Hi,
Lots of good advice here already. For the time being: I found in the Animal Desk Reference Manual (Essential Oils for Animals) by Melissa Shelton under Giardia on page 417 a list of possible remedies. One that you may have access to is Clove oil - you can put a drop or two in her water daily or in her food. Essential oils are very effective against parasites.
Basenji without spunk - very sick, pls read
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Oh boy…I feel so awful for poor Beta...she's getting such good care from you. I hope she starts eating soon. I think of you all often and am keeping her in my prayers. Thanks for the updates.
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Yesterday before bed Beta had blood in her diahrea. Not a good sign. I immediately kicked up my stress and mommy alert.
She woke me at 2:45 coughing (the wheezing sound mentioned earlier) or what I thought was her vomiting. She hadnt thrown up but was in distress. I could hear her gassy sounds in her stomach from the other room, which is amazing. I crushed up the reglan for nausea and gave it to her in a syringe with water.
30 min later I gave her the steroid praying she would hold it down. she hadnt held any meds or food down in 3 days. the reglan shots at the vet were even making her vomit. 30 min later the cough/gag/wheezing sounds stopped and she could breath clearly.
She slept the rest of the night in my arms on the couch.
So, the nausea med is 2x per day and was still in her system in the morn, so she was ok. I gave her the carafate for a potential ulcer. She kept that down. I then gave her another prednisone dose and she held that down. The crushing of all pills and giving it to her with 6cc of water or chicken broth seems to work now that the pills are too harsh in a swallowing form.
Now she is only to eat cottage cheese and boiled potatoe if I can get her to do more than chicken broth. She has eaten about 2 cups of it today and still hasnt thrown up.
The vets are concerned that the nausea meds were causing problems. The pepto bismol has aspirin in it and may be to rough on her stomach. The doc also had me change from the pepcid ac to zantac (1/4 of a reg dose). Apparently zantac has something in it that covers nausea better than pepcid. So I gave her the zantac around 2pm when her meds had worn off and she was starting to get nauseas and wheezy again. too early for pred and i was worried she would throw up all of the food i had worked so hard to get her interested in. she doesnt seem to react well to the zantac and i am not going to use it tomorrow unless i have to. the reglan is a 2x a day thing, but mid day it wears off.
so the vets have her on the cc and boiled potatoe because they are worried that she is reacting to a med or the duck in the duck and potatoe (which she loved).
i believe the problem that caused this relapse is the pepto, pepcid and zantac. they must have something in them that doesnt sit well with her. hopefully.
she is 16lbs now and i have to get some food on her.
they said if she doesnt improve over the weekend (which she has just by the not vomiting) that they recommend a scope to look into her tummy etc. it is frustrating they dont know what this is.
if they do the scope the specialist said that they usually put a feeding tube at that point. i am not ready for that. sounds too scarey.
so, all meds have stopped since she wouldnt hold them down.
now she gets the reglan for nausea
the prednisone for inflamation
and the carafate in case there is an ulcerif she doesnt throw up tonight i will try to get her back on the flagyl for the antibiotic.
food is key.
here is a pic of her today hanging out on the couch.
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Some of the side effects listed for Flagyl are diarreah, loss of apetite, and naseau, and vomiting.
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More hugs and prayers for you and Beta.
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well beta has been off of the flagyl and tramadol now. they want her back on it soon, but i am sure it isnt a parasite. but i will put her back on it if she stops the diahrea and throwing up for 1 week.
she slept all night and all day today. she ate less today but loves the boiled potatoe and isnt sure about the cottage cheese alone, but eats it mixed w the potatoe.
she pooped solid and florescent orange with some old blood. so things appear better. very quiet today. lets hope for a quiet week and that the food and the lessened meds will get her to a stable level.
caesar is having a blast at my parents. they said he was inspecting their kleenex box extensively.
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So glad to hear that Beta is interested in food and sleeping peacefully! HUgs to you both! Also glad to hear that Ceaser is living large at your parents! I chuckled over the tissue box story!
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Keep us posted on how she's doing…lots of hugs comin' your way!
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Oh gosh Betsey I pray that things go better this week. The thought of little Beta at 16lbs is just too sad!!
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well the silent day she had yesterday hasnt lived long. beta woke me up at midnight to do something in the dark outside. she woke me at 5am vomiting.
in the morning she was shaking again. a tremor in her chest. the coughing was bad and the gurgling sounds were there again. she looked very uncomfortable so i decided to take her in to the vet and have a talk.
i told the vet that all of the meds as soon as they wear off dont seem to remedy the symptoms which is apparent. she agreed. the zantac did not relieve the nausea and i didnt give it to her again because she was so nauseous after recieving a dose that i was afraid she would throw up.
i said i wanted to do the scope. i dont know what else to do. the scope will go through her esophogus and all the way into her upper intestine where the vets think the problem is coming from, or the stomach.
they xrayed her chest to make sure she doesnt have any throat inflamation. she said there is always a concern about that with this procedure ($8-900 est cost). i will find out about the xrays tomorrow, but the procedure is scheduled for 10am.
i told the vet, even if her throat is irritated, it would be dumb to try to remedy that and risk her losing more weight and trying to do the procedure later. i would rather do this now since they have to put her to sleep than with her any weaker than she is currently.
i will fill you in on any news.
i picked beta up after work and she hadnt eaten anything. but didnt throw up. they gave her fluids and a shot of prednisone and nausea med.
the dog says the reglan is for nausea and the pepcid, or pepto, or zantac is to reduce acid
betsey
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oh betsey, i hope the scope finds whatever the problem is. poor beta.
me and fender send her hugs and kisses. :x
GET WELL SOON BETA! -
I really hope they'll find the problem and can do something about it to get your Beta better pretty soon! Fingers cross and big hugs to your girl!
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I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that they find out something today and can help her get on the road to recovery ASAP. Update us when you can. I'll be thinking aobut you both.
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Hello,
Beta had the scope procedure today with the Oakhurst Specialist and the doctor that has been treating her. The Specialist called and reviewed her findings with me, and this is what she said in laymans terms:
The esophogus appeared normal until bottom which was inflamed.
The stomach lining should be smooth and shiney. She described Beta's as cobblestone like, pitted, rough and textured. I asked if it was only in one area and she said the entire stomach lining was covered in this texture. She said that a full blown ulcer looks like a volcano on their monitor and Beta's stomach was full of baby ucler like pits not fully developed if that is what she was seeing. She said that she hasn't seen a stomach look that bad in many years. I asked her to rate between 1-10 (10 the worst) how bad the stomach lining was, she said 7-8. She said the upper intestine was irritated and red but not out of the ordinary like the stomach. She took several biopsys for stat testing which will be back by Friday.
The specialist said that it could be a number of possibilities that couldnt be determined until the biopsys came back, but she suspects that it is the intestinal disease that we have already been treating her for (which would be disturbing becuase the meds havent improved her condition at all), or it could be an ulcer type disease. We have been giving her carafate for an ulcer since Friday and the reg doctor is surprised that visually there werent more improvements. The third possibility is a lymph type cancer that is hard to visually identify.
The specialist said that since i had mentioned a constant cough with mucus and that the night before Beta didnt move from 6pm until bed and was breathing short hard breaths, she would take the opportunity (since beta was already out) to flush the lungs with a liquid. The liquid is airrated out and samples were taken and put on a stat status as well. The reg doctor said that there was a lot of debris coming out of her lungs which didnt look great. This cough could be from Beta throwing up and inhaling some vomit or cancer or a few other things that I cant remember the details of.
The specialist and doctor agreed that Beta's condition is critical for the next 24hrs. She is on IV and will be given all meds through the IV to avoid stressing her stomach out more than neccessary. She is receiving shots of pepto and prevacid (the purple pill) and the carafate orally. They told me that i should have her under 23 hr care. My options were, Oakhurst who doesnt have a night staff, take her home with an IV, and the Largo ER.
The Largo ER or Specialist is where Beta had that first surgery that came up with nothing. I felt the care the provided was poor due to the nature of their business. Too busy to notice her pain, not enough attention, very loud. So my options really, were to bring her home with IV and cone and meds and put her to bed and potentially stress her out with the transport or having her at Oakhurst.
I decided it was best to have her there over night. She was extremely groggy from the last surgery so I expect she will be the same today. They are giving her pain meds as well and we hope that she will sleep soundly through the night. The Vets leave around 7pm and arrive 7am. Although I am emotionally stressed becuase she is not with me, I know she is in a place with faces that she recognizes and a stable and quiet environment. They are also looking for a medicine that is not common. Apparently the ER stocks it but would not release it to them because it was for their critical patients. I want to say it was the Prevacid or equivolent in IV form. The vet is scouting out other hospitals for the drug to see if they can find it.
She will receive protein and glucose in her IV as well to aid her nutrition and fluids to keep her hydrated.
It would be foolish for me to not consider the worst scenario, right? Cancer? If it is her entire stomach and lungs it may be unfair to Beta to keep her in a state where she can't eat or not feel pain. I hope that isnt what she has. The other two options are managable once controlled through medication hopefully. I really dont know what equates putting a dog to sleep, but if she cant eat, and is in constant pain, or is given a terminal diagnosis, I will have to deal with that in a manner that is respectful of Beta.
Money is always a concern right? Recently divorced and struggling on my own, I have sworn to myself not to allow finances make and determination on Beta's life. She is 4yrs old and if she can improve, I will do whatever I can do to get her healthy. This is what credit cards are for, emergencies. If anyone out there is going though similar problems, I hope the data we are sharing will help. My basenji's are my kids.
I will post the moment I hear anything about the results. Please keep your fingers crossed for Beta. The entire vet staff is rooting for her and they say she is a very strong girl for such a little Basenji.
Betsey
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Betsey, I will keep all fingers and all toes crossed for little Beta. My heart goes out to you both. My thoughts are with you. I am hoping for good news. Lots and lots of hugs for you both. Caren
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thank you. you dont know how much it means to me to have a group to share this with. i am scared and stressed and havent been sleeping very well. we have a strong group of basenji owners in Tampa as well and they are so supportive to little Beta.
Beta was a puppy mill rescue from Nebraska with about 16 other basenjis. They had tried to get her to breed and she wasnt a year old. It appeared that she didnt have pups because they hadnt named or tagged her like the others. There were 7 females in the group and Beta was one out of 2 that were puppies or young. The other females were missing teeth and ears. She lived in a kennel at the puppymill that must have been too small because when I adopted her she couldnt stand up straight. She was bald in places and was urine stained. She was as thinner than she is now and her feet were twice the size from standing on the wire crate. My guess is that they pee through the cages and someone should have hosed the area out. She was a bag of bones and so scared of wind, sounds, airplanes, grass,everything. I have had her with Caesar who is 6months older for about 3 years now. It has taken me two years to finally potty train her to go in the grass. She would pace the floors and never sit showing that nervousness. Beta is an extremely submissive female which is funny if you have a girl. You know that snarfy is their MO. When she needs to be she is the alpha with Caesar, but she has a gently nature and big doe brown eyes. She loves to run and gets crazy if she sees a squirell.
That's my Beta.
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You are truly one AMAZING Mommy! I have been anxiously awaiting news on Beta and keeping you all in my thoughts and prayers. I am praying that it is not the worst, Betsey. I know this has got to be so difficult for you. Please know that we are here for you to support you during these trying times with your baby. Keep us updated when you can.
Big hugs,
Sharon & Nala -
Oh Betsey….you are an extremely strong & brave person. Please know that we are all praying with every ounce of our souls for little Beta. Although I've never met either of you, I feel extremely close to your pain. We are all sharing this experience with you. You are not alone & I know that whatever the results are you will do the absolute right thing that is best for Beta. You have shown your kind & loving heart from the very beginning with Beta and I'm sure that you will continue to make all the right decisions.
I'm hoping you have some kind of pet insurance to help you out financially. If not than I guess the credit cards will have to do. The reality is that caring for our loved ones (dog, parent, spouse, child, etc.) is a financial consideration. Unfortunately, this is the cruel part of making any decisions. I had to face the same decisions when father became very ill. In the end you can only do what you can & follow your heart.
Lots & lots of hugs & prayers for you & Beta!
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Betsey and Beta - sending you more hugs and healing thoughts. You both remain in my thoughts and prayers and I'm hoping for a good outcome.
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thank you guys. the doctors think it is best that Beta stay another night and get those IV meds. they haven't fed her yet and are looking for a special IV med that they cant find.
well, actually, they found it at a local ER, but they wouldnt release it to them because of a potential emergency. can you believe that.
The IV med is called Aminosyn….
If anyone knows of a vet or vet ER that would have the med, please PM me.
Thanks!!
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Aminosyn is total parenteral nutrition which provides all the protein, vitamin and mineral, and caloric requirements that are necessary to sustain nutrition when absorption in the GI tract is impaired. It's not something hospitals just keep on hand because it has to be mixed daily in accordance with daily lab values. If your vet can find a regular pharmacy which mixes IV fluids for home health maybe they would make it up for a dog by prescription. If not, are there any veterinary schools near Tampa that could help? Auburn University school of veterinary medicine here in Alabama is one of the best vet schools in the country and I know they love to help with difficult cases. Might be worth a try also. Love and prayers to you and Beta. Lenora
