Jaundice?
Penny is 11, not too old for a chihuahua, but definitely getting up there. So, at her age the vet said it's probably either infection or cancer. I'm so worried. We may have to hospitalize her over Christmas. Maybe I'm too worried, but I hear "liver disease" and I'm filled with dread of what I will be told next.  |
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| I'm so sorry to hear about Penny. Crossing fingers for a good outcome. Hugs to you! |
let's not think the worst, been seeing a whole lot of christmas miracles daily.  |
| Bad news...the blood work is back. No inflammation. No infection. The vet is fairly certain it's liver cancer. Her liver enzymes are 15-20 times normal right now. |
| I'm so sorry. We're going through something similar at the moment with our 13 year old Border Collie-mix, Maggie. We had her to the vet on Wednesday... she had thrown up a couple of times... the main symptoms have been drinking more water and panting. (No jaundice.) We had blood testing sent out... something we always do if a dog seems out of sorts. We found out Thursday night that her ALT was 2358... it's supposed to be around 100 max. Her ALT was off earlier this year but no where near this level... with treatment, it went back down to 70. A few other numbers were also off this time. We followed up with an x-ray yesterday to see if her liver was enlarged or if anything else might show up. Liver is normal in size... not enlarged and it hasn't shrunk either. We also got the results of the bile acids test from yesterday this morning... it's normal too. No one up my way is skilled in doing an ultrasound so we may have to head downstate. She's on the antibiotic Clavamox, Denosyl supplement along with Hill's Prescription Diet l/d. For now, we wait 2 weeks and retest... then decide what to do from there. We will both do the best we can with with whatever conditions they may have. Quote: No inflammation. No infection. Toxins can also cause liver problems. We try to be so darn careful about what we bring into the house, what we use on back lawn and what we put in and on the dogs. Zero pesticides in the yard/garden too. We got rid of most household cleaning products and the lawn no longer looks as good as it did because we don't even use fertilizer! And we avoid the use of topical flea products... unless we find fleas. Ask your vet before applying a flea/tick product if you use them... they are not supposed to be used on sick or debilitated dogs. Maybe this article will help you to ask your vet questions about your little Chihuahua's condition- http://www.petplace.com/dogs/jaundice-i ... age1.aspx# Just an encouraging note... my vet told us earlier and also the other day that her old dog had liver numbers totally off the chart too. She said he was 5 minutes away from euthanasia. He's again feeling well. Hoping we'll both experience this with our dogs too. |
| We had a similar scare with one of our sheepies. What is your vet planning to do next? We were told that our eight year old had advanced liver cancer, but the vet sent in a sample anyway. (He had been opened up for an emergency bloat surgery at the time, and the vet couldn't miss what his liver looked like.) We were told that we could let him go then, or take him home and love him for whatever time was left. Thank goodness we chose to take him home. Two weeks later the vet called, literally crying. His horrible looking liver (and the accompanying numbers which were, I believe, more than ten times what they should be) was not cancer, and she was completely shocked. It was nodular hyperplasia (old dog liver). With some short term meds he did much better, and we lost him three years later to something completely unrelated. There are lots of possible causes for his liver enzymes to be elevated, and I know it's impossible to not worry about the worst, but I just wanted to let you know that there are other things that could be causing this. We'll keep all our fingers and paws crossed here for you. Here's hoping that there's good news on the horizon. |
| Oh, I REALLY hope that it's all a fluke and she bounces back. She's been my baby for 11 years, and though I tease her like we're an old married couple, I can't imagine losing her. The vet gave us some antibiotics and said to give her those, cross our fingers, and see how she does through the weekend. Because of the holiday, the only other real option was to have her hospitalized for the entire time, but they would only have been observing her. If she is going to be observed, I'd rather it be by us, at home. Thanks for your kind words and optimism. I will keep looking on the bright side and I have decided not to panic. |
I hope for your Penny the best.  |
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