Angirasu is very sick

edited April 2013 in General
Cross-posted from my kennel page. Most likely I will not be attending the NIPPO Classic so I wanted to let people know why.

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We rushed Angirasu to the ER vet last night and she is hospitalized in intensive care. Lots of people have been asking about her, so I wanted to write a full update so the info is all in one place. Here is a complete timeline.

On Friday, April 19th Natura Pet expanded their existing dog food recall for salmonella to include all dry foods they produce, including Innova. Our dogs are fed Innova PRIME dry food. I saw the recall Saturday morning after the dogs had breakfast. We immediately checked our food and saw it was from the affected batch. We filled out the paperwork for the recall, threw out what we had remaining, and went to the store to buy different food. The pet store had already pulled all Natura Pet products from the shelves so we switched to the brand we used to feed, Nature's Recipe.

Angirasu took a big, healthy looking poop at PetExpo on Friday. Additionally, the yard was cleaned of all dog poop Friday afternoon and no diarrhea was found. This is important to establish onset of symptoms.

Saturday night, Angirasu was sick in her crate and she vomited a small amount of fluid. She was otherwise normal and happy all day Saturday, with a good appetite and drinking plenty of water.

Sunday morning she did not finish all of her breakfast which was very unusual for her. Sunday evening she seemed a little listless and clingy but finished her dinner. In the wee hours of the morning she vomited up her entire dinner in her crate undigested.

Monday morning Aaron took her out to potty, at which point he saw she had bloody diarrhea. He immediately took her to the closest vet (which is not our preferred hospital). I met him at the vet shortly afterwards so he could go in to work. Initial diagnosis was hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, which is the term for sudden onset of vomiting and bloody diarrhea caused by inflammation and bleeding in the bowels.

The vet took x-rays to make sure she did not have any foreign bodies inside her. The x-rays ruled out a blockage and her spleen looked normal. (An enlarged spleen could mean that her body was destroying healthy blood cells which are filtered out of the bloodstream by the spleen.) The x-rays did reveal that she had a lot of gas in her intestines which could cause discomfort.

Initial bloodwork done at the vet ruled out canine parvovirus but revealed she was very slightly anemic. The vet said she showed no other signs of anemia, so sent out the blood to a lab to be retested on more accurate equipment. Her white blood cell count was normal so she did not seem to be fighting an infection.

An in-house fecal exam was done which ruled out giardia. They sent out for a fecal culture which would take three days but could determine if she had clostridium or salmonella bacteria. Clostridium bacteria is the most common cause of gastroenteritis and she could have picked it up while at PetExpo. Salmonella is less common and doesn't usually affect dogs as severely as humans, but is highly suspected because of the food recall.

The vet gave her subcutaneous fluids and an anti-vomiting shot as well as some anti-vomiting pills for us to take home. The vet made sure to warn me that if it is salmonella we need to take extra precautions cleaning up after her, lest we get sick ourselves. They were so concerned with what bacteria or virus she might have, that they did not allow her to leave through the front of the office but instead made me drive around back to take her home. I took that as a sign to quarantine her from all of my dogs and keep all of the dogs away from areas she has been the past few days.

When I got home I scoured the back yard for any sign that the dogs had gotten into or eaten something they should not have. There was no torn up trash, rat poison, food wrappers, etc to be seen. If caused by a toxin, which we had not yet ruled out, I don't think it came from our back yard. She could have eaten or licked something bad at PetExpo, however.

Angirasu remained listless on Monday. She went potty twice that afternoon, both times with more blood and less fecal matter. She politely drank water when offered to her but wasn't very interested in it.

At the end of her shift (closing time) the vet called me back to let me know about the blood work they had done. She informed me that Angirasu's platelet count was dangerously low (thrombocytopenia) and confirmed that Angirasu was slightly anemic. Angirasu's red blood cells looked "odd" which concerned the vet that she may have immune mediated hemolytic anemia. The treatment for immune-related conditions is to give a dog corticosteroids and suppress the immune system, which could be fatal if she is fighting off salmonella or a virus.

When I described Angirasu's behavior during the afternoon, the vet was alarmed that she may have severe internal bleeding instead. We rushed the puppy to an ER vet, since that hospital was closing for the evening when they called us back. At the ER vet, Angirasu bled out of her anus all over the waiting room floor, which got us seen immediately.

We went over the case with the ER vet who is a specialist in intensive care. The vet felt that it was unlikely to be auto-immune given how young Angirasu is and that it would be safe to treat her for salmonella with penicillin. The vet tested for parvo again just to be sure (still negative) and also did a coagulation test to make sure that Angirasu's blood is clotting normally. The blood clot test was normal and was able to rule out rodenicide or another toxin.

As of this morning her condition is the same, although her platelet counts have dropped a little because of the IV fluids diluting the blood stream and all the blood she is losing through her bowels. She does not need a blood or plasma transfusion yet. They are taking platelet counts four times a day to keep a close eye on it. There will be a few auto-immune tests done today just to rule out more possible causes. They will also do an ultrasound of her gut to get a better look at what is going on in there.

We probably wont know anything more until the fecal culture results come back late Wednesday or early Thursday. In the meantime we are treating for salmonella because it seems most likely of the things which have not been ruled out. Angirasu will be at the hospital with 24/7 care for a few days at least. We can go visit her from time to time, and the vet said we can call anytime if we are worried or can't sleep.

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Comments

  • She is getting good care, and will be better soon! Poor girl. and as I said on FB, having been there with all the bleeding, etc the anemia, etc. I feel for you. It's the worst. (somewhere on the forum I'm sure I wrote it all out- you can search it if you want, but I wont hijack Angi's thread.) feel better soon lil girl...
  • hope she has a speedy recovery
  • Poor thing!! Hope she gets better soon so she can be up and at it again! <3
  • Sorry to hear about Angirasu. I hope she recovers quickly!
  • Poor girl, get well soon :(
  • oh man.. that sounds really bad.. Sorry to hear about that! I hope she feels better soon!
  • aykayk
    edited April 2013
    Sorry to hear about Angi. Hope the penicillin is doing its job and the culture test results will give definate answers.

    For the oddly shaped RBC, is there any indication that she has Pacific Rimism? (Harmless to a dog, but gives false positive high K+ on blood tests and misshapen RBC. Can complicate blood transfusions).
  • Oh this sounds terrible and really scary. I'm so sorry to hear this. Sending good thoughts for quick healing and I hope you find a solution.

    (on a minor note, though, I sent your tshirt out with Nippo Classic box this morning unfortunately. If anyone is close to you, who is going, maybe they can pick it up for you?)
  • I'm really sorry to hear Angirasu is sick. I know it's tough waiting to for her to recover, however I think its clear Angirasu knows you care about her.

    As much as a vet can do, even more so I'm sure Angirasu really appreciates you helping her every step on the way to getting better. Best wishes for a speedy recovery!
  • Hope she recovers soon :(
  • I am really sorry :( I hope she recovers as soon as possible.
  • Man this has got to be real scary. I hope she gets better soon. Sending you guys some good vibes!
  • Poor girl! Hope she's well soon :( :(
  • I hope she feels better soon!!
  • I saw this post on FB I hope she gets well soon, I have confidence she will be a normal puppy again in no time :-)
  • Around 1pm Tuesday afternoon the ER called us to tell us that the ultrasound revealed intussusception and early stages of mesenteric torsion. Both are fatal if not operated on immediately. Because she was stable and otherwise acting healthy and alert, we were able to transfer her to a surgical specialist recommended by my regular vet. They confirmed the intussusception and she is in surgery right now.
  • Oh that's terrible! Glad they caught it,and I'm thinking good thoughts for her!
  • Oh god, poor girl :( Glad that they caught it in time where surgery can help. Get better little one, we all want you to continue being cute. Could these things be a side effect of the possible salmonella or other bacteria that made her sick initially?
  • Oh my, oh my, sending well wishes your direction. Poor baby Angi...
  • you'll pull through Angi @};-
  • Intussusception and mesenteric torsion can both be caused by anything which irritates the bowels.

    I forgot to mention they found campylobacter in the most recent fecal smear. Still waiting on the salmonella results, but they're treating for that as well.
  • Poor baby...

    Should the other JAs who hung out with Angi at the OC Pet Expo be tested as a pre-caution?
  • Ah shoot. Sorry to hear about that complication, Claire.
  • That sucks. Glad it was caught in time and can be corrected. Lots of people here in Ohio sending healing thoughts her way.
  • edited April 2013
    Just heard back from the doctor. She is out of surgery and awake. Her entire small intestine had telescoped into her colon. It was too much to cut and the ends wouldn't match up properly anyway. So the doctor carefully pulled it apart and said that once blood flow was restored, it had good color and no damaged tissue, just some bruising. Because he didn't have to cut into her guts, she will heal faster and be able to eat sooner. She needs to get food in her and have her GI tract working again to get the gas out of her intestines. He took a biopsy of her lymph nodes at my regular vet's request, and also a culture of the fluids that were inside her. We requested that if possible he do a gastroplexy, which he did. He also did a similar procedure on her lower intestine so that it cannot intussuscept or torsion again in the future. Other parts of the intestine may twist or telescope, but not this part at least. Finally, we brought her in from the other vet with IV needles still attached to her front and back legs; he said they really botched the one in the back leg and could be a source of infection, so he removed it. He added another one to the front leg instead. She is on three antibiotics (two for the surgery, one for the bacteria) and a painkiller. She can be transferred to my normal vet in two or three days, but should stay hospitalized at least five to make sure she is on the mend.
  • That is some good news. Hopefully the antibiotics due the trick and she starts to improve.
  • Glad she's made it thru surgery!!!
  • edited April 2013
    @rikumom I believe Judy is going to email people. For clarification, Angirasu is not infectious to be around and herself was infected either at PetExpo or on Saturday; she did not have it when she was at the booth. The bacteria is spread orally by eating tainted food or an infected animal's poop. It is similar to salmonella or E. coli in that regard. Since she didn't eat anything at all at PetExpo, we and our vets still think it came from the recalled food. However, PetExpo was on fair grounds, so it is plausible that the bacteria was in some rat turds or horse poop that somebody stepped in and then Angi licked the floor, etc.

    Anyone who took a dog to the Expo (regardless whether they went to the AKIHO booth or not) that starts having stomach or bowel problems should take the dog in to the vet and look for campylobacter. This stuff is like the "stomach flu" or food poisoning in that it has a rapid onset and short duration, so if they don't already have symptoms are probably fine.

    The symptoms present exactly like parvo (and we tested for it twice for that reason) so its good to find out which it is.
  • That's good she's doing better. What a scary situation. :(
  • Holy cow! Poor girl.... Poor Matthewses! :(
    Im so sorry you and she had to go through that...
    Get well soon, Angi!
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