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Very stiff, lethargic, not eating, vet-no diagnosis- HELP!

11K views 25 replies 18 participants last post by  Gypsiemouse 
#1 ·
Hi I'm a mom of two boxers...
Recently I joined this board because my White Boxer ..(Molson) was having problems with his leg. He seemed to be limping. They thought it might be a cruiciate ligament...so I joined to see what other people have done in the circumstance. He is now doing better....

But I'm back here to see if anyone can help me on my Boxer Puppy who is 8 months old. His name is Rocky. Monday morning he would not eat for me nor drink...all he wanted to do was sleep. He had no personality all day. I noticed that he had chewed up a piece of carpet that was in his kennel so we took him to an emergency visit to the vet. He was lifeless...didn't react to anything. He had a fever and a high white blood count. They sent me home with fluids injected under his skin to keep him hydrated. I was up with him every hour that night feeding him water from a syringe. He wouldn't move nor react to me...besides slightly open his eyes. I took him back first thing that morning....they put him on an Iv since he hadn't eatn since sunday. They did xrays that came out fuzzy but looked as though everything was in his colon. They wanted to keep him on fluids for a bit until they were going to the balium test to see if there was blockage. They called at 11 am and said they didn't do the balium that his fever spiked to 106 and they were afraid their might be blockage and went in for emergency surgery. They were in him for 15 mins found NOTHING. He came out of surgery and had a fever again. After a couple of hours on the iv the doctor gave him Rymodol and Rocky stood up for the first time all day.... The doctor was then wondering if he had HOD Hypertrophic Osteodystrophy. Although it was a guess. He tested negative for lymes disease as that was there second guess. He stayed the night at the ER....and they had him on fluids. He ended up eating some wet food....and drinking water. I picked him up from there in the morning and took him back over to our vet. The vet flat out told me he wasn't sure what was wrong with rock. He said since he was eating i could give him pills...and take him home and watch him. They gave him Trimidoyl and Dolxicide H something i can't remember the name. He came home and was wagging his tail to see molson and all of us. Yet still not rock. He is so mellow and sad. He has pooped drank a little and loves canned food....however its super hard for him to lay down...and get up he really struggles. He woke me up last night because he was whining. He laid in the same position all night and was crying...at first i thought he was dreaming but it seemed that it was alot Of effort for him to stand. We go back to the vet tonight. I am in $1000 dollars and have no diagnosis on what could be wrong with him.

I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts or have been thru a similar situation. I am so run down over this and don't feel like he is getting any better.

PLEASE HELP!
Kat
Rocky and Molson

 
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#3 ·
I am sorry you and rock are having to go thru this. He's just had stomach surgery and that could be part of why he is having trouble getting up and down. One would be very sore. It takes some time to get over that. Some dogs have lower thresholds of pain so they need stronger pain meds. I hope you have better news with your visit today. Sending you some BF healing vibes for Rocky.
 
#6 ·
Geez I m so sorry you guys are going through this. At this point I would ask the vet to do a blood panel for toxic substances. If your pup ingested carpet and it passed through I would suspect some of the chemicals in the carpet fiber have been absorbed......just a guess though. I wouldn't definitely ask for complete blood series though.
 
#7 ·
We did get a blood test done on Monday and his white count was super off...showing that it would be some kind of infection. I know they tested for Lymes and all that, so I am going to ask them tonight about another blood test being down.

Thank you for your thoughts!
 
#8 ·
Oh that suck as your babies are precious! I, as the others whom have posted, can not tell you what is wrong but will definitely pray for you guys. I am sure as Nano said, just a ton of soreness from the surgery. Since they didn't find anything perhaps a bug that he picked up and hopefully will go through it's phase and pass. I do hope you keep us posted and updated.
 
#14 ·
Big healing prayers for Rocky [-O< Please update us when you get the chance. The sleeping, not eating etc is probably from the fever because Arbie gets high fevers and I can tell it's high when those symptoms start.
Your vet has a problem now to find out what's causing the high fever. We never found out what started Arbie off. Originally he was in liver failure but his liver got better but he he still had fever and high white blood counts. He is all better now (after months of antibiotics) but we still don't know what started it all in the first place. His white counts are back to normal and he has more energy than he's had for months. So try not to be downhearted if the vet can't come up with answers straight away - I'm sure they'll continue to rule out everything they think it may be.
 
#16 ·
Thank you again for the well wishes. He is still the same. We have to go to the vet tonight and see what else they can come up with. The more I research it sounds as if he has a tick bite. Although he was tested negative for Lymes disease...there could be a chance he got something else.

I'll keep everyone posted.

Thanks again!
 
#17 ·
Sorry for your poor baby!!!

What part of the country do you live in? Are ticks common where you live? My understanding is that it is often difficult to test/diagnose Lyme in dogs. Ultimately, part of the diagnosis if if the animal actually responds to treatment. Is that an option your vet is willing to consider? It sounds like you've started that, and it's showing a slight bit of improvement? I think the surgery complicates the issue a little, but from what I can tell he should show some improvement on the meds after 3-4 days?

Best wishes, please let us know how he's doing!!! [-O< [-O<
 
G
#18 ·
i'm so sorry that your baby is struggling. if it's not as nano said that he might be in pain from the surgery (he should be on painkillers for the first couple nights!) then i would see if you can leave him at your vet until they figure it out. If he has a crisis they would better be able to help him.

personally if my vet couldn't figure it out i'd be getting a 2nd opinion... like yesterday. they shouldn't be guessing when action is needed.

praying your baby feels better soon and they get to the bottom of it quickly. these lives are too precious for guess work.
 
#19 ·
Sending more healing prayers (a ton). If he's on Tramadol for pain that might be keeping him very quiet. We had a bout of tick borne disease with our last guy. First the E.Canis titer was elevated and later a couple other TBD titers were also high. Maybe Michigan State U, or another teaching hospital can help sort the symptoms out. It's strange stuff, but there's alot of research going on. Antibiotics really worked for us.

Ann WI
 
#22 ·
This sounds similar to what Bo was going through when he was about the same age. He was extremely lethargic and wouldn't eat or drink. I had to carry him outside to go to the bathroom. All he did was sleep. He also seemed to be limping when he walked and cried out in pain when he turned his head certain ways. I took him to the emergency vet near my house and the vet there told me that he had pulled a muscle. So he prescribed us an antiinflammatory and we left. He barely even examined Bo. So a few days later he still wasn't better so I took him to our regular vet. He had a slight fever (103 or so) and the vet thought he had some sort of infection. So he put Bo on steroids and an antibiotic. We had to record his temperature a few times a day. Aside from the fact that the steroids made him pee uncontrollably all over the house the symptoms went away. Two weeks later the medicine ran out and the symptoms came back. So we took him back to the vet and got more of the same medicine. The vet said that if it didn't work this time we would have to take him to Cornell for an MRI. So we gave him the medicine for another two weeks and thank god the symptoms did not come back this time. We still don't know exactly what it was other than some sort of an infection. I thought it could be Lyme disease too but the vet said no. It was a little scary but he has been fine since then (this was last spring).
 
#23 ·
Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the well wishes. We took Rocky to the vet Friday. He seemed to be doing much better towards the end of the night. Like a new dog. We went to the vet, and I asked about other infectious diseases that are caused by ticks...and if he could have one. The meds he is on covers us in that area if he did somehow get a tick but no bite mark was found. We were told to continue the medicine for two weeks and report his progress along the way. So far this weekend he has been getting in trouble just like he did before the illness. Hopefully the worst is behind us, thanks again for all the support!

Kat
 
#26 ·
Hi,

I realize this was posted a few years ago, but I was just wondering what it turned out to be? My 8 month old Boxer Hugo is having the same symptoms you described. He wouldn't eat or drink this morning, is very lathargic, and hasn't moved all day. We took him to the vet and had a blood test done, just waiting for the results now.
I don't think the original poster has been on the forum in years, you might be better off starting a new thread and tell us everything so we can try and help or offer suggestions while you're waiting for your vets tests results

Welcome to the forum, BTW

:)
 
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