Health Concern

theyogachick

Anothe rset back. Loki had some serious odd pain incident Friday afternoon. If I tried to touch his tail or rear end, he screamed at me. Of course, I had just come home and found that he had peed and poo'd in our dining room, so he may have felt like he was in trouble. Called vet immediately and we took him in (again) yesterday morning.

Original vet (who we saw Saturday morning) thinks he has collitis (or however you spell it) based on the fact that Loki is not constipated (as we previously thought). His stool is not hard and when he performed an exam, he found very little poo in Loki (sorry, I know that is gross). He thinks his bowels are inflamed and he feels like he has to go, but he doesn't. which is why he keeps straining. He has him on some meds for collitis and some pain meds for now and we are supposed to call back Monday morning to let him know if there has been any change. As of now, there is very little change...still straining, but he seems to be going more at one time instead of five little ones. He also lifts his leg to pee like 7 times when he is outside, but he doesn't always pee (that we can see). I think he is trying to make a path that he can follow in the backyard...smell his way around...but I could be wrong.

Other vet (test-happy vet) called Friday night and says she thinks it is a prostate problem or a tumor in his intestine and (surprise, surprise) wants to run like 3 more tests on him because she is still caught up on the 6 pounds in 6 months thing and she doesn't want him to lose any more weight (although she also says he is overweight by 10 pounds). We did mention this to original vet, and he said the odds of it being prostate cancer (since Loki is neutered) or an intestinal tumor is highly unlikely. But, if the collitis stuff doesn't work, we (TJ and I) feel we may have to investigate the possibility.

Original vet also gave us the thyroid meds and we are staring those on Monday. I am hoping that will help. We are also taking him off The Missing Link and giving his food to him dry again (this started to be more prominent when we added The Missing Link and water...but it still doesn't explain the peeing issue)

I will keep you posted.

theyogachick

The thyroid meds seem to be helping a bit...he has only been on for one week, so we shall see.

Took Loki back to vet yesterday for follow up appointment, and vet said he looks better than he has in the past, so we are hopeful. This time last week we were talking about putting Loki to sleep because it seemed that everything was failing.

He is still sleeping a lot, and he is not eating as much as usual (but he is almost off his pred, so we think that has something to do with it), but he is not in constant pain and he is still alert, so we are keeping fingers crossed.

He is favoring his hind end a little, but our vet said that in all his years of practicing medicine, he has only seen two cases of prostate cancer, and only one was a neutered male...so he thinks prostate problems are not an issue.

Thanks again for all your support, guidance and help. Loki (and his brother Gizmo) thank you, too!

theyogachick

Just wanted to update everyone who helped.

Sadly, my husband and I had to have Loki put to sleep on Friday. His health problems continued to multiply and the four vets we took him to could not pinpoint exactly what we needed to do to fix him. He was on 7 different medications, was diagnosed with a torn ACL, possible herniated discs as and he began losing control of his bladder and he stopped eating (he even started spitting out his pills...something he never did). TJ and I are heartbroken, but we know we did everything we could and the life he was living was not one he deserved, so we did what was best for him...even if it has caused us more grief than we can express.

Thank you all for you guidance, help, and support. He is missed and we only hope to have another dog one day who is half as sweet as he was.

~Shannon, TJ and Gizmo~

railNtrailcowgrl

I'm so sorry to hear about Loki. Your family will be in my thoughts.

spotted nikes

I'm so sorry for your loss. Godspeed Loki.

GroovyGroomer777

<Hugs>

I'm sorry about Loki. You did all you could do. Sending good vibes your way.