Dog Gets Sick Every 8-10 Days... For 4 Years!

Name: Lightning 7 year old Female Rat Terrier, white with black, 11 pounds. Very high energy. Food: Purina small breed, chicken, metered to maintain her healthy weight. Regular Medications: None History About 4 years ago, Lightning ate yard mushrooms (my other/older dog died that same night). Took Lightning to the emergency vet. They charcoal'ed her and flushed her out. She recovered. The paperwork associated with the blood work, indicated Pancreatitis like numbers. Other blood work was normal. Our regular Vet monitored her bloodwork over the next several weeks (starting the next day), and her numbers were normal each time. Shortly after this (maybe a few months), she started getting sick on a regular basis. For the first 3 years, it was like clockwork: -Time between events: 8-10 days (we have logs of dates and symptoms for the last 3+ years) -Length of event: about 12 hours -Symptoms in the beginning: No food of any kind, No water, occasional vibrating shakes, Running hurts (she slows near immediately to a slow walk), hard to get comfortable. She will drink a little water an hour or so before it ends. Deviation At the end of 2022, she was symptom-free for 4 months, but the issue started again in early 2023. There was no change in food, snacks, water or medications. No idea what may have caused the symptom vacation. Current Status/New Food She has been to the vet many times for this issue, recently about 6 weeks ago. Catching her sick and getting a vet appointment to see her, has been tough. We have had our current vet for 2 years. The last visit (6 weeks ago), the vet (having just done blood work and seeing the old blood work stating Pancreas-like numbers), suggested we change her diet. This new diet is the exclusive use of a  Pancreatitis friendly dry dog food (chicken flavor). So, I stopped all the snacks and supplements. She loves the new dog food. The symptoms have changed after she got used to the new food: -Time between events: 2-4 days (3 times as often). -Length of event: about 12 hours (no change) -Symptoms: No food of any kind, No water. She does not run, hard to get comfortable. New Issue--Dry heaves a small amount of sticky/foamy stomach fluid, mixed with about 20% bile/yellow fluid (every 2-3 days), usually before getting sick, but not always. She loves to chase squirrels. Seems to have good energy when sick, just doesn't run. Most times, other than not eating, you wouldn't know she was sick until she refuses food. I find it odd that she got worse with the new diet. The vets we have taken her too, are at a loss as to what is happening.

Hello - having worked at lots and lots of vets for quite a number of years, I can count on one hand the number of times that I have seen vets completely at a loss as to what to do next with a case and always find it fascinating how often it is reported on these forums.  I'm not saying that you're wrong - indeed, I know nothing about this case - but it's always wise to check that your vet genuinely feels this way.   They should have some idea as to what will move a case forward, even if thats to refer to someone who knows more about the area or can do better tests.  In this case, the sort of communications you might be having with your vet are as follows......

1) Do they suspect or know that your dogs' diagnosis is pancreatitis?   How do they feel about your dogs' failure to respond to symptomatic treatment for pancreatitis and would they reccommend a) stronger symptomatic treatment eg pain releif / fluids / a different diet because this once doesn't appear to be working  OR b) further investigation in case the symptoms have some deeper underlying cause - eg ultrasound of the pancreas / liver to help rule out anything sinister / of the GI tract to rule out a chronic gastric  foreign body or blockage etc OR c) both?    I agree that the status quo doesn't sound very pleasant and that moving this case on sounds to be a great move.

As an old lecturer of mine used to say, vomiting is always caused by something - healthy dogs don't vomit.  If you do manage to get to the bottom of this one, please would you let us know?

I am not saying anything negative about the vets. I am an engineer and I understand how difficult it is to diagnose something like this. My biggest complaint would be how hard it has bee to get a vet interested enough to dig into it. They run their tests and don’t see anything and it goes away in 10-12 hours, so hard to catch it. The vet knows about the pancreatitis, but they believe that her original blood work was off kilter because of the mushrooms. After several blood works done since, none have ever eluded to pancreatitis. The main reason to post here was to hit a broader audience. We visit the vet again next week. We will discuss more of what to do. And, Yes, I will followup if we ever figure out what it is. Thanks for responding. Pauly

So, here is the update. Vet sent me to another vet/Emergency Hospital in Houston. They did ultra-sound, blood work, etc... $1600. The results are inconclusive and another $5000 is necessary to go to the next stage, that 'could' tell more. There is a swelling/focal mesentery area 'outside' of any organ, between the bottom of the stomach and the pancreas. Could be cancer, but being this is going on for 4+ years, maybe not. They said it was likely unrelated to the Mushroom event (if there was even one). When I looked up 'focal mesentery' in dogs and it doesn't sound good. Not sure what we are going to do next, but we are going to change her diet to remove 'Chicken Flavoring' as a trigger. The Report from the Animal Hospital Problem Intermittent, progressively frequent episodes of lethargy and inappetance Focal region of steatitis Diagnostic Tests CBC Mild stress leukogram, otherwise normal Chemistry panel normal Urinalysis USG 1.009, no protein T4 2.0 GI panel normal (TLI 28.5, cPLI 67, cobalamin 755, folate 9.6) Abdominal ultrasound STUDY: FULL ABDOMINAL ULTRASOUND COMPARISON: None. FINDINGS:

• UROGENITAL: The kidneys are normal in size and maintain adequate corticomedullary distinction (L: 3.9 cm; R: 3.7 cm).
• ADRENAL GLANDS: Normal L: 0.52 cm, R: 0.46 cm
• SPLEEN: Normal
• HEPATOBILIARY: Normal
• GASTROINTESTINAL: Normal
• PANCREAS: Normal
• LYMPH NODES: Normal
• RETRO/PERITONEAL SPACE: There is focal mesentery within the right cranial abdomen.
• ASPIRATES: None performed

CONCLUSIONS Right cranial steatitis of unknown etiology. Otherwise ultrasonographically abdomen.