Autoimmune Disease

ludog · 07-03-2006, 12:44 PM

This is my first visit to any kind of a forum of this sort, so forgive me if I'm not entering this information in the correct place. I have a very big problem. My 10 year old Whippet, Lu, is very ill. Last week, she stopped eating so we took her to the vet and they found that she was anemic. They ran a TON of tests on her. Finally, she had a bone marrow asperit (not sure of spelling) and we'll get the results back today. She either has autoimmune disease or cancer. The vet felt that the results of preliminary tests leaned toward the autoimmune disease more than anything else, so they started her on those medications. The big issue is that she isn't eating. If she doesn't eat, she becomes more anemic and will require a transfusion. If she has a transfusion, she only has a 50% chance of survival. We have to have her on a low fat diet due to the autoimmune diagnosis. The only thing we can get her to eat is cooked chicken breast. I'm going crazy trying to get her to eat! Does anyone have any experience with this or advice to give? I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks!

gpriska · 07-03-2006, 08:58 PM

Hi there....you should try syringing her. She can do ok for awhile without eating, but make sure she keeps hydrated with water or the broth. Put the syringe at the side of her mouth in between her teeth and point the syringe towards the front of her mouth and then gently depress the syringe making sure to go slow and give her time to catch her breath. You usually can get 2 or 3 cc's in at a time (dependant on the size of syringe using...I use a 6 cc syringe) Hope this helps.

ludog · 07-03-2006, 11:14 PM

gpriska
Thanks for replying to my posting about autoimmune disease. We'll try that.

bigdawgs · 07-04-2006, 07:05 AM

You can try regular babyfood to syringe as well. You can thin it down with broth if need be. Also, the vet should have (or call around) for a product called Rebound. It is a food replacer for convalescing dogs. We use it in the clinic.