mgepfrey asked:
Tests for Parvo and antifreeze were negative, she had dead animal bones in her belly. Her kidney levels were elevated. Her internal temperature was normal, but her feet, ears, and nose were cold. She was also dehydrated even though she was drinking water exessively. The vet has kept her on fluids through an IV which has helped tremendously, however they don’t know exactly what caused this. Any ideas?
She had dead animal bones in her belly?
What kind of animal bones?
Is it possible she ate a mouse or rat that had been posioned?
if a dog eats a posioned rat, they can become severly ill…
Ask your Vet is it could be Cushing’s Disease. You are describing several of the symptoms.
I would guess a problem with the kidneys, Renal failure.. Or even Diabetes, bad breath suggests diabetes. Could also be inflammatory bowl disease, or
Lepto.. Has the vet run any test other than kidney?
Kidney failure is a possibility but cannot be diagnosed from a blood test result of elevated renal parameters alone- dehydration also causes these to increase, so it is necessary to look at the concentration of the urine as well. A dog that is dehydrated can concentrate its urine, a dog with kidney failure cannot. Do you know if they took a urine sample from her before they put her on the IV?
The cold feet, ears and nose are secondary to her being dehydrated and probably in a degree of shock as a result.
Really, her symptoms could potentially be due to a large number of causes, and it’s hard to point in any particular direction without more information. Did the vet give you the full results of her blood test, or just that her kidney levels were high? If they did, and you’re able to post them here, that would be helpful. I’d be interested to know what her liver enzymes were like, and her electrolyte levels if the vets were able to do them (quite a few clinics still have to send samples away for this). It could be a primary gastrointestinal issue, it could be a toxicity as other people have said, but another condition that springs to mind is hypoadrenocorticism (Addisons disease). There may well be other things the vet knows about her case that have allowed them to rule this out, but based on the information you’ve given us here, I’d be ranking it fairly high on my list of possibles.
I hope that she makes a full recovery regardless of what is causing her illness. Feel free to email if I can be of any more help.
my guess would be this:
bloody diarrhea and vomit are from the bones. they most likely cut/tore up her stomach and intestines. heavy water intake is probably due to dehydration (which is why the IV has helped so much). restlessness is probably due to being uncomfortable and most likely in pain.
the bad breath..well if you ate something funky, then proceeded to vomit it back up along w/blood your breath would be a bit rancid as well.
i’m sure he (vet) checked blood sugar, so that eliminates diabetes. could be pancreaititis though. well the dog is in vets care and they will isolate the cause. GL with it….
Sounds like a possible infection from a stomach obstruction. Some things linked to kidney failure include digesting grapes and raisins. The dead animal bones could have contributed to a stomach blockage but would not have caused it and they are a good indicator of what could cause an infection. Leptospirosis is also a big possibility. About three years ago we had three dogs at work die from it and everyone I worked with was infected and had to be treated. One dog who contracted it had a long recovery but is now back to his usual self. Lepto is very contagious and is spread through infected urine. Dogs can contract if from simply licking grass where another animal has urinated or drinking water from an infected water source (how our dogs contracted it)
The problem is that you didnt specify where in the bowel the bone is. The cause of bloody diarhea/ vomit can be due to intestinal obstruction such as intususception, foreign bodies, neoplasia and fungal granuloma. Bacterial enteritis ( salmonella, E. coli and clostridial spp), coagulopathies (warfarin toxicity, DIC), hypersensitivitis and parasitic infestation such as Hookworm in the intestine can lead to bloody diarhea. Heavy water intake, restlessness in this case could be a result of diarhea/vomiting. So the dog will be drinking a lot of water to compensate for the water being lost due to vomiting and diarhea.
From the results we have, we cant rule out renal diseases since there is heavy water intake. Uremia could be the possibility of the leading cause of Bad breath and restlessnes. Bad breath also can be due to the fact that the owner is not taking care of the oral cavity of a dog, so history must be taken to rule out that fact.
Dehydration in the presence of drinking too much water can be due to the fact that the dog is vomiting and diarrhoic.
CBC, serum biochemistry, feacal smears, ultrasonography, urinalysis can help us to easily find the most probable cause of this illness.
My tentative diagnosis from the history i have can be Foreign body in the bowel (bone)