This will be long, but any ideas of what this could be will help us so much!!
Bubba is a very healthy dog, very active and a great weight (a little on the thin side even). He is a Pekingese (3years old) and has never had anything like this happen before. Here is what happened.
I slept in Monday morning and woke up to diarrhea in the bathroom. It was a fair amount and some of it was very runny. Also, it seemed like Bubba may have struggled with it because it was in several places. I didn’t think much of it, however I did notice Bubba doing this weird thing. He kept sitting down a lot and was acting like it hurt him to do so. He would sit down very carefully and slowly and then kind of plop down to lie down. It was strange.
I took my dogs (I have another Pek name Bis-a girl) on a walk. Bubba seemed fine, lots of energy like normal. He only peed on the walk and kept doing the sitting down oddly thing. Anyways, I got back and gave them some Mozzarella cheese for a special treat (which he has had plenty of before) and sat down with them. About five/ten min went by and then he collapsed. He just fell over- like keeled over and let out this horrible sound. His mouth was shut so tight. And he shrieked for about 30-60 seconds. I did not know what to do- thought he might be choking and I tried gagging him. He vomited a lot of bright yellow stomach bile and the cheese and then he walked a little more and fell over again. He was now limp, jaw was shut very tight and his tongue turned white. I wrapped him in a towel and rushed him to the vet. His eyes remained open and he seemed to kind-of know what was going on. His chest also seemed hard/like he was not breathing?
Got him to the Vet and they got him on O2 and IV fluids. No steroids were used to bring him back. He came back quickly. She said he had a low heart rate and they were going to run a blood test. Blood test showed high Potassium/High glucose/ and liver level was off. The Vet first thought maybe Addison’s disease. They brought him out to me maybe ten min after they got him back and he was wagging/ trying to get the catheter out/ like the little rascal he always is. The Vet also told me we almost lost him.
They recommended more testing at another animal emergency/specialist hospital. We took him there directly and he was still doing great (like nothing happened). They ran an electrolyte test and it seemed like Addison’s (not atypical however) was ruled out. They did an abdominal ultrasound. Found that the gallbladder wall was mildly thickened and they found debris in his gallbladder. An BioAcid test was then done to see how bad on an infection was going on and if we needed a biopsy of the liver. Bioacid test came back normal. They said it was fine for me to take Bubba home because he was doing so great. All his physical exams were normal and he was watched for almost 32 hours after the collapse. They gave me some antibiotics (Amoxicillin and Metronidazole) for the gallbladder situation and also said that we could get the ACTH stimulation test done to check for Atypical Addison’s. Also, shunts were ruled out with the ultrasound/bio acid test.
We took Bubba home and he was acting totally normal- a little tired and we took him in to get the ACTH stim test done at our regular vet on Thurs. The test results came back a little strange. I don’t know exactly how the test works but I guess the results showed him to not be in the Addison’s range, but also were not in the normal range either. Somewhat in between. My Vet talked to three different specialists about Bubba and everyone thinks he does not look like an Addison’s dog.
Now, they want to look at Bubba’s heart. My Vet said that the collapse was probably not do to the liver/gal bladder infection. That it could be a heart block? She recommended an EKG. She told me that if the test came back abnormal- we would have a diagnosis. If the test came back normal- that does not mean there is no problem. So, I asked her what the next step would be whether it is abnormal/normal and she said it would be a heart ultrasound with a cardiologist.
I have not done the EKG yet. I am sending all the records from both places to my mother who is going to have our Vet in Colorado (been with them for years/they have seen Bubba-even neutered him) take a look and get a second opinion. I have also been listening to Bubba’s heart and have noticed irregular heart beats- like three really close together then a pause and then two beats, pause. I am so worried. I am going to take him to a cardiologist, I just want as much help as I can get right now. I guess my questions are:
Any possible idea what could have caused this?
Could his gal bladder/liver could have possibly caused the collapse?
Are there any signs I can look for?
If he has another collapse what can I do for him while getting him to a hospital?
Is this heart disease?
Any other tests you can think of to run on him?
If it is a heart block- is it going to shorten his life?
I’m sorry for such a long explanation. I just am hoping for someone to figure out what happened to him so I can help him. It will be a week a go that it happened on Mon Feb 4. He is acting fine, the Vets said I could leave him alone, but I want to be near him if it happens again so I can save him. Please let me know if you have any ideas and if it was even a collapse/stroke/fainting?
Thank you so much!
