Toxic Food Experience For My Dog

Voyageur

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My eldest dog (near 10 yrs.) came down with an issue in October. Essentially, she looked super, was acting fine – she was in fact energetic, and this was just before she ate in the morning. She went outdoors to do her rounds and came back, lay down and started to look distressed. The condition became worse as I sensed a fever or something, and she was chocking and bringing up bile.

She eats a raw diet since a long time ago and has done very well on it indeed, yet eating this now was out, coupled with the signs, as said above.

With her bile trying to come up I got her outdoors again to monitor if there was anything different in what she brought up; nothing foreign was noted. She then came in and started to shake, feverish, and her eyes were not in great shape – like a narcotic effect as she started to squint her eyes closed. I felt her for damage and pain and could not locate any specific point.

Not good.

Called her vet and was told they were in surgery that day. Again, not good. After monitoring her she was panting and distressed and thus decided to chance it and take her in. In doing so, was lucky to catch the vet between surgeries whereby he noted she had a sore pancreas (she indeed winched when proded there) and decided to take a blood sample for markers. She was also running a fever and infection of some kind was considered likely.

The blood sample turned up negative on the suspected markers – it was +/- in the range, nothing overt.

In the end she came home with me and I started her on an antibiotic and she recovered well and regained her usual self.

Okay, a month later after being away I got home before her dinner, and like the other two dogs she had a small non-cereal well manufactured charcoal bone type cookie; good for the teeth and digestion, apparently. Having been away, she had two. When my partner came home she weaseled in for a third, it was realised later.

The dogs all went out again and were fine and then she came in and refused to eat and she started reaching with bile coming up. Like before, I had worried that she had had mushrooms, yet it had snowed and we were beyond that season. We had also talked about possible problems with the raw food she was on or, was it sickness; the pancreas again, bacteria or viral?

Like before (less a more severe fever) her eyes started to squint narcotic-like and she was despondent. She had chocked bile and swallowed it. Tried to call the vet (after hours line) and all the phone lines were down; odd, so not much I could do.

Tried to cool her down and after being with her for a few hours she started to respond favorably to the point that she seemed recovered. All the while I’m going through the points of time in my mind; raw food, something outside; deer dropping, squirrels etc. and then it hit me that what if these charcoal small little bones were a problem? The other dogs were fine and yet she usually never has these; more often she has chicken feet, necks and sometimes pumpkin cookies or even carrots. She would immediately be cut off so I could find out. The more I thought it through the more I realized that these charcoal cookies could be the problem; but did she have them the first time it happened? I don't know yet it was possible.

Next day she was all good and I let the vet know of the relapse (discussed the pncrease markers from the initial test) and called her pet-food store and made inquiry of my concerns, and immediately was told that those charcoal cookies have peppermint oil infused and that they could cause problems as an opposite to what they can help with in some dogs. Not good. Then it was that the charcoal, although it can aid digestion, can also act as a chelator stripping out nutrients and acting in the digestive track – bile enhanced production was a possibility. Bingo.

Since, she has had none and was back to normal in terms of eating and energy. She also took a trip to see her natural vet (I was not with her) who does Chinese acupressure points and did some realignments; added probiotics, vitamin nutrients (and she has some joint soreness to be sure as a long-legged older dog) and was given a shot of Pentosan Polysulphate (PP) for her joints and a three-seed combination. It took her a couple of days but she is doing really well now (I need to look into the PP).

Also, I have to administer these PP shots on a weekly basis for a couple of months.

So, this is also an awareness experience on one particular type of food that seemed benign when it was clearly toxic for her. Because she ate a few more than usual, it must have hit her in the way it did (or it was an incremental buildup), and likely for her one was one to many. I’m going with the thinking that the first time she was ill she also had the same thing.

That's the outcome, thanks for reading.
 
I am glad to hear she doing OK now.

Thank you, yet now I'm not sure I got it right at all, I don't think so, nor has it been picked up by two seperate vets as there has been a relapse with her - similar symptoms. There is something missing in all this that I can't figure out and it may be something tumorous or not.
 
Sorry to hear of the relapse. I know it is worrisome to have her sick and you can't find the reason, nor did two vets! I believe we have a couple of vets on the forum - perhaps they will offer some advice.

My dog gets nauseous pretty often for no known reason that I can find. The last time, she got better when I gave her a homeopathic remedy. I did a search with her symptoms on a remedy finder and tried a couple of remedies. If you want to try that, there is a remedy finder at abchomeopathy.com
 
Thanks for the link, SevenFeathers. She spent the day yesterday (no food) sleeping and she was drinking a little water, which is a good sign, and perked up somewhat last night and better this am; still weak, yet able to walk outside with a wagging tail.

Had some additional consultations with vets yesterday, too, and her alternative vet has a greed to see her today (on a Sunday) so we will go from there. Although only having one PP shot, she will not be taking more until something more concrete can be determined.
 
Just an update:

Okay, so she took a bit of a long trip today to her natural vet to reassess. It seems (which was on my mind) that the original vets prescription of antibiotics was sound, yet not long enough for the critters that are there causing this infection (it was a prescribed week and should have been two) - thus she has an reoccurring infection that was not wholly treated the first time. This seems to be what has laid her down; yet there could be other factors.

With some immediate dietary modifications (she is phlegmy), vitamins - and now off the probiotics for a bit, she has started a new course of antibiotics (and this vet does not like to prescribe them unnecessarily), and although a little slow moving, she ate a good dinner, is moving around somewhat - weak in the back end, and is more bright in being. All encouraging.

There is more to do, more to check and asses, so for now it is a step by step process and will see how she does.
 
Hope she improves with the new course of antibiotics Voyageur. Sounds like your covering every base though it's difficult for you seeing her suffer.
 
Update continued:

Missed a day here. So, as said above and after seeing her alternative vet (a gem of a vet) on Sunday and becoming a little more bright, by Monday am after just the initial courses of antibiotics and a good meal the night before, she was alert and bouncy (dissipated weakness) and ready for her morning meal. Presently, she continues to have a good appetite on her modified diet (doing a little cooking for her) and seems to have regained her strength and will.

The other doggies were overjoyed at her responsiveness, and it was interesting to watch them when she was hurting because they were super sensitive to her; even laying close to her side.

Now to rule out other matters, she had a chest x-ray of her lungs and it appears there was no mass, although some points of cloudiness were discussed which seems to be associated with her phlegm - and slight cough. He stomach is not enlarged and it does not appear that there is issue with lumps or other markers.

What has cause this infection is little understood at the moment, yet those critters did everything they could to take her down hard, so will need to be persistent and try and rule out food sources (like raw food chicken being one possibility) as she is older and may have become sensitive to things that before were fine or, she picked up a bacteria from a food source; I really don't know at this point.

As before, step by step, yet big improvements.


.
 
Going Forward:

The results of the x-ray clearly showed the source, an infection in the lungs. There did not appear to be any obvious focus masses (not sure how to describe that) as it was more cloudiness in quadrants, as is understood. It was read by a radiologist. So, what was inferred originally as a possible gut issue is in reality a lung infection, a serious one, one that is now deemed pneumonia, and there is no reliable words that can point to what caused it.

Her improvements are what would appear on the outside as being near 100%, with some minor signs of breathing distress from time to time. In her internal world, she is on antibiotics (Cephalexin 500 mg.) for at least 4 weeks, which is a long time (diet adjustments/vitamins notwithstanding, and keeping her gut bacteria in order as best as possible etc.) and will have another read once that time comes.

Couple of things to add because one, the title suggested food toxicity, which obviously appears in error now, yet she is being warned off raw chicken (necks/feet - all of it) by her natural veterinarian. The second thing is that through all this the local vet and the natural vet have synched up together exchanging information on how best to treat her. This is like when a persons regular doctor collaborates with ones alternative doctors to best treat the person/patient; which seems rare due to their orbits of practice. So that is a good outcome of care in itself.

Thanks for reading.
 
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Her improvements are what would appear on the outside as being near 100%, with some minor signs of breathing distress from time to time. In her internal world, she is on antibiotics (Cephalexin 500 mg.) for at least 4 weeks, which is a long time (diet adjustments/vitamins notwithstanding, and keeping her gut bacteria in order as best as possible etc.) and will have another read once that time comes.

Glad to hear that your doggie's health is gradually improving, Voyageur. :hug2: Also, sorry if I missed it, but did you do an ultrasound examination of the abdominal as well, beside the blood test? If your dog was vomiting (and not simply regurgitating), and the vomit was yellow (with bile), then perhaps it would be prudent to do the ultrasound just in case. :-)Perhaps when you'll go to the clinic to do your blood tests again.
 
Also, sorry if I missed it, but did you do an ultrasound examination of the abdominal as well, beside the blood test? If your dog was vomiting (and not simply regurgitating), and the vomit was yellow (with bile), then perhaps it would be prudent to do the ultrasound just in case. :-)Perhaps when you'll go to the clinic to do your blood tests again.

Indeed, this was discussed, Keit - more as an afterthought with the two vets during the initial visits and after probing around initially thinking it was a gut related infection. Yet it was the one natural vet who seemed to then become focused on immediatly getting an x-ray done of her lungs after hearing/seeing her go through the motions and then prescribing it (also being still leary of the gut). When she was bringing up food there was no yellow whatsoever, so in retrospect it seemed to be like a dual effect (a sympothetic effect) form her trying to clear her lungs. In the latter part she was coughing out phlegm, or trying as hard as she could to do so, and in the former it was stomach bile. It is almost as if the thing she was trying most to do was originally masked as a result of inducing stomach reaching that was triggered from her lungs (being under such duress), if this makes sense. Will certainly revisit this with either a direct test or an explanation.

Thank you for bringing it up.
 
It has been a month and just today she finisher her long treatment of antibiotics. The official, although somewhat rare condition she had, was aspirated pneumonia and a secondary x-ray was taken this past week with her lungs looking completely clear.

I'll keep a close eye on her for any signs of any reemergence because there can be a number of different methods for contracting said pneumonia - for now I'm going with a foreign food object that became lodged in the esophagus or scratched it that caused infection turning to pneumonia (the one vet thinks so too), yet it could have been something else.

Anyway, she seems to be in the clear.
 
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