9 y/o Jack Russell mix - unstable gait, not eating

[kalking1]

First off, this is not a "diagnose my pet" type of post. I am simply brainstorming with other pet owners to see if they have had experience that is similar to mine.

Bella is 9 y/o, within the last month she started to have an unstable gait in her walk, which is the first time I took her to the vet, 11/24. We had x-rays done and nothing conclusive came back to suggest what could be wrong with her. A week after that visit, Bella started to develop lumps on her neck area, some with little black scabs over them, some were just under the skin. Bella Also started to lose her appetite, we thought it was just her being picky with food but when we tried to feed her more human like food such as: ground turkey, veggies, fruits, and she did not want to eat it, we knew something more was going on.

So we took her to the vet again, had some blood work done, 4dx, ultrasound, Lyme disease test, biopsy of one of the lumps...nothing is coming clear. The only thing we have to go off of is the elevated protein in her blood, specifically the globulins. Globulins are a way to show we have an infection or disease. Well, if the blood tests are coming back with a normal count of WBC, but the globulins are elevated I am considering a few diseases:

• Liver damage or disease (no elevated LFT, so I dont think so)
• Kidney disease - possibly, but wouldn't it show in a blood test?
• Nutritional problems ( we were feeding her ground turkey, veggies, and fruits, but no vitamins, so I am not sure if we brought this upon ourselves by not providing essential vitamins for her)
• Autoimmune disorders
• Certain types of cancer - lymphoma seems most likely (which does not have a good prognosis)

It has been about 1 month and we are inching our way to finding out what is wrong with her, if we ever do, and hope we can do something to help her not suffer. Pretty soon we are thinking of putting her down though because the vet is stumped. What else can we do? Get a referral for an internal medicine specialist, or try dexasone, but I don't think the dexasone is going to help her. The entice is not helping her to eat, the carbofen cannot be taken on an empty stomach, what else?

Like I said, I am just looking out there to see if anyone has had similar experiences to this, or can brainstorm together with me. I work in the hospital and am going to school to be a clinical laboratory scientist but I don't have the experience with what others may have.

Thank you for reading this.

 

[quest4truth2016]

@kalking1 Did you get an answer? I have a senior who has all of the same symptoms you mentioned. We are waiting for 1 more test to come back but she was pretty much diagnosed with stage 4 or 5 Lymphoma yesterday. Due to her age and how many issues we are dealing with I opted for palliative care (putting her on prednisone) rather than chemo. My regular vet had been trying to figure out what was wrong with her for pretty much all of November & December and finally said I needed to see an internist. He recommended 4 or 5 different ones within 30mins-2hrs of us and ALL of them were full through March so I scheduled and appointment with his top recommendation for mid-March. Anyway, she stopped eating regularly and was having diarrhea so I kept calling all the places to check for cancellations and they had one, that’s how I got her in yesterday.

I know your post was from over a month ago so you probably got in to see someone, so I was just curious how it went?

For us, if she doesn’t improve on the prednisone in the next few days and/or starts getting worse, I am going to put her down. Very sad but glad to have some sort of direction.

 

[kalking1]

@quest4truth2016 Hi there and thank you SO much for your response!

It is such a relief to know that somewhere out in the world someone has experienced the same thing as me; or very similar at least, and was willing to put in the effort that you did. God bless you!

So, I am actually disappointed with my primary vet because she told me she would put in the referral but did not mention that I needed to contact the specialty clinic; I was under the impression that once she put the referral in that the specialty clinic would call to schedule an appointment. This was back in December that she put the "referral" in, it took me 2 weeks to realize something was wrong so I called back to my regular vet and they gave me the information to contact the specialty clinic. These matters aside...

Bella was initially scheduled for her specialty appointment for February 3rd but thank goodness there was another internist that came into the office and many appointments were available so I got her in successfully today. I learned a lot of information from this vet (he was very knowledgeable). From the symptoms that I reported he recommended quite a few diagnostics tests. Due to cost we wanted to start with an ultrasound. He called back with the results and said everything looked fine except a very small amount of debris in her gallbladder. Also a big relief but he also said he didn't see any signs of cancer. (HUGE RELIEF) So we went to the next recommendation: joint aspiration with cytology. The vet believes that Bella has IMPA which is immune mediated polyarthritis. I actually was not aware that this existed but I am so glad to have found out because all of her symptoms are exhibited in IMPA victims.

So we did the joint aspirations (2) and the specimens are being sent over to the lab for evaluation. I find this all fascinating because I am going to school to be a clinical laboratory scientist and this test is familiar to me. But anyways, the prognosis is much better if this is truly IMPA because Bella will be on steroids to help with her inflammation.

I will keep you updated once I find out more information. Thank you for responding here, it has been quite a while and my heart is warmed knowing that other dog lovers are reading these posts.

 

[quest4truth2016]

@kalking1 I know what you mean about the internist and making appointments... It can be confusing ESPECIALLY during COVID times when not everything is done face-to-face. It’s easy to misinterpret or misunderstand information.

I was also very happy with the internist. After her initial physical exam and looking at the bloodwork from last time she was almost certain it was lymphoma but I went ahead and paid about $1100 for a myriad of other tests. In retrospect, I should have just taken her guess as what it was, because I ended up putting my dog down today. She had been doing well on Monday evening when I brought her home and really well the next morning but then she stopped eating and drinking again and by this morning she was in distress and unable to use her back legs at all. I am very sad but glad she is not suffering.

It sounds like we did similar procedures/tests. They did an ultrasound (saw a few concerning things in he belly and colon) and aspirated her lymphs and I believe that’s how she pretty much confirmed the cancer, but like I said there was one more thing they sent off (can’t think of the name of it, it’s all kind of a blur at this point!!)

I guess it does ease my mind to pretty much know for sure that’s what was going on, thus I’m 100% sure I made the right decision today to put her down. Maybe if I wasn’t sure it was lymphoma I would have tried to keep her going a few more days and it would have been harder on her. Who knows.

But yes do keep us updated. I’m interested on the condition because it sounds like it presents a lot like lymphoma. Hope your pup starts feeling better soon!

 

[kalking1]

@quest4truth2016 So the internal medicine specialist believes she has immune mediated polyarthritis. We had an ultrasound done just to verify that her organs were okay; which they were, thank God. The second diagnostic test done was joint aspirations in 2 joints from different legs. The specimen was sent out to the lab for cytology and that is when they said IMPA is the most likely diagnosis; however, she does have some infection going on somewhere as well. So the vet prescribed a steroid for 30 days and an antibiotic for 2 weeks. She is already back up and running around. I am so glad I did not put her down. I never gave up on her. I knew something was wrong that could be fixed. I am so grateful that she is still here with me.

I am so sorry about your fur baby though. I have already gone through having to put 1 dog down and it was the hardest thing...

 

[quest4truth2016]

@kalking1 Oh I am so glad to hear she’s doing better. These tests are so expensive but can help us make the best decisions and be worth the cost in the long run.