Mystery Dog Illness

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fredthoroughbred

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Hi there,

My greyhound appears to have no end of problems but I think they might all be related. He'll be going back to the vet again tomorrow for the third time and hopefully we'll get some answers but I just wondered if anyone has experienced anything like this with their dogs?

So it started last June, he seemed to become instantly lethargic, hunched, strange dull coat one afternoon on a dog walk. I took him straight to the vet and his temperature had soared so he was put on a drip, given an anti-inflammatory and he seemed to come back to life instantly. We all put it down to an allergic reaction.

Since then, on two separate occasions spanning several months, he has seemed to be walking with a slight hunch, then goes off his food, within one or two days drops lots of weight, has extreme lethargy etc etc. The vets have tested bloods, kidney/liver function etc but nothing comes up. He gets put on antibiotics for a couple of weeks and voila...healthy greyhound!

Tonight, the slight hunching, loss of appetite, weight loss, strange coat, lethargy etc are back and so I will take him to the vet again tomorrow.

Has anyone had experience or know anything about illnesses like this that appear to come and go and respond well to antibiotics (but only short term)???

Sorry, that turned out to be a long one : )
 
Not yet, we decided last time that if it comes back a third time then we will refer him to the vet school. So that should probably happen tomorrow. Do you mean that you think it could be linked to a spinal or bladder issue? Last time the vets thought it might be Lymes disease or a similar tick born virus but all those tests came back negative too. Very odd : )
 
Just what springs to mind, but I am not a vet!

I'm another one, after the third or fourth time of 'we dunno, have some drugs', changed vets, sure, it's 40 miles away and three times more expensive, but the dog isn't miserable anymore and neither am I!
 
Has it only happend on a walk? In the same area?
http://www.aht.org.uk/sci_clinsigns.html
If you use the menu on the left it brings up a long list of areas where dogs have had reported symptoms, a now huge area from the far north to the south, at one stage it seemed localised to Sandringham and Sherwood Forest but not now.
 
Hi there, how interesting! We're in Edinburgh and there doesn't seem to be any Scottish places on the list. Also, he has absolutely no sickness or diarrhea just the lethargy, loss of appetite, increased thirst etc. He's going back to the vets today so fingers crossed : )
 
fredthoroughbred said:
Hi there, how interesting! We're in Edinburgh and there doesn't seem to be any Scottish places on the list. Also, he has absolutely no sickness or diarrhea just the lethargy, loss of appetite, increased thirst etc. He's going back to the vets today so fingers crossed : )
Click to expand...

Good luck hope they find a cause for your boys symptoms. The areas this mystery disease is affecting is growing, maybe as more people find out about it and report their dogs having similar symptoms. A friend near Sherwood Forest had 2 of her 4 dogs affected, but none of those had the diarrhea or vomiting.
 
Diabetes is relatively common in dogs and certainly needs to be excluded. If your dog has had several episodes of this I think it is time to look further. For some reason Lymes disease can be difficult to pin down. Good luck, let us know how you get on.
 
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