High Bilirubin In Urine - Vet Suspects Liver Probs In Gracie

MyRescueCrew · 01-09-2009, 06:22 PM

Im just really concerned right now. This past week, Gracie has been having accidents in the house. She's been going in the kitchen on our white vinyl floor. When she pee's, it's only tiny spots, about the size of a quarter. And the urine is green. And I mean, green as grass. I called the vet and he said bring in a urine sample.

I brought in a sample this morning and then called him around lunch for the results. He did not sound happy, and was quite concerned and that freaked me out a little. He had me confirm again about the color and amount, and asked if Gracie had been eating normally. I told him since yesterday, her appetite has appeared off. He said he wanted me to bring her in first thing in the morning for blood testing. He said he found levels of bilirubin in her urine test, and between that and the color of her urine with the other symptoms, he suspects she has a liver problem. *Faints*

I just wish tomorrow would get here already, I am a wreck with concern over what might be wrong with her. She's perfectly fine otherwise, but jeesh, liver problems?? That's not good, to say the least. And her green urine concerns me. Obviously, we went over diet changes, which there's been none. No new treats or meds, and he said even then, it wouldn't turn urine dark green and keep it that way. Plus she's urinating less amounts, and more often than usual.

Poor thing, shes only 9, and in otherwise great health considering her past. Hopefully it's nothing, but I'm ready to have that bloodwork done and to get some answers!

GroovyGroomer777 · 01-09-2009, 06:30 PM

Oh, dear girl, will it ever end?!

I feel like I live at the vet's with 4 pets...so I can't imagine how you feel. I know you are a fantastic dog owner and take great care of your animals...I guess this is just <sigh> ....life.

I hope everything turns out okay with Gracie.
I also hope Annie is doing alright with her hips and feeling less pain.

I will be on after I work tommorow, eagerly awaiting the new post to see that Gracie was checked out and will be just fine.

myminpins · 01-09-2009, 06:35 PM

What breed is Gracie? That sucks. I hope something can be done to fix it easily. The waiting must be excruciating. I'm sorry - nine is definitely young. Hopefully it'll just be a temporary setback

MyRescueCrew · 01-09-2009, 10:58 PM

Thanks guys, waiting is a pain. I'm just glad that she's acting herself other than the lack of interest in food. She seems happy and is playing tonight and being her usual self, so that's good.

minpin's, Gracie is a minature dachshund (she's the long haired black and tan on my website). She's such a sweetie too, she's my little lovey girl. She constantly wants to be in your lap giving you kisses at all times. It's her requirement in life.

Groovy, I'll be posting the results as soon as I get home tomorrow. The vet tried to reassure me by saying that sometimes those urinalysis come up with flukes and false positives, but that with her having actual symptoms with her urine being green, her change in urination amounts, and loss of appetite, that he feels that the test was correct, which is why he wants to investigate further with the bloodwork tomorrow.

Ugh, my nerves. I need caffeine now.

4paws-up · 01-10-2009, 10:13 AM

Wow I am sorry to hear that- I will pray for her- if your into the holistic side Milk Thistle can really help with liver issues but you definately need to know what is going on.

MyRescueCrew · 01-10-2009, 04:10 PM

Home from the vet. Well, it's not good news, but we really don't have too many answers yet either. From what he can tell, her liver is shot, but he has no answers yet. He ran a quicker liver panel blood test and it showed some high levels of something or another, and he said that it indicates liver damage, such as liver disease or a failing liver.

However, as of this morning, she is also anemic with pale gums, so he pulled two tubes of blood and sent one off to the LSU Vet lab and one to another blood lab in Texas. Being the weekend, we won't have any answers until Tuesday morning he said. Today's bit of bloodwork only confirmed to us that something is wrong with her liver, only on Tuesday will he be able to break it down and determine what.

We went over if she had been exposed to anything -- recalled or moldy foods, pesticides, weed killers, fertilizers, household cleaners, ect. And, the answer was no, as we are very particular and I backtracked everything. He also did note that even if it had been something poisonous like that, she would've shown more symptoms sooner, and it wouldn't have taken several days for it to 'kick in'. The test that we'll get the results on Tuesday are a full blood panel, and some other panel he took. One went to the Texas lab (full blood panel) and the other one to LSU.

He said until then, we'll just have to wait and watch. If she gets sicker, he said bring her in Monday, but there's really nothing he can do until he see's those results on Tuesday so he'll know what's wrong and what exactly it is that he's treating.

She's still acting pretty normal today though, running around the yard, and she tried to steal a french fry from me on the way home. So those are still great signs. Fingers crossed until Tuesday!