Dixie – Anemic – Low B-12

[admin]

roger, sorry but I am not totally up to date what you give Dixie. One thing I always recommend for dogs (and people) on antibiotics is yoghurt or kefir to keep the good bacteria in the GI tract healthy. You might even want to look at probiotics. My dogs love both yoghurt and kefir, they are 44 and 54 lbs and get about 1 TBS to half a cup every night before bedtime.
Best wishes,
Brigitte

[Roger]

Brigitte, Thank you, yes Dixie gets a probiotic/enzyme with some yogurt everyday, well almost everyday. Some days she refuses to eat the yogurt and with the enzyme in the probiotic the yogurt breaks down in about 5 minutes so if she does not eat it right away I throw it out. I do space the yogurt at least two hours from the antibiotic.

[admin]

Good job Roger!

[admin]

Hi Roger

How is Dixie doing? Is she still on her Baytril? Apart from the pred, what other medication is she on now? I can understand the difficulty you are facing with the side effects mimicking the other symptoms. I agree that probiotics are an excellent idea. I used them with Molly when she had antibiotic-associated diarrhoea. I also used to mix chopped egg and boiled rice into her food. As far as I’m aware, these are safe in dogs (please correct me someone if I am wrong), and it really did help Molly tolerate the antibiotics.

Other people here have had success with settling the bowel a little by mixing some cooked pumpkin into the food, so that might be worth a try if you can get her to eat it. Warming the food slightly can help make it more appetising.

I hope that Dixie’s appetite has improved. Vets do stock some high calorie foods to try when all else fails, and most can be mixed to a very soft consistency which can be lapped or syringe fed. I hope that she is eating a little better now though and that this is not necessary.

Sending best wishes and hoping that Dixie is starting to feel better.

Mary and Mable x

• This reply was modified 10 years, 4 months ago by admin.

[Roger]

Dixie has now been on Baytril for 16 days and does have most of the expected symptoms, lethargy, very loose stools, very little appetite. losing weight and a little withdrawn. Over the course of this illness we have unfortunately caused Dixie to be afraid to eat, she is very smart and is connecting eating with feeling bad. None of her dog foods are being consumed currently. Even though we know she will get a little hungry after a day or more of not eating she will not touch dog food but will take something she thinks we are eating. A couple of days ago we discovered that for some odd reason she likes cheeseburgers. Yes, I know not a good food, definitely not something she could live on but right now she will eat them and so we are giving her plain cheeseburgers to keep calories flowing in. Several months ago we were home making her food from a vet recipe that had as a major ingredient lean ground beef and she loved it until she related it to feeling sick and stopped eating the homemade food. For now the cheeseburgers are at least somewhat similar in protein to the homemade food and they are certainly calories, which seem to have stopped her weight loss. Dixie is still taking 1 Trinfac-B capsule twice a day, she completed tapering off the prednisone about a week ago (was down to 5mg every 3 days toward the end), and has stopped taking Pepsid 1 pill twice a day (this was partially a protective measure with the prednisone). She takes an Enzyme/probiotic with yogurt almost every day, will be due for another B-12 shot in a week and will be due for an iron shot on Monday. We cook up a little beef liver to add as a small amount to help entice her to eat regular dog food, this typically only results in her spending the time to sort it out of the dog and only eating the liver. Overall Dixie does not seem to have any severe food allergies however we noticed that she cannot tolerate rice so we have avoided it both cooked or as an ingredient in a dog food. We are walking her twice a day about 3/4 of a mile each time and while it seems to be bad to expend the calories it really perks up her mood; on the whole I think it is a positive. Dixie before getting sick was my trail buddy and loved super long hikes, walking in the neighborhood at least gives her the sense of getting out on the trails.

[admin]

Roger,
I so feel for you! A dog that is not eating is just so disheartening. I think you are on the right track that Dixie associates food with feeling sick right now. The other thing you have to remember,dogs totally pick up on our moods and even if we think we are hiding our feelings they pick it up. It could be that you get really anxious when you feed her, I remember I was always on edge. Is he going to eat or not? will he like it or will I have to throw that expensive food out yet again? etc. Try to be as matter of fact as possible, even have someone else feed Dixie and if she does not eat her food in a few minutes take it away and try again later. I would definitely keep cooking for Dixie and not feed her kibble at this time. I would prefer a cheese burger to commercial dogfood hands down:) I assume you don’t give her the bun, so cheese and hamburger is not really a bad choice. I am guessing it smells better and different from the food that has been making her feel sick.
I don’t think the pepcid is a bad idea, maybe ask the vet if you can continue? What would really protect Dixie’s GI is Sucralfate. I know she is not on prednisone anymore, but something is clearly bothering her. Where is her PCV at? When was it checked the last time? When did she have her last full CBC?
I know that dogs thrive on routine and of course since Dixie is ill that routine had to change. I am glad you found an other one and take her for short walks around the neighborhood. I would think it gives Dixie a sense of normalcy and security.
Best wishes,
Brigitte

[Roger]

Dixie’s last CBC was about 3 weeks ago, it was just before the Baytril. PCV was 28%. We spoke to the Dixie’s internal specialist regarding Sucralfate and he did not think it was necessary based on the level of Prednisone she was on. At that point she was already well on her way to tapering off of it. He said at her current prednisone levels the pepsid was all that was needed and since it did not come with all of the timing issues we would need to work around with it and the Baytril, Sucralfate, enzymes/probiotics, Trinfac etc. he advised not to go that way. Currently Dixie’s gums look slightly pail but nothing like a month ago to hopefully her PCV/HCT is closer to the lower range than before . As far as eating goes I wish we had a second dog again so she could feel competition for eating. We lost our Aussie about a year and a half ago at almost 16, he was a chow hound is whole life even though he had a normal weight for his size. If Dixie did not eat her meal on pace with our Aussie he would then try to steal her food, this did help her eat on schedule. We have been giving her the bun on the cheeseburger as well, for some reason she absolutely loves bread, perhaps more so than even the meat and cheese. I understand the issues with wheat/grains but she needs the calories and without the bun she will not finish a patty with cheese and with it she will. I can’t bear to see her go down to 35 lbs again, at that weight she was bones draped with loose skin. She’s back up to about 39 lbs today. At her best she was 46 lbs, super fit; most would have still said she was a lettle thin, not quite as thin as a Whippet but not super far from that neighborhood. She was about 2 inches taller at the shoulders than our Male Aussie and he was normally about 55 lbs.

[admin]

Roger, I agree, Dixie having a bun is probably the lesser of two evils. I totally get it that you want her, and she needs to eat. Have you tried cooked and mashed sweet potatoes or yams?
I am sorry I am not totally up to date with Dixie’s history, I should take the time to read all of your posts but today that is just not going to happen. I am a bit confused why the prednisone has already been stopped and was it done very gradual? Is she still on an other immune supressant like cyclosporin or azathioprine? You say her gums are a bit pale? Have you checked at different times of the day? Are they always a bit pale or only at certain times? To me 3 weeks without a CBC or at least RBC at this stage seems a bit long. I needed at least every 2 weeks for MY peace of mind.
Best wishes,
Brigitte