Need help. PLEASE. beagle puppy health problems, vet is NOT helpful, any ideas.?

March 12th, 2010 | by admin |

We have a now 11 week old beagle puppy. We got him when he was 6 weeks old from what i presume is a backyard breeder. He had contacted the SPCA to get rid of the puppys but the SPCA was full and where we had just applied looking for a puppy to the SPCA they told us about this guy. We drove 1.5 hours to get him and when we got there discovered 3 puppys living in a basement that we couldn’t go to and both parents onsite living in a fenced in kennel outdoors. The parents were used as hunters, mom was tatooed and registered the father was not. Anyway I know 6 weeks is to early to take them from their mothers but no matter what happened they wernt in good health there so we took one. I took him to the vet 2 days later as he was having diharea. The vet checked said he probably had worms gave me a de wormer and a antibiotic Metronidazole. I started him on the antibiotics everything looked great he went back to normal poops etc. i then gave him the dewormer about a week later and that night he was throwing up and having sever diahrea and very lathargic so i rushed him to the vet the next AM where I was told he was so dehydrated he could die so we hospitalized him for 2 days for treatment and fluids, in the meantime they tested for parvo, and did poop swabs and everything came back negative including parasites as far as they could tell and ruled it some type of "bacterial overgrowth" and sent him home with more of the same antibiotics for a longer period. He went back to being fine great with the antibiotics, as soon as we stopped those here comes the diharea again! so I bring him back in YET AGAIN and said okay do not send me home with this crap this time its clearly not working. So they said his coats shiny, hes in good spirits hes been acting like himself totally fine this entire time lets get a poop sample and send it to our national office, so they did in the meantime back on the antibiotics, those results just came back negative and they told me to stop the antibiotics, so i did 3 days ago.. guess whats happening now? also for the past week-week and a half he seems to vomit up white foam once or twice ever odd night but it ONLY happens overnight while were asleep.. the vet said it is because his tummy is just upset because hes hungry and the acid is causing it.. or because he ingested some grass.

Does anyone have ANY ideas as we have spent thousands and have no idea what this is and our vets are idiots apariently. We just want our poor baby to feel better soon, we have lived these past 5 weeks on needles waiting for the next thing to happen.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

*Hes been on a diet of canned puppy food called Gastro from the vet since this happened, he does not get treats or anything else unless he sneaks it.

*He eats everything he can find of course, including grass and little pebbles he finds outside which we try to monitor as much as we can! and stop it. hes now learning "Leave it"

*Whenever hes on the Metronidazole antibiotic he seems totally fine and healthy its just when he goes off it he gets sick!

* hes only had his 6 weeks needle as my vet refuses to give him his 10 week one due to his health.

* He bites his feet and i have started to notice a lady bug sized amount of hair missing off one of his feet, no scabs.. he itches a lot to ( treated him for fleas a few weeks ago and check him regularly) and now i found a little pimple filled with yellow fluid on his belly by his nipples? could he have mange? what could this yellow bump be?

*Hes happy and active and totally normal, other then this chronic diareah and sometimes vomitting.

*hes been to the vets 5 times for this and still no answer,.

Anyone with ANY ideas PLEASE help us help our pooor baby boy!! as hes now being limited to his life as we cant start obedience and socialization classes and him meeting many other dogs due to not being vacinated because of his health.

Thank You :)
I forgot to add, he weighed about 5.8 pounds when we got him 5 weeks ago and now he only weighs 6.7 pounds so hes really only gained a pound since, due to this illness.. hes very skinny and you can tell by looking at him hes bony and such. I feel so bad for him ive started feeding him a bit more to try to help him gain weight! but I dont want to give him to much that his stomach gets upset and starts the diahrea cycle all over again

These symptoms sound way to familiar. My daughter just went through the exact same circumstances with a Scottish Fold kitten. What a very sharp vet found were deer ticks deep inside the kittens ears (the one place mom can’t keep clean)
What I’m trying to point out is that vets have a very tough job. When we go to a doctor we say "it hurts right here", our pets can’t do that and just as often as not the problem will be some off the wall thing (like the ticks) that would be the last thing to ever expect.
What I have found over the years is that a fresh set of eyes will spot a problem right off that the old set of eyes will overlook time after time.

  1. 8 Responses to “Need help. PLEASE. beagle puppy health problems, vet is NOT helpful, any ideas.?”

  2. By •Poppy• on Mar 12, 2010 | Reply

    I would honestly recommend that you get a second opinion. Make sure you’ve got all the information correct, then find another vet in the area. Maybe the first vet is missing something.

    I’m not a vet myself, but I’ll star to see if my contacts have any idea.
    References :

  3. By Eno on Mar 12, 2010 | Reply

    Take puppy to another vet for a second opinion.
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  4. By Barb on Mar 12, 2010 | Reply

    Has the vet run a Giardia Antigen? Not the regular Giardia fecal but the antigen?
    I went through months and months of Dante (He’s that too cute GSD in my avatar) having bad poops and eating more food than his size dictated and it turned out to be Giardia the entire time.
    He had to be on two different antibiotics for their course run (sorry I didn’t write down what the were and this was now 4 years ago) before he came back clear.

    Another thing to look for which I think can also be hard to see is Coccidia which is pretty common in puppies as well.

    One more thing that really helped Dante was to feed 3 times a day rather than 2 times a day. I think I did that until he was about 2 years old.

    Oh and some dogs vomit bile when their stomach is too empty, try feeding a bit of food at bed time.

    I wish you the best of luck, sounds like you’re doing all the right things and I know from experience just how frustrating it all is.
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  5. By stefb133 on Mar 12, 2010 | Reply

    Try switching foods. Dry kibble is often better than tinned wet food. Maybe he is allergic to something he is eating?
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  6. By T on Mar 12, 2010 | Reply

    Idk what’s wrong, But you bet I would have him into another Vet. They will fax your Vet now too fax all paper work to them. This is just insane. I hope you find an answer soon.
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  7. By Messykatt on Mar 12, 2010 | Reply

    I’m sorry you’re having all these problems, but you definitely need a new vet! For one thing, metro-whatever (flagyl) is both an antibiotic and an anti-inflammatory. It’s good on a short term basis, but doesn’t cure the problem and if it’s not the right antibiotic, the vet should have tried another one if he thought there was evidence of a bacterial infection (which would have shown up on his white blood count). Honest, I’d get a bit pissed with him, demand a copy of all records and go to another vet.

    The good news in all this is that he’s fundamentally healthy (or this would have done him in!). The diarhea could easily be related to what he’s being fed, especially if he’s allergic to it. In fact, the biting of the feet is another possible sign of allergy -dogs scratch and bite. I don’t know what Gastro is, but check the ingredients. If there’s wheat, corn or chicken in it, these are common allergens.

    For now, since it sounds like the biggest issue is getting weight on him, I’d try TINY amounts of boiled rice (this will also help with diarhea) with an even tinier amount of boiled ground beef or chicken in it (ratio of like 4-1). You can also feed him PLAIN yogurt (again, wee tiny amount) which can be helpful to GI tract. Another option is a bite of scrambled egg (mix with water and microwave). My dog loves all these things and they do help harden his stool. Try this for a day or so just to see if he eats it and keeps it down.

    Also, white foam is usually an indication of nausea, which means if you’re still giving him the flagyl, it might be upsetting his tummy. Make sure the puppy is getting enough food and feed him as often as possible, especially around the time he gets the pill.

    He’s really lucky to have found you! I have a feeling this is something that will get resolved sooner rather than later, but I really hope you try a different vet. This has gone on too long and it doesn’t sound like you’re being given much in the way of alternate suggestions. Even if I’m wrong about that, a second consult never hurts.
    References :

  8. By Beth on Mar 12, 2010 | Reply

    Had a kitten once with similar symptoms and took him to several different vets and no one could tell us what was causing the diarrhea or how to stop it. He died around two years old, no idea why.

    This may not help but I would suggest getting Acidophiles from the health food store. My puppy had a bad bout with an urinary track infection and was on antibiotics for 4 weeks by the time she was 11 weeks old and was having diarrhea. A friend suggested these to restore the good bacteria in her system that was killed by the antibiotics. She loves the banana flavored chewables and considers them her morning treat.

    I wish I could help more. Good luck and I hope your baby will be well soon.
    References :

  9. By T J on Mar 12, 2010 | Reply

    These symptoms sound way to familiar. My daughter just went through the exact same circumstances with a Scottish Fold kitten. What a very sharp vet found were deer ticks deep inside the kittens ears (the one place mom can’t keep clean)
    What I’m trying to point out is that vets have a very tough job. When we go to a doctor we say "it hurts right here", our pets can’t do that and just as often as not the problem will be some off the wall thing (like the ticks) that would be the last thing to ever expect.
    What I have found over the years is that a fresh set of eyes will spot a problem right off that the old set of eyes will overlook time after time.
    References :

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