| PM | Quote | Reply | Full Topic |
Gunslinger
Joined: Sat Nov 4th, 2017
Posts: 426
Status:
Offline
Reputation: 
Reputation Points: $user_rep
As of late, she's been having trouble keeping food down, either people or dog food. That's evolved into her eating very little to nothing at all. She'll still drink water and milk, but the latter sparingly. When we can get her to eat something, it's only sweet and soft things, like icecream.
For the past couple days, she's had some neck pain that shoots down into her right foot. This has been a thing for a while, but usually nipped easily with her prescribed meds. This time, not so much. The pills still work, but the symptoms come back.
She's fully treated, vaccines and what not. Apparently there is an enzyme in her liver that's elevated. I don't remember the name, but her doctor stressed that it was not a death sentence, just something to keep an eye on. I have noticed, since then, the bare skin around her stomach/breasts area has turned a yellow color as opposed to the pink color it was. Her eyes and gums are still normal. Brings jaundice to mind....
Two years ago, she had a cancer spot or tumor on her hindquarters. Left side I think... Caught it in the very early stages and was promptly removed. Haven't had it creep back up sense. Not sure if that's related or not, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
She's 11, turning 12 this November. All her life, except for the occasional neck pain every great while, she's been very healthy. She would run around and climb all over you like a puppy. For the past two months though.... Not so much. I've noticed she's also shivering more. She stops usually after being under the blankets for a bit. I'll toss out there that last night I believed she felt cold, or rather room temperature to be more accurate. This was on her furred areas, and honestly I don't know how much heat I would normally expect, but this caught me off guard.
Hmm, something else I'll toss out there. Her urine is normally fairly clear. There for a bit she was urinating in the house, reason unknown.
....Not to be gross, but when I cleaned up the mess, I noticed it was a darker/more saturated yellow color and had a bit of a.....beef-ish odor maybe. I can't say I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what it was for certain.
On the same note, her stools seem to be normal.
To get back to food, I'd like to explain that a bit more. I feel it might be the key I'm missing or overlooking. My apologies if this is long or ramblingly.
For her entire life, she would eat almost anything without a care. I did my best to get her the best food for her, taking special care to look at the ingredients, making sure actual food was first on the list and not grain. Something to do with her glands or that nature.
Here recently (~3ish months ago), she started getting sick off her food. We switched around two or three different kinds and eventually gave up. She either couldn't keep it down or flat out refused to eat it. We switched to something else, those Pedigree canned/packet foods. She loved those. That worked for a while, a month maybe. She didn't get sick off those, maybe once, but just started refusing to eat them.
Something I want to make known. When she turned down this food, she consistently begged and would eat people food happily, when we allowed it. She had an appetite. I thought it was just her having an attitude (which was nothing new), and refused to give her table scraps. To my surprise, I realized she wasn't eating her dog food at all despite being hungry. For a very short time (Less than a week) I believed she simply had an attitude. Then I noticed her weight started dropping at an alarming rate.
I don't believe she was starving herself intentionally, so I caved and would give her scraps that were appropriate for her to consume. Beef, chicken, noodles, potatoes, eggs, etc. Nothing spicy, obviously. Eventually, she stopped begging and stopped eating that too. It's near impossible to find something she will eat at all, now. I even got a plain patty and small fries from burger king to try and get her to eat ANYTHING at all. She hasn't eaten hardly in four days. We managed to get her to eat a little bit of granola bar, a fortune cookie, the soft part of about two french fries, and that was it. Refused the patty all together, even after she saw me eat some. She's even refusing peanutbutter, which is something this dog has NEVER done.
The real dead blow for me is her weight. She was hovering around 35/36, a little high for her weight range, but not anything dramatic. I weighed her last night, and she came in at 23.5-23.8. No exaggeration.
I'm at a complete loss. I'm calling the vet tomorrow to talk with her doctor, but in the meantime I'm trying to get every option I possibly can. If this doesn't stop, I'll have to put her down. I'm fighting to stay away from that, but I can't knowingly allow her to suffer. We're not there yet, but we're getting too close for comfort.
I welcome any and every suggestion I can get, and I'm happy to answer any questions. I welcome questions, too. There could very well be something I'm missing. I'm completely out of ideas to try. Again, I'm calling the vet tomorrow. Even if they say there isn't anything that can be done, I can say I did everything in my power to regain her health.
Thank you everyone.
____________________
1999 Ford Ranger XLT - 3.0 V6 4x4 - Loaded (Totaled) 143k. Rest in Peace, Gold Dust.