Knucklehead's Vet Visits

 When I tsrated writing this yesterday, I had brought my new dog, a stray I found & rescued, to the veterinarian's office three times already since I found him on April 3rd. This Wednesday will mark four weeks that I have had him. My main concerns when I brought him to the vet were that he get any required shots and my suspicion that he had some form of parasites. He was very thin when I found him and he drank water and ate food like a vacuum cleaner sucks up dust bunnies. Over the time I've had him, he has eaten twice the amount of my other dog Skye and that is measured feedings. Skye weights about 56 pounds. Knucklehead weighed 43.5 pounds when weighed at his last visit. During his first vet visit he weighed 40 pounds. During our first visit to the vet, Knucklehead was examined by the vet who owns the business (although the receipt says by another doc, but the receipt is wrong). There are three other vets working there as far as I am aware and he was examined by a different vet on the other two visits (same doc those two times). He also was seen by two different vet techs over the course of the three visits. 

 

During the first visit, on April 5 (two days after I rescued Knucklehead)  I was assured they did a fecal float exam which indicated he was parasite free. I had to wonder since he was so skinny, ate like a horse (or maybe more like an elephant), drank the water in two full water bowls a day and that he was passing yellowish to yellow soft plops of poop. The doctor/vet told me it was all due to diet because I was feeding him grain free food and that all the additives used to replace the grain were causing this. He then recommended I feed him one of three foods with the emphasis being that Hills Science was the best choice. He in sum & substance said he had absolutely no financial interest in recommending any of the three foods. The vet visit included three vaccinations, a fecal float exam, a nail trim (which it was obvious they did not do) and a Simparica Trio tablet. When I went to the front desk to square the $81.00 bill, I noticed most of, or at least a lot of, one wall covered by a rack or racks containing - wait for it - Hills Science Diet dog food! No financial interest - yeah right!!!

 

I had to wonder, doesn't the doctor realize that grain is what is used by commercial dog food manufacturers as fill in order to make higher profit on what they sell. Let's face it, no dog (at least none I have ever heard of) is running around in the wild stalking & hunting wheat, rye, rice or barley with which to sate their ravenous & carnivorous appetites. I have heard from old timers and this was decades ago, that many dog maladies of the that time were not found in dogs in the 1920s and 1930s; they attributed the problems of later years to grain being added to commercial dog food. I read an article by a vet years ago in which the vet essentially claimed the same thing. Regardless I tried a diet change, Knucklehead started having abdominal spasms and puking so I went back to Purina True Instinct Turkey & Venison (grain free) but I am getting ahead of myself. Of course as the vets pointed out, there are other fillers in grain free dog food besides grain like peas, potatoes and other stuff. I do not feed my dogs regularly with anything containing peas, in fact it is rare they get some canned food with peas in the ingredients, due the claims they cause heart disease in dogs who eat food containing peas regularly.

 

During the second visit, on April 11, I think Knucklehead was about 2 pounds heavier at 42 lbs. He was wolfing down food not like a gray wolf (measured at least twice as much as Skye) but more like what I imagine a dire wolf or saber toothed tiger might do. The vet tech told me he could not have parasites because he had gained weight. They did another fecal float and told me Knucklehead was definitely parasite free. When I asked if they do fecal smears or other types of exams for parasites they told me only if they suspect giardia. They did not do a fecal smear when I asked them if they would do one. I brought him in on that visit because he had developed abdominal spasms in addition to continuing to pass yellowish very soft poops or unformed plops of poop. They gave him something called Cerenia Injectable and Endosorb Suspension. That vet visit cost an additional $117.17.

Then, I brought Knucklehead in again on April 25, he weighed in at 43.5 pounds. I am guessing most of those weight gains were due to water weight. He drank so much when I found him that my guess was he was quite dehydrated. During that last visit to the moment I am typing, I told the doc about how he drinks to excess, still was having the loose or very soft formed poops yellow or yellowish in color, had thrown up two or three times since the previous visit and was having abdominal spasms just about nightly. I asked the doc again about other types of exams for parasites. He said they would do something else and when he returned to the exam room, he told me that Knucklehead was "completely parasite free". Yet, for some unknown reason he gave me five plastic baggies containing Panacur - a dewormer. He also gave me Cerenia 60 mg tablets x 4 (as I recall an anti nausea medication) and Tylosin 350mg capsules (I believe a probiotic if I recall correctly). I used the last of the Cerenia two days ago and the last of the Panacur yesterday. I have several of the other one left.

Three days ago, Knucklehead passed a partial plop combined with a lot of very thick liquid. When I bent over to scoop it up in a plastic bag (I routinely clean up when they poop), I noticed that the liquid part seems to have little bubbles coming up to the surface after which appeared a hole that went down into the liquid a few fractions of an inch as if something was causing an eddy and there definitely was movement in the liquid. I wondered could it be gas, then though no because what I at first thought were bubbles seemed to be more like something in the liquid coming to just below the surface causing an outward protruding bump and then going back down, those small vortex like holes left behind. He passed only plops or formed but soft poops after that one and in one of those I noticed thin plastic like white strips of something that I figured were just part of something he chewed up in my apartment. He is apparently teething and loves to chew, luckily mostly only his toys and dog chews.

Then yesterday he passed a formed but still soft & yellowish poop. On it were two of those little whites strips, at most an inch long, probably less. Low & behold one of them was moving. I did not need to be a vet nor a biologist to realize they were some sort of flatworm. I checked the Internet and found out, that they appear to be: Heterobilharzia americana. These flat worms breed in fresh water, live in snails for a while then get sucked in when a dog drinks water containing the adults and maybe the eggs too (not sure about the eggs). They are endemic to Texas and some other southern states and are also now found in CA and I think Utah. They can be very difficult to eradicate and they are known to cause fatalities in dogs, up to just above 17% in treated dogs.

 

 

 So, off we went to the vet again yesterday. I was seen by yet a third vet/doc. She was very pleasant and very easy on the eyes. She agreed with me he has parasites - it was about time that some vet, any vet at that animal hospital agreed with me on that. Now to find out what type they were and to administer the medication needed to wipe em out. The vet was not sure by looking at them what species they were but they certainly look like Heterobilharzia americana to me. The vet said I could try just continuing treatment with Panacur, which I noted then obviously was not killing the parasites and probably would not work on Heterobilharzia americana. So, she also said she could add Praziquantel - that is also used to eradicate them flatworms/liver flukes usually in combination with Panacur. Neither is a guaranteed as a cure alone or combined and as I said this parasite has caused just above 17% fatalities in dogs (in at least one study). Then she said a full treatment with Praziquantel would cost around $700 and asked if I anted to try it. I said I'd take both it and the mech less expensive additional Panacur. So she recommended only 3 days of the Praziquantel in the event the worms are not H. americna; then if the test is positive she'd add more to the regimen and if not then I would not have the added expense (good thinking on her part). The test for sample she sent to Texas A&M to check for H. Americana was about $85.00, the  five days of Panacur she gave me was about $39.00, the remainder was for the Praziquantel and maybea small amount of that for one other test and it all added up to $444. At least the office visit was comped.

Now I am treating him and waiting for the test results. I never had a thought that taking in Knucklehead would cost me almost a thousand dollars in the course of less than 4 weeks (it will have been four weeks since I found him tomorrow). That grand includes dog food, dog treats, dog chews and chew toys plus the four vet bills to date with the medication being the biggest bite. Once I took him in and had him for the past few weeks, there is no way I could not be responsible for him he is just that lovable even if he is a pain in my arse (pain in my right hip & lower back and believe me that pain literally spreads to my arse), and is also a pain in the pocket book. He may cause me to live up to my New year resolution of not buying any more guns for the remainder of the year if he keeps costing me like that. 

All the best,

Glenn B