Apollo is going Downhill

[Mallory]

Apollo is our male Siberian husky, maybe mixed with a little shepherd. He was dumped from a truck about 3.5 years ago as an adolescent dog and a friend of mine brought him to us. When we took him in, he was riddled with fleas and tapeworms and emaciated. With proper care, those problems soon disappeared except we never managed to get him to a healthy weight.

Apollo's 3.5 years with us have been filled with awful digestive issues and we have never been able to fully combat them. A vet tentatively diagnosed him with EPI and we have gone through the enzymes, low fat diets, always a grain free diet too, antibiotics and anything else we or they could think of. We don't have the most experienced vets here in terms of this condition and the burden of research has usually fallen on me. He seemed to stabilize at times but was still underweight about a year ago.

Then 6 months ago he began pooping out huge piles of diarrhea. Any amount we fed him just came out in voluminous stool and it was clear he wasn't able to utilize that food. We tried everything again and he continually lost weight again. I finally came to my last possible idea - something our vets were not thrilled about - and tried a raw diet with enzymes. His poop started looking nice and firm and for a few weeks we were thrilled. However his weight has not increased despite no longer having diarrhea. He recently blew his coat, the new undercoat is rough and wiry and his guard hair (top coat) is now coming out in chunks. I have never seen him as thin and his coat as rough as he is now.

Our vets don't seem to fully acknowledge what is going on with him. We recently switched to a new vet in town and maybe he will have new ideas. Right now I feel like Apollo is sliding and in the back of my mind I feel he might not bounce back this time. It kills me to watch him as happy and playful as ever even as he has all of these problems. It seems like we've covered every possible area with him (no I did not list everything we've tried to avoid writing a novel) and we are losing the battle.

 

[Terry57]

I am so sorry about Apollo not doing well. I hope he rallies again, and gets past this. Miracles do happen, we almost lost our chihuahua Chazzie a couple of weeks ago, but he rallied and is doing so much better. I hope and pray the same thing happens for Apollo.

 

[happy410]

Not sure at all if this would help or if you can try it. But I've known someone that has to feed their dog this way.Google dogs eating in high chair. I also saw this on tv just a few weeks ago about a rescue dog. Hope Apollo gets better.

 

[Allee]

It makes me so sad to read this. It's hard to find a dog that doesn't have some health issues in the span of a lifetime, but often a vet visit solves the problem within a short time. Chronic health issues for man's best friend are ongoing and so heartbreaking to watch. It sounds like Apollo has had the best possible care since the day you rescued him. I know you've tried everything to make him well. I think a new opinion from a different vet just may be the key. Vets are human too, maybe the new vet will see something the other one missed. I wish you and Apollo the very best. Please keep us updated, I'm looking forward to very good news.

 

[OOwl]

Sorry to hear about your dog's health issues. Do you have a vet school within driving distance? They love challenges and all those vet-heads together can sometimes accomplish miraculous things. They also have the advantage of the very latest treatment options that small-town vets may not of considered in their treatment plans. Good luck. I'm the praying sort so I've added your boy to my prayer list.

 

[Surfincr]

i'm assuming you've done blood work and had them run tests on the stool samples (if not make sure you do both) if you have ask for a copy of the results. with the tests i receive you have what the results are and next to it what the normal range is. my wife and i learned the hard way vets can miss things very easily and sometimes even if a value is "in range" but on either end it combined with other values could be a sign of a disease. the best thing you can do is read the results yourself and google, then run what you found by the vet. unfortunately vets treat so much they cant ever be expected to know everything so sometimes a problem may not click to a condition.

whats the dogs environment like? is it chaotic, quiet etc also is the dog on a daily schedule?

reason i ask is my shepherd has IBS. she went through 5 homes in her first year one being a vets where she was kenneled she couldnt take the chaos and it took the vet months to figure out what it, was meanwhile she dropped to 36lbs (90lbs is her ideal weight). if she gets too worked up she has severe diarrhea to the point everything just runs through. She now thrives being in one home where there is a consistent schedule that rarely varies much

 

[Mariar]

I hope Apollo pulls thru..my thoughts and prayers are with you,Apollo and your family.
Sending you lots of love and hugs.