from the ER to find this other one completely collapsed on his side. She made another trip with 2 more dogs to the ER.

 

One dog had a runny nose---only one.

 

The first dog dropped within 48 hours of getting his boosters. The others hadn't had any vaccines.

 

She said she talked to 10 different vets, got 10 different speculations as to what it might be. One suggested bone marrow testing, another suggested calling in an epidemiologist------she's already spent a bundle on this in the past week.

 

No diahrrea. No vomiting. The dog who developed pancreatitis urinated what she described as very smelly, urine, she said almost as though his liver was melting.

 

I'd like to go up there and help her out---she's had very little sleep the last few days----but I don't dare, in case I bring something back home to my dogs.

 

I know she's paying good money for professionals' opinions, but has anyone here ever heard of anything like this?

 

Oh, BTW, she's going to get her well water checked, but doesn't really expect to find anything there.

[Black Watch Debatable]

My "I am so not a vet" shot in the dark: Babesia?

 

My heart goes out to your friend---I hope her dogs pull through.

[Dal & Mad's Mom]

I'm wondering how is their breathing? Mom said FL is dealing with a terrible resp infection that is costing rescues thousands for each dog and tons of hours to try to save them.

 

Their breathing is so bad they require resp treatments for days.

 

She said it's gotten so bad that at least her friends rescue will only take dogs from home right now.

[2 Devils]

Have they tested for some kind of poisoning like rat poison or bug pesticides? It could explain why some are sick and not others.

 

Maybe AK Doc will get on and help with some ideas

[sea4th]

Well my friend's one dog survived the night, but he still isn't right. There is bilirubin in his urine and his pancreatic enzymes are way off the scale. They had to be diluted down to be read.

His white cell count is now 27.000, up from 500 when he was at his worst. There is also something on his red blood cells. They don't know what it is.

 

No one has an answer what has affected her dogs. She said there was a total of 8 affected dogs, 3 critical, who received IV therapy. The remaining 5 affected dogs seemed to shake it off within three days and they did not crash like the other 3.

 

They don't think it's a TBD. Actually they have no idea what has affected her dogs.

 

Could it be a strain of the dog flu we heard about? Makes you wonder.

 

There was no respiratory involvement, no upper GI stuff going on at all.

 

She plans to get the well water tested, but doesn't expect to find anything there. They bought the house from a doctor who I guess had tested the well water.

 

I'm sure they have checked for toxins, although she does not use any in the dogs' area.

 

The other 3 dogs who were critical are better now, and the third, still on IV's at the ER.

 

And thousands of $$$ later, with the coming together of professional minds, no one can tell her what in the heck hit her dogs.

[Tex]

Did they request the veterinary run an in-house PCV (Packed Cell Volume) blood count?

[sea4th]

I don't know. What will this show that other blood work hasn't? I will be talking to her soon, so I'll ask.

[Tex]

Relationship between the red cells and the blood plasma.

[Jennifer Glen]

Is she seeing an internal medicine specialist or is she just with her regular vet? If not she should get to a specialist ASAP. What ever it is one would have to assume that the reason the one dog is doing the worst was because he was vaccinated so recently. His immune system was likely down because of the vax, which would make it harder to fight off what ever is bugging him. Poor dog. Keep us updatd.

[sea4th]

PCV - very low

 

The dog that got the booster shots was the first critical one and went on IV's. He is out now and doing a lot better. The dog who is still on IV's, the worst of the lot, didn't have any shots recently.

 

She is working with 4 or 5 vets. Whether one is an internist or not, I don't know, but I would think that someone in this case has bothered to contact an internist.

 

Also, she has more than the eight dogs I mentioned. The rest have been unaffected. The ones who came down with something, did so with a few days of each other, last week.

 

Thanks guys.

[Tex]

Was their symptoms; loss of appetite (either complete or just nibbling), pale tongue and gums, orange tint to urine and feces, etc? Also what was the red blood cell count?

[Tex]

Was their symptoms; loss of appetite (either complete or just nibbling), pale tongue and gums, orange tint to urine and feces, etc? Also what was the red blood cell count?