Help with my mini schnauzer, wasting away, undiagnosed illness

[ClementineWardobe]

My Schnauzer has been poorly with diarrhoea and occasional vomiting since March. She has lost catastrophic amounts of weight now, rapudly so in the last few weeks. She is on high dose Steroids and a chemo drug, protexin too. She is dying. I am absolutely desperate. She's 10, rescued from a puppy farm 4 years ago having been a bredding bitch, she was a terrible mess, I've nursed her to health and now this. Vets have tried everything, done every test including biopsies. She's seen European level internal medicine specialists, nothing else can be done as no cause is found. We're treating her for chronic ibd, but she has no diagnosis. She is not absorbing any nutrition from her food. I am in despair. Any advice? She's on Arden Grange white fish and potato, extra boiled fish on top, all good and the diarrhoea has subsided but she is still dropping, her weight chart looks like a cliff. Help.

Also has she possibly eaten anything toxic? Our girl managed to eat a raisin & luckily was sick but was still admitted.

Good luck x

Going to print out this thread and go over every single suggestion with my vets. (gotta say my local vets have been amazing).

I am going to go for other Referrals in the morning including the supervet.

Good luck.. the work hes done for animals is amazing

Ketoacidosis (in humans anyway) is due badly controlled diabetes. Have they ruled out diabetes OP? Do you have a diabetic friend or someone that is really into dieting? If you can get Ketostix anywhere just check her wee for ketones or even better still glucose. I order ketostix off amazon it’s cheap as chips. Vet needs to check her carbohydrate metabolism. Please come back to update, good luck x

Have they tested for/ruled out EPI?

In the gentlest way, if you’ve already been referred and the specialists have done everything they can (and it sounds as if they have been really thorough) , then things like probiotics and vitamins are unlikely to help.
Perhaps it’s time to do a quality of life assessment if she’s very thin- there are lots available online. The idea is to do it each day and so you can spot a pattern of decline. If she’s suffering, please try not to keep her going because you can’t bear losing her.
Wishing you all the best xx

I'm so sorry to read this, and have recently been through something quite similar with my own dog. Sadly he passed away last week and I'm still trying to come to terms with it.
My dog was also a rescue and we didn't know how old he was, but vets estimated around 11/12 so not very old. 9 months ago he had a cancerous tumour removed from his leg. The vets assured me it was very unlikely to have spread and they were confident they had removed it all. Due to location, he was left with a huge open wound. It became infected and we almost lost him to sepsis but eventually he did recover however he was utterly traumatised by the experience and became very anxious about being apart from me and going to the vets (or even in the car through fear that he was being taken to the vets). Prior to this he had been the most confident bubbly happy dog.

Around 3 months ago I became concerned that he was losing weight. He had always been a very muscular well-built dog but began wasting away. To cut a long story short he had all sorts of tests and scans and there was no firm diagnosis. I felt utterly helpless and fobbed off by the vets, they just kept suggesting more tests, even though I had explained over and over that he was terrified and every time he went in was extremely traumatic for him and he wouldn't eat at all afterwards. He started to become urinary incontinent too and the weight loss continued with vomiting (no diarrhoea though). I found it very hard to find any food he would eat but he would drink goats milk which is very gentle on the stomach. He actually managed to put on a little weight on the goats milk and started to eat a little food again without vomiting. But if I
ran out of milk the vomiting would start again.

I ended up losing my confidence and patience in my usual vet and moved practices. Unfortunately he then went downhill very quickly within 24 hrs. A new scan showed terminal liver changes/cancer. We said our goodbyes the same day.

I think sometimes things don't show up on tests/scans until they have progressed to a point where there is not much can be done. I still feel bad that maybe the vets missed something earlier on and he could have been saved, but probably not.

My new vet also considered chronic pancreatitis before finding the tumour so I think that might be something to ask your vets about too.

Best of luck xx

Sending you hope and best wishes Clementine from a fellow ms owner. I hope you manage to get to the bottom of her illness and I too would try the supervet.

Can dogs get coeliac disease? Have they done a biopsy of her intestine/gut to see if the villi are flattened? Or even just a camera look down there? I know Dd b4 diagnosis her weight dropped like crazy and it’s because if all the villi are flattened due to coeliac they can’t absorb anything

I have to ask - she's been an amazing friend to you, a great dog. Isn't it time already to consider being her friend and PTS? She's rapidly losing weight, is in and out of the vets, nothing is helping. Realistically, what can be done if they find a cause that hasn't been done already? She's not a young dog, she's had years of love from you.

Have they considered Addison’s disease @ClementineWardobe

Yep, been tested for Addisons etc. If QOL slips away, we will know what to do. Thank you all.

If you are in the are around the "Supervet", I can also highly recommend the Davies Specialist Vet clinic. They saved our fog's life. I really cannot recommend them enough

I keep hearing about Davies Vets. Thank you, she's wagging and barking still...i have made some progress today, I'll update in a couple of days, support is very much appreciated from you all. Thanks millions.

Sending love and positive vibes from our mini schnauzer. They are wonderful loving dogs. I have my fingers crossed for you.

Without test results no one can really advise and whilst it's definitely worth exploring options, if she's on immunosuppressive chemo and steroids then yoghurt and probiotics are unlikely to make much difference.

It sounds like they're concerned about severe IBD or possibly neoplasia, with the drugs she's on and whilst they may not have a definitive diagnosis they appear to be treating her for an inflammatory condition.

It sounds like she's already been seen by board certified specialists. What does their discharge letter say in terms of her diagnosis and treatment?
Jumping around multiple specialists is likely just to result in lots more repeat tests and a poor experience for her. The "super vet" is an orthopaedic surgeon so not sure it's in his speciality....

I'd honestly recommend a consultation with your own vet to review her test results and case management. It sounds like you're hoping for a cure here but from the brief history and treatment, it might be that your dog has a progressive inflammatory condition that can be palliated to some extent but not cured.

Overall you need to consider her quality of life, and daily experiences. Is putting her through another referral process at a different vets really likely to change anything?

Has she ever left the county? My dog was very poorly with something picked up in Spain before she came to us.

Sorry, that should have been country, not county!

@ClementineWardobe Davies Vets have been incredible for us and worth their weight in Gold (although we had a completely different problem). They had to perform emergency surgery on our 10-week tiny brachycephalic breed dog and from the bedsides manner of the surgeons to the care he received- it was truly outstanding (very expensive though and went above our insurance limit of £4K). I can of course only speak about the specific vets we have encountered there

Any news yet on the MS...

I have no experience of undiagnosed digestive issues but our 18yr old oldie has lost a lot of weight as he gets older- he’s naturally a slim athletic build but he’s veering on the too thin side as he ages; I just try and give him his normal food at dinner but then fatty extras - he has porridge, boiled eggs (he loves soft boiled or hard, really nutritious for them), I also sometimes give him a bit of pasta mixed with his biscuits and a bit of fatty cream (he loves spaghetti). He loves cheese aswell. A Weetabix with full fat milk slightly warmed after his morning walk in winter! Bone marrow. Tuna, broccoli & carrots another favourite (cooked). I’m not giving him these things every day, he is still active but slowing, frankly he enjoys them so much and at his age I want him to keep on some weight, stay warm and I think he likes the variety. If she’s really thin I’d try lots of different things just to see if you can help her gain any weight atall. Obviously the diarrhoea is an issue so you need to be careful with small amounts not to cause upset. Perhaps try a little bit of hard boiled egg & see how it goes down. That’s good for plus’ when he has an upset stomach. Sending you a hug op xxx

Hi I'm sorry I haven't checked back in and thank you for all the lovely messages and support. She was Xrayed, at long last, there was no specific evidence for doing it but I agreed with my vet to go ahead. She has moth lesions on her vertebrae, and next week we will do some further (non invasive) tests to see if it's mixed myeloma. Basically looking for a plasma cell/bone marrow cancer of some sort. I'm trying not to worry (failing as usual). My heart goes out to all of you going through anything with your dogs, and those who have experienced the loss I am so so sorry and I wish you well. Thank you again, to those who offered support and stories of their own. X

Hi all, I just wanted to thank everyone who offered advice and options. My girl was put to sleep yesterday afternoon, at home, in my arms. Absolutely heartbroken. She was pure joy. I will miss her all days. It was a privilege to be her human.

Sorry for your loss OP 💐 heartbreaking xx