Kenai's Growth 19-24 mo

Report for the last week of Sept 09, 21 mo: Oh my that canned food was a disaster. Both the boys were in an ugly bout of SIBO, bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine, not a week after starting it. We are still fighting the diarrhea and vomiting.

Enough’s enough, we’re going to insist on an endoscopy, which looks at the intestines and can take small pinch biopsies. We’re out of options, and besides, these dogs have had chronic diarrhea for most of their 21 mos.

We’re still seeing signs of ehrlichia, so I need to talk to the vet about Imizol, an injectible treatment option. Their meals are 1 1/2 cup evo red meat kibble at breakfast, and 2 cups of boiled hamburger for lunch, again at supper.

Report for the 2nd week of Sept 09, 21 mo: My goodness has it been a month and a half?! Lots has happened: he had a negative titer so the vets stopped the doxy despite continued symptoms of Ehrlichia. Two weeks later I asked for another one and the titers were up again, as I suspected.

Kenai had dropped all the way down to 122 pounds, so I increased his eagle pack to 7 cups a day. He was refluxing and refusing to eat after a week. I got him to eat by offering evo red meat kibble and hamburger, and his refluxing all stopped.

Yesterday he was 126.4 pounds. He’s getting twice weekly accupuncture, and an internist wanted to try a new canned food we started two days ago after a negative fecal culture. I don’t have a clue what we’re going to do about food in the long term. We’ll see.

Report for the 1st wk of Aug 09, 20 mo: Kenai’s lost weight, down to 128 pounds, and looks it. His ehrlichia titer was over 700, so we immediately went back on doxacycline. He also gets milk thistle every 2-3 days to help protect his liver.

The flexicose and trace mineral supplement remain the same, though I’ve made a slight change in his 2 feedings a day: 2 3/4 cup Eagle Pack lamb kibble, plus 1/4 cup EVO grain free red meat kibble, mixed with water and 3 tsp pancreatic enzymes incubated for 30 minutes.

I’m hoping the EVO will increase his calories and reduce the rice he gets from the other kibble. The trick is, as the calories go up with the EVO, so do the minerals. That means I have to introduce it slowly and observe carefully, to find how much is just enough without being too much. Tinkering again.

His stools are interesting, that is if you’ve become a diva of droppings like me. Stools say alot about a dogs health, so I do the poop patrol. The outside is typically dark, but the inside is yellowish still. They’re solid, thankfully, with the occasional soft one or two. I may start giving him a probiotic this week, several hours after his antibiotic to see if that color improves.

Report for the 4th wk of July 09, 19 mo: Thankfully Kenai has gained a little, back to 130 pounds. He’s really not doing any better yet though. The vet is running another tick disease test, because  the first round of doxycycline might not have been totally effective.

He still has symptoms, and disturbing new ones this time. He seems to have coordination problems with his hind legs, and is very frightened to go down the stairs from our bedroom. It’s like he gets stuck and can’t figure out which foot to move next. He will occationally tilt his head too.

These by themselves would lead a vet to think of other problems, like wobbler’s or vestibular disease, but not with a dog showing signs of Erhlichiosis. I’ve been told by people with dogs who also have had it that it certainly can cause the digestive issues we’ve been trying to remedy for about a year now.

His coat continues to shed, his legs are somewhat sore but not as much, and his behavior is very slightly less fearful. He’s getting 2.5 cups of Eagle Pack Lamb with 1/2 cup of red meat at his two meals a day. As well as the flexicose and Concentrace trace minerals.   

Report for 3rd wk of July 09, 19 mo: Kenai has lost weight again, down to 127 pounds. That’s a roughly 5 pound drop. His legs are somewhat sore, but most telling is narrowness of chest and a return to fearful behavior.

I’m going to slowly increase his kibble again for additional calories, continuing to add ground red meat so he will keep eating well for me. (He was refusing to eat a couple weeks ago).

His stools are still yellow, and too soft. The tylosin antibiotic for SIBO, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, doesn’t seem to be having much effect, which is puzzling. I’ll give it another week. 

He still gets his flexicose, the trace mineral supplement, and one yeast killing supplement a day. I may increase the yeast killer, since normal dose is up to 4 capsules. I’m going slowly with that to prevent a Herx reaction. Oh Kenai, what is wrong with that tum?