Prayers for Missie, please & a couple questions

[TinyAlbinoDancer]

That's reassuring that I'm not the only one! Ollie just filled out a little on it, but Missie is just hefty now. I started measuring the food in the last couple weeks, so we'll see how her weight does and make the decision from there. Ollie gets more exercise than she does, too, just from getting the zoomies and running around daily. She's more of a bump on a log. lol Thanks again Crossfire. We're seeing continued improvement today.

[Crossfire Bulldogs]

Good! I'm glad their continuing to improve!!

I've got one who gained so much on the Canidae she could have bled butter. lol I have another that's a littermate to her that does just fine on it. Dogs are all so different and finding that happy medium can be really difficult. Did Missie start looking a bit more pudgy after being spayed or was it just after she started this food only?

[TinyAlbinoDancer]

She was spayed 6+ years ago and has only had the most minor weight fluctuations until we switched to Canidae. She went up a pound to a pound and a half on the IVD Duck & Potato when we switched 2 (?) years ago. Now she went from 8/8.5 to 11 (it might've been 11.5, I was kind of stunned at that point) just since switching. I was in denial for awhile because we were switching to Canidae when Ollie came to live with us, and it was hard to tell if she was weighing more or just feeling heavy compared to him. Then I could tell a minor difference looking at her from above (and my brother who lives out on his own would come home and make comments about her getting fat. lol), and now you can definitely tell she's bigger and heavier. Some of the "bigger" is hair, too, as her hair was growing out during this time as well.

It's more difficult now too having Ollie, as he tends to eat more than she does, and I feed them at the same time. They also eat out of the same bowl (they voluntarily started doing that shortly after Ollie came to us!), so it's difficult to tell exactly how much each is consuming of the half cup they get morning and night (Ollie seems to eat more, as he gets there first and gets a head start. lol).

[Crossfire Bulldogs]

Well, part of it could also be due to her age.....we all put on a little as we get older. Going to be difficult to try and figure out a correct amount to feed her if they both eat out of the same bowl. Hmm, that's a toughy!

Looks like you've got two choices really, either make them eat apart and see what you can figure out with Missie and the amount she's eating compared to weigh gain / loss or switch to something that they both do equally as well on. I'd have to say that if your going to make a switch, now would be the ideal time since their off the food currently and you'll be starting them back slowly. If it were me and I was going to switch foods, I'd try to find something that was along the same lines ( all natural ) but had less protein....the Canidae's All Life Stage is 24%.

Food for thought....no pun intended. lol

[TinyAlbinoDancer]

Well we're seeing the vet (our regular one--YESS!) tomorrow morning at 10:15. I'm afraid I let them have dog food again too soon, and we have mucousy poop (TMI!) this morning. Missie has it worse and has pooped several times this morning already. Ollie just had one poop that had alot of mucous. I gave them wet kibble and rice yesterday morning because we were out of hamburger (Mom had cooked what I thought I had left for dinner. lol And it was seasoned so I couldn't give the remaining ones to the dogs). Everything was looking good so I gave them kibble for dinner. That was really my bad, and I sure am learning from this experience!

So Mom bought and made more hamburger last night, and they got that, rice, and 1/4 teaspoon of pumpkin each. I'm being extra careful with that pumpkin now, as I had no idea how well it worked!

The vet we saw Fri. called (at 10:30!) last night and said Missie's blood panel came back and she has slightly elevated pancreas enzymes. He said he hoped she wasn't throwing up anymore (she hasn't thrown up since last Thursday), and we'd need to talk about our next course of action. He didn't leave a number and I couldn't reach him at the normal office, so I called this morning and asked if I could just go over the results with my regular vet during our appt. tomorrow morning. So that's the plan. This other vet has really got me scared something's seriously wrong, and I alternate between denial and tears. Having no history with him I don't want to trust him, but this is my baby, too, so how can I ignore what he says?

I have whole new empathy for y'all who go through illness' with your dogs more often than this. I just can't take the thought of losing her, so I'm not coping well! But we'll see what the vet says tomorrow, and I'll ask her what she thinks I should do about their food and the weight gain and such. I'm just relieved to see her finally.

Thanks again for all your help, everyone. I'm a wreck, and I get anxious because I'm afraid I'll start crying in the vet's office and not be able to ask and communicate everything I need to.

[flyndog]

Kalena, how is it going? What did you learn from your vet?

[Crossfire Bulldogs]

Thinking of you guys....let us know.

[TinyAlbinoDancer]

Sorry for the late update. I wanted to come right home and post, but schoolwork first. It's been a task keeping a close eye on the doggies and keeping up with schoolwork this week!

The vet we saw that Fri. called again last night and said he thought it was pancraeitis (which I still can't spell). I told him we had an appointment with (our regular vet) and thank you for calling. So I was pretty anxious and upset, worried about what our appt. this morning would show. I gave Missie a bath using the shampoo correctly last night, and wasn't impressed with her itching afterwards.

However, this morning we woke up and there was no poop on my floor, no diarreah after that, and she was running around crazily with Ollie. I didn't feed her in case they would need to do tests she'd need to fast for, and off we went. I told the vet we originally made the appointment for allergies but needed to discuss test results now, as well. She looked over them and said while they were always concerned about pancreas issues with small dogs, Missie's numbers would've had to of been over 1,000 to confirm pancreatis. Missie's number was 747 if I saw upside down correctly. I told her our other dog had also been having diarreah, and it came and went depending on what food they were on. She said the symptoms could be indicative of anything, so she didn't want to aggressively treat anything uncomfirmed (the other vet told me on the phone that Missie should be on IV fluids for three days!). She said to continue the bland diet since it was effective.

Allergies-- Just to positively rule out food allergies the vet wants me to keep Missie on the bland diet for a couple weeks and see if things improve. After that she recommended switching foods because of the weight gain and possible link to Missie's symptoms. She also gave her an anti-inflammatory shot (which seems to be helping!). Missie's eyes have been puffy and red, and one has discharge, so she stained the eye that has discharge to check for cysts? (I can't remember what she was checking for!) and there were none. One of Missie's ears was also inflamed, so we were sent home with eye ointment and ear drops.

I felt sooo calm after seeing this vet. We've been seeing her for at least 10 years, and she has never done us wrong. I trust her diagnosis with the pancreas enzymes. I did recognize that she treats many of the symptoms rather than the underlying cause, but at this point we can't confirm any underlying cause, so I'm ok with dealing with symptoms.

Do any of you know... Are dogs supposed to fast before having a blood panel? I read online that they are, and Missie ate about 5 hours before her blood panel. I was trying to think of anything that could've affected the pancreas, too, like vomiting the night previously? I don't know enough about things to figure that out, and I couldn't find any answers in my research (except that an unnamed study done this year concluded, "amylase-lypase tests are not as accurate in predicting the disease as we thought. A rather substantial number of pets with pancreatitis do not have elevated enzimes and a similar portion with elevated enzimes do not have pancreatitis." http://www.2ndchance.info/pancreatitis.htm).

Anyway, I think that was everything! Thank you, Crossfire and Kit, for asking! I really appreciate your support and concern. You guys are invaluable to me!