Brick's lost some weight
3.5 lbs in 3 months. He's down to 53 lbs and some change. He's never weighed that little since becoming an adult. Typically he was always around 63 lbs. He's kinda bony, too. So we're doing some blood work to see if that shows anything. He's eating about the same amount of food as he always has. I just figured it was a function of his Cushing's (it may still be). Doc also said his heart murmur is a little more noticeable, now. He still has a good appetite, likes to go on walks (shorter with no hills), does his PT exercises without complaint; runs a little bit in the yard, poops & pees normally. So hopefully we'll have some results on Thursday. <sigh> So hard when they get older. |
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How old is he now? Still seems like a pup to me!  |
| He's 12 years and 2 months. |
| Hope you can get the care he needs and he bounces back. |
| Just got the blood test results back. Nothing exciting. Kidney levels look good. She suspects changes are due to the Cushing's. We'll take him off the Purina Pro Plan Weight Management Formula and put him on the Purina Pro Plan 7+, "Bright Mind" Formula. She down rated his heart murmur. It's been a 1 (mildest) since first detected at age 8, but she downgraded it to a 3. So I'll monitor him for coughing (which there hasn't been any). If any, we'll do a cardiac work-up (ECG & echo). I'll be contacting his internist, too, to see if she sees anything that may be contributing to his weight loss and what we can do to counteract it. |
Hope the change in diet helps.  |
| On this front, we did a new ACTH Stim test for his Cushing's today. Should get the results back on Monday. If low, that might explain his weaker appetite. If low, we'll either cut his dosage to the lowest available (5 mg) or stop the meds altogether. If normal, then we'll run a GI panel to better assess the health of his GI tract and pancreas. |
| The stim test results came back. 1.4 and 2.9. Tightly controlled but a little on the low side. We'll stop the trilostane for a few days to see if his appetite perks up. In the meantime, we decided to run the GI tract blood panel. |
| Is there any kind of really fancy food that he loves that can fatten him up? Mixing yogurt in his kibble? Broth? We both have older dogs now. Where did the time go? |
Mady wrote: Is there any kind of really fancy food that he loves that can fatten him up? Mixing yogurt in his kibble? Broth? We both have older dogs now. Where did the time go? It's kinda strange. He really seems to like his food dry now with nothing else in it. If I put human food in it, that always gets him to eat. Broth might work. A lot of the problem is his supplements. The Advanced Dasuquin smells like chemicals and it turns him right off. As far as time, it sure has flown. I'm reminded of a line in a song; "opened my eyes, how'd I get here?" Feels like yesterday we were picking him up from the breeder and now he's in the very twilight of his life. How the hell did that happen. Weird. |
| Results of the GI panel are back. He has a touch of pancreatitis, what looks like the early beginnings of IBD (his good & bad flora balance is off a bit), and his B12 is off a bit. So we'll start him on Cerenia (an anti-nausea med that is believed to have an analgesic effect on the GI tract); chicken & rice for a bunch of days, and 2 tablespoons of plain yogurt with active cultures (for the pro-biotic) per day. Since his appetite/eating habits haven't changed since taking him off the trilostane, she said I could put him back on it at any time. This morning, I put 8 cups of water in his bowl at about 5 AM. By 7 AM, half of it was gone. Now, Zeke might have drank some out of Brick's bowl, but I didn't see that. Zeke doesn't tend to drink out of Brick's bowl. I'm hoping that Zeke drank a big part of that. I don't want to come home to puddles this afternoon. If there's no "surprises" when I get home today, I'll keep him off the trilostane for the rest of the weekend to see if his appetite comes back at all. If not, I'll put him back on it on Monday. |
| So I got home about 4:45 PM this evening and didn't find any puddles. Whew. The water bowls looked to be at about the same level I left them in the morning. So now I'm more sure that Zeke was drinking out of Brick's bowl this morning. I'm now feeding him chicken & rice for a while. He ate it pretty well except when he encountered those damned supplements. He ate around them. I had to doctor up the food a bit to get him to finish. |
CamVal1 wrote: Mady wrote: Is there any kind of really fancy food that he loves that can fatten him up? Mixing yogurt in his kibble? Broth? We both have older dogs now. Where did the time go? It's kinda strange. He really seems to like his food dry now with nothing else in it. If I put human food in it, that always gets him to eat. Broth might work. A lot of the problem is his supplements. The Advanced Dasuquin smells like chemicals and it turns him right off. As far as time, it sure has flown. I'm reminded of a line in a song; "opened my eyes, how'd I get here?" Feels like yesterday we were picking him up from the breeder and now he's in the very twilight of his life. How the hell did that happen. Weird. I know what you mean about 'how'd I get here?'!!!  It's scary and kind of depressing. I try to remind myself to appreciate every day while I have them. I hope all's going well for Brick. |
Oscar hated the Dasuquin too. He was on so many meds for most of his life, not counting the round-robin of antibiotics, and he never, ever liked chewables. I had to bust up his heartworm meds and wrap them in cheese and he would swallow them whole.  Quincy ate chewables like a treat, but Oscar would sniff them and walk away. Dasuquin upset Oscar's tummy, so we ended up abandoning them.Oscar couldn't take Rimadyl or Derrmaxx because of the prednisone he took for IBD, so he ended up on tramadol for the last few years. It helped him greatly. I hope Brick is doing better! Laurie |
| Brick went in for routine shots yesterday. He dropped a little more weight. He's now down to 51 and some change lbs. That could be from the bland diet he's been eating for a week. I've been giving him the same amount as his dog food, but I'm guessing the chicken & rice doesn't pack the same caloric count as the dog food. On a more worrisome note, his last BM yesterday looked very, very dark, soft, and mucous-y. Never seen a poop like that from him before. What's weird is no one wanted to see it. The ER was busy with a critical patient last night and didn't seem to want to see it by the time they called me back. They called again this morning and said to get him switched to a gastric friendly prescription food. But they didn't seem to want the sample. His internist believes it might have been caused by a flareup of his pancreatitis. I'm going to call his regular vet & see if they want to examine it. |
| Oh, Mark! Just one challenge after another! From my experience with Oscar, dark stool means that there is digested blood in it. That could be from any number of triggers: meds, gastroenteritis, ulcers, etc. The mucous part just means that he is shedding the mucosal lining, which while gross, isn't in and of itself a big problem. Has Brick ever taken famotidine (generic Pepcid AC)? Oscar took 40 mg every morning. It had a calming effect on his digestive system, and helped prevent issues from all of the harsh meds he took. Oscar had an autoimmune triggered pancreatitis, so we dealt with it a number of times. My vets treated it with nothing by mouth for at least 48 hours, as even a drop of water will stimulate the pancreas, and that time gives the entire digestive tract a rest. Normally, they would keep a dog at the vet and administer IV fluids and maintain the meds they could with injections, but because they knew we would follow their directions exactly, we would bring Oscar in every 24 hours for administration of subcutaneous fluids and blood testing to monitor amylase and lipase levels, watching from them to go down. At home, Oscar got nothing. No food, no water, nothing for 48 hours. Then we would reintroduce food and water very slowly, and in tiny amounts, to restart his system. We would start with canned food (Oscar could only tolerate venison), and after a day or two of small, frequent meals, we would be back to his normal schedule. We never had luck with any of the prescription foods with Oscar (digestion, lo-res). They all gave him diarrhea. He also couldn't tolerate rice either, as it made all of his tummy issues worse. I am sorry that you and Brick are struggling with all of this, and hope that some of this info is helpful. Laurie |
| Thanks Laurie, I appreciate your feedback and always look forward to your responses. I knew the dark stool could be caused by blood from the upper GI tract. I'm a little surprised that neither his internist or his regular vet wanted to see it the sample. Brick has always liked rice & never had a problem with it. He's never really had a problem with anything he's eaten. Maybe things change as they get old. |
| I picked up Royal Canin GI food for him. Started cutting it in for dinner tonight. I opted to withhold his fish oil capsules and Advanced Dasuquin. He scarfed his dinner right down. Within and hour or so, he was barking for more, so I gave him a little more. Since I was out of chicken & rice, I had to make more. I put the chicken in the fridge (bottom shelf) to cool. Some time later I went into the fridge and Bricky came out of nowhere and grabbed part of the chicken breast in a flash. He really clamped down on it. It took a lot of force to get his mouth open and shake the chicken loose.  Once I cut the chicken up and mixed it with the rice, I gave him a bunch of it (maybe a cup to a cup and a half) and he scarfed it down. He was even barking for more after that. I wonder if the Advanced Dasuquin and/or the fish oil capsules were not only causing him to turn up his nose at his food with them in there but also affecting his appetite. We'll see how it goes over the next several days. |
| I fed him twice this morning. Once at about 5:20 AM and then he started barking for more food at about 6:45 AM, so I gave him another full meal (1.5 cups). He went out and pooped shortly after. Still looked pretty dark but maybe not quite as dark; maybe 10% better. Noticed grass and what I think is fur in it. Was firmer & more formed. Still a bit of mucous but maybe not as much. |
 That is great news! It's always a relief when they have a healthy appetite! Laurie |
That is great news! Eating and pooping is worth celebrating!  |
| FWIW, when we do the rice/boiled chicken or hamburger/boiled eggs/karo syrup mix, each dog gets a total of 7 cups divided over the day. Mine love it too. Flexidin is our supplement of choice for joints. We started it years ago, hen it was called Osteo-3. We do the pills, rather than the chews, and all of the dogs are on it. They tolerate it well and think it is a treat. As they get older, we have simply upped their dose for the winters and lower in the summers. I tired the fish oil supplement, but it is the one that upset Bailey and Riley's stomachs. |
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