I noticed my dog walking just a bit slower in the back legs. She ate and drank fine. Her and my other dog run back and forth the fence out back barking at the dogs next door. I really felt she may have sprained her lower back doing that. My other dog when running back and forth doesn't care who is in his way. He jumps all on top of her during his crazy runs. I thought he may have ran into her causing this problem.
So I took her into the Vet to get checked out and ask if they would give me pain medication for her to see how she does. The Vet gave me the pain medication for her but also said that the lameness can be a sign of Lyme Disease. Well, I never saw a tick on her or in my yard, or ever, so I didn't think much of that. The Vet didn't show any urgency or suggest any blood tests for her. That would have been a really good idea at this point. So I go home. The doctor said that if I see her becoming lame in the front of the legs to make sure to bring her in and have her checked out. Lameness would spread if it is Lyme disease.
Giving her medication for 10 days I noticed improvement in her walk. She still had a stiff gate in the back but I thought keeping her rested as much as possible, ice packs, belly rubs, she will get better.
Into that second week I noticed after she peed, she dropped a little drop of orange urine. That wasn't good to see. So I grabbed a collection finally and took it into the Vet's office. Turns out it was blood in the urine and I was given a 2 week antibiotic to give her. Don't ask me the names of the medications, I totally don't recall.
As she was on this medication for 2 weeks ( a long time if you ask me) things cleared up and her pee pee was better. I noticed she wasn't eating well, some days not at all and she began walking a little stiff in the front leg. Not badly, but stiff like an old dog with arthritis. So I took her back to the Vet.
The Vet said she could have came in contact with a tick. Did I get her shots for that? No, I didn't. We lived here at this new area for 7 years and none of our dogs ever had a tick from being in the yard. So that's why this year I decided not to have the shot for Lyme Disease. They gave her fluids and took liver and kidney blood tests. Gave her back to me. She was on the best medication for this problem. However I had to give it to her with food and if she had an upset stomach to give her Pepcid AC. I did that for 1 week before she began having bad belly pain. Poor baby.
This dog has many food sensitivities, to grains and preservatives and some colorants. I had to give her allergy medication for times she ate something she shouldn't. Like my husband passing out leftover pizza crust. OH MY! Noooooooo!
I received a phone call about my dogs blood work. She talked about the phosphorous levels being high and I should bring her in for 2 days on IV to give her fluids for the day. This may help flush out whatever may be there that the antibiotic was killing off. This will also help her numbers to improve. She let me know that the Lyme Bacteria did not show up in the blood work but she is sending a sample out to see if a special Blood Lab could find anything else. Typically with Lyme Disease there is also a co-infection. Now while my dog was in the office getting fluids they also gave her pennecillin in her IV.
The Vet didn't keep her overnight, we just went there for 2 days during the day. Each day she came home she was doing so fine, like really normal. A few days later it was back to looking ill again. That is about the time I made a connection with the pills I was giving her. So I called them up and asked to bring her in. They had another medication in pill form she could take, but they also had a shot they could give her, and in 2 weeks I would bring her back for a second shot. I thought the shot would be better since her digestion was upset by now and needs time to heal.
She seemed to be doing better and then she followed by days of not doing well. Not eating and not walking around and feeling weak. I figured that this problem may take time. Of course I went on the internet to search out some information. I couldn't find anything that would shed light on my dogs condition. I did come across some information on kidney failure and digested that into my consciousness. I was left really frustrated and stressed.
I have to go back and mention, that the first day I took her in and they did blood work on my dog, the Vet said something to me and I was left standing there confused. She said that if the dog had kidney damage from the bacteria you may just put her down. What? At the same time she gave me a months worth of pills to treat my dog. Now I asked her about this kidney issue 3 times and she never went into explaining anything to me. So I was left blinded by her words. And as I mentioned the internet didn't shed any light on it either.
After my dog received the fluids the Vet called me and told me her numbers were improving. But not enough at the moment. So we have to work on keeping her on medication I suspect to see if things change. The one thing I did read on the net was that this bacteria usually stays put and you have to treat your animal for the rest of their life. I found out later that it is a kind of bacteria that burrows deep into the tissue and medication doesn't seem to reach into it's hiding places. A person on a forum made a comment to wait 60 to 90 days before making a decision to put your pet down, it can take awhile.
So I tried to be optimistic. I took my dog in to have her second shot. We had a Tech appointment that just had a personnel give the shot, the Vet wasn't there. The Tech brings my dog out to me and says, "You know she lost more weight. You can bring her in at anytime if you want to put her down." I was a bit stunned at that comment. Am I a hard head or something? Or do I just want to give my dog a chance to get well? So home I go with my little one. Yes, she is loosing weight because she is not eating too much. Her belly is upset because of these medications causing her issues. After 1 week she began eating much better. However after 2 good days she was bad for 2 days. Yes, 2 days of not eating. But she was drinking just fine. Not a ton, just normal.
Oddness followed me all over the place with this situation. Not knowing the full information about what is taking place with my dog. Odd comments from the Vet and the Technician. Odd answers. And not getting answers I seek. Going back a bit when I took my dog home from the second day of the IV treatment. I asked the girls at the desk if the Vet said anything for me to do, or when to bring her back? They looked at each other and slowly shook their heads "no". This just about made me feel invisible.
So into the second antibiotic shot I became uneasy. I wanted her to see another Vet. My husband and I found a nice Vet nearby and she took a lot of time with us. This woman is amazing! We are not her regular customer and she took so much time helping us understand what is going on in a dog with Lyme Disease effecting its kidneys. So here goes......
I had gotten copies of my dogs blood work to show the new Vet. Looking at it I see that my dogs kidney numbers did not go down as the first Vet had told me, they went UP! Now I'm worried. So here is some content of the conversation. The new Vet suggested an updated blood test on my dog, it would take 30 minutes. Also an x-ray unless the other Vet had taken one. So that was done during the visit. The Vet explained how bad Lyme Disease is when the bacteria enters the body, if it settles into an organ it produces organ failure. Like with the kidneys. If you see a sign in your dog of somethng odd, symptoms related to lyme, a blood test should be done right away. Even if the blood work doesn't show Lyme, an antibiotic should be given as a precaution. This is so to get the bacteria early and it doesn't have time to settle into an organ. If the bacteria is still in the blood stream at the time of the antibiotic, there is a good chance you have taken care of the issue.
As I mentioned above, about this bacteria burrowing into the tissue, I'm told it sets up housing there. And continues to thrive in the tissue damaging it. So kidney failure will be quickly. If it settles into the heart, the same thing will result, heart failure, organ damage.
I told this new Vet that I don't understand that nothing shows up in my dogs blood. She says to me that many times that happens, or a co-infection does show up. The only way to know in my dogs case is to have a biopsy performed on my dogs kidney. Well, lets see what the tests shows first.
Bad news I received that day. Her blood work came back with bad results, worse than the last. At that point I knew what direction this whole situation will be taking me. She showed me the x-ray and there was a cloudy area on one side of my dogs liver. The Vet didn't know what that was about. And also couldn't view her one kidney. The other kidney was in clear view and looked healthy. The reason we had the x-ray done was to see if she had any kind of kidney stones. She didn't.
Another odd finding was that my dog didn't have bowels in the upper ribcage area. Just in the lower gut. I don't have the x-ray to show to you, but I learned a bit about a dogs anatomy that day. It gave me great pause as to what my dog was experiencing? Did she have some kind of birth defect that was catching up with her? Is it Lyme connected at all? I just don't know. But nothing looked saving. I had a 22 pound dog, and within 2 and 1/2 months she was now a little over 17 pounds.
One other bit of conversation I had with the Vet, me asking if my dog is suffering from a genetic kidney issue. She told me, "No, if that was the case it follows a particular path." She described the situation and my dog didn't display that issue at all. Also, she reminded me that with that bacteria affecting the kidneys they go bad really fast. And that was happening to my dog.
I also wanted to know if she could be helped with any medication. On my web search I read posts on people giving their dog a pill for kidney issues. However there are many different kidney issues and each are treated differently. This Vet said there is a pill they can give a dog with high protein levels. But the dog must eat every day. If the dog doesn't eat, you must force feed them. Blend the food very fine and syringe it to the dog. And they had to eat a kidney diet. Well, we talked about the diet and the fact that she doesn't eat and she has so many allergies. I on the other hand can have bad days due to my chronic fatigue and my own food allergies that can put me in bed. I didn't think I could do this each an every day and my dog would suffer more. Since her levels were so messed up and my dog didn't act like my dog much anymore, we decided to put her down before things got worse.
I scooped up my baby and went home and planned on a day to put her down at the new Vets office. My dog gave me a few incredible normal kind of days followed by 2 bad ones before saying good by to her. That dog of ours has no idea how much she was loved in our hearts. Her name was Hope.
For your information I will include the youtube video of a pet owner whose dog did have Lyme Disease. It was made in 2 parts. She told me of a forum I could go to to ask questions on Lyme Disease. I did that and it was helpful. Another place I went to was a Cannabis Oil Facebook group I joined to ask questions. I was looking for something to help manage my dogs pain.
Another thing to search for is Lyme Nephritis. This is kidney failure due to Lyme Disease. The video I am posting shows a healthy dog turning ill. It is posted in 2 videos and I will post both links. The video is on youtube but is not my video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE7PvXlK2GU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS88eC0eWnE
I'm to 100% sure what took my dogs life, but she went fast. Both Vets felt her symptoms did indicate Lyme Disease but it could not be confirmed.
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