Please keep my other Rhodesian Ridgeback dog, Chloe, in your thoughts and prayers. As you may know from this forum, I lost my one dog Zoe to Lymphosarcoma (lymph node cancer) in May. Now, my dog Chloe is hurting bad from arthritis at age 12 years and 1 month. She was doing okay all the way up until last night. She got two small walks at the park over the weekend. She was moving around fine. Then, she had a little spat with the neighbor's dog on the fence line. I went out when I heard the commotion and she couldn't stand up. Dogs try to act like their much younger when in the presence of other dogs and have an adrenaline surge so they try to do more than they care capable of. I brought her inside and she has been struggling ever since. I took her to the vet this morning and he gave her a vitamin b-12 shot...along with some pain meds to go with the Rimadyl. She looks really lethargic right now and can't get up on her own. I brought her in from the trip to the vet and she pooped where she lay. I'm hoping she just needs some rest to recover and, with the pain meds, she will get better. The vet thinks it is the pain causing her not to get up...even though there is some muscle atrophy. I don't know what's going to happen. It's not looking good at the moment. Because there are options to treat the pain and inflammation, I am trying that to get her back on her feet. But, if that doesn't work, then this is it I guess. I do hope this works. I'm just very sad right now. I know Chloe is down right now as she is not her usual self. I hope she can get better for a while longer while keeping her medicated with a new mix of meds.
Surfguy, there are vets who know acupuncture and chiropractic care, as well as the traditional vet stuff. I take my 14 year old dog to one in Austin, and did the unconventional therapy for a while. It seemed to help him. That was a couple of years ago. It's not cheap, but it can be effective.
In all seriousness: try acupunture. My wife worked at a vet hospital that had an animal accupunturist on staff, and I was amazed at the results she could get with even one treatment. The placebo effect doesn't work with animals: either it hurts or it doesn't. And I saw real pain-relief with acupuncture. EDIT: Great minds think alike, huh Deckard? :grin:
Evidently. This is available and more effective than some folks might imagine. What made me think about it was the trouble Surfguy's dog is having. It sounds like a spinal problem, something that might be positively affected with adjustment therapy and some acupuncture.
I have my older dog on synflex, a joint supplement for dogs. It seems to be working and isn't very expensive. You may want to try that in addition to whatever the vet suggests.
I have 2 dogs myself, one is more sickly than the other, suprisingly that is the younger one, the older one is tough as nails. I do feel for you, I hope your dog recovers and gets back on it's feet.
I hope it wasn't a stroke. We had a dog that had a stroke and could no longer use her back legs. It sounds like your dog is in better shape than that as she can also go to the bathroom, so that's good.
I guess she is not going to make it. It's killing me watching her like this. I can't even understand what is happening. Somehow, she seems more sick than just arthritis. She drinks a lot of water and then throws up. Her stool is runny. She won't eat and vomited what she ate yesterday. She can walk short distances if I stand her up and she will go the bathroom but she struggles. I just don't understand how she could go downhill this fast...after the spat with the dog on the fence line. The vets are telling me she may have sprained her back and it will take more than just one day to see improvement. But, they can't explain why she won't eat anything and she just looks miserable. Now, I'm not eating and I feel bad. It's just so depressing and I've been crying alot. So, I guess I have to let her go tomorrow unless a miracle happens.
Man, that sucks. I'm sorry to hear all that. Like I said, I've had animals succumb to a sudden affliction (stroke). It's really jarring and terrible. It sounds like some symptoms of an organ failure or something. Is she walking or still going to the bathroom laying down? I hope your vet can come up with something and are actually willing to look for something. A lot of them have an itchy trigger finger when it comes to putting animals to sleep and don't really see the worth of investing time into diagnostics.
Damn man. So sorry to hear that. Hopefully things look up tomorrow, or maybe the vets can figure something out.
So sorry to hear about what you and Chloe are going through. I'm no vet, but what you're describing sounds quite a bit like kidney failure. And sudden, acute kidney failure is uncommon. There is another possible explanation: poisoning. If Chloe got into something (or was fed something by an angry neighbor perhaps?) toxic, such as anti-freeze, it might present with the symptoms you're describing.
She can't get up on her own. I use a towel to assist her. She can stand and squat to go to the bathroom barely...but then I have to help her so she won't fall down. She is able to walk unassisted but barely and real short distance back into house from yard. The vet had a hunch she might have some form of cancer of something due to the drinking so much. They also didn't do any type of x-rays. They didn't suggest any of those things. They did a blood test. Her liver values were normal. She did have elevated levels of something(I forget what it was and don't have the blood test results)...which is why the vet was talking about the thirsty drinking issue and possible cancer causing the elevated levels. I guess an option would be to leave her with them for a day and see if they can figure out what is wrong or if anything else can be done. But, I think I will just end up prolonging her suffering, building up false hope, and not helping her in the end. Even if they figure it out, then will they be able to get her back to herself and up on her feet on her own? I doubt it. I'm wonder if x-rays wouldn't determine more but they didn't recommend em during her exam. A part of me doesn't know what to do, a part of me wants to let her go as she looks like she has lost the will to live, and a part of me wants to do the right thing. The answer to all that is beyond my grasp.
This breaks my heart reading about it. I'm sorry I don't have any advice, but I hope things turn out ok for you and Chloe.
