The Shar-Pei Forums-Health Behavior Diet & Rescue Info and Discussion Group

I have had my PEI for almost seven years now, I got her when she was three months old. I have never had skin, eye or ear problems with her. About three years ago she began to lose weight very rapidly. She actually got down to 15 pounds. After spending so much money at the vet it was determined that she had Inflammatory Bowel Disease. She has been on preganazone for two years. She began putting the weight back on and was looking very well, in fact we took her off the meds. She had gotten up to a very healthy 40 pounds (she is a mini). All was well.

Here is the bad thing, me and my son went on vacation for ten days starting Oct. 8th. Meeha stayed at a family friend’s house. When I returned home I immediately noticed her weight loss, but I figured it was due to the stress of us being gone and her not being at home. It has not been three weeks since my vacation and her coming home and she still refuses to eat. She is right back down to 15 pounds and getting smaller. Doc put her back on pregazone, but it is not helping. She refuses to eat. I have changed her dog food three times trying to get her to eat and nothing. I have even started cooking for her Rice and ground beef.....Nothing she will eat very little and then stop and then she will not eat it again. But she is very thirsty though, she drinks a lot of water, I fear that is the only thing keeping her going, but it can not do it for much longer. What should I do? Can anyone help? Or do I just have to sit there and watch as she starves herself to death?
Any suggestions would be greatly apprieciated, I am so scared that we are about to lose her and there is nothing I can do about it.

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Meek

Is she also peeing more if so take her to the vet and have some tests run they should know wich ones to do.

Hi! So sad to hear of your pei's condition. I strongly recommend that you have a blood test done. My pei had symtoms very similar to yours. My rose was diagnosed with pancreatitus and an inflamed liver. She would not eat as well just like yours. My vet put her on fluids intraveniously. Unfortunately for some pei's and other dogs predasone affects their liver. Mine had a broken tooth which turned to an infections in her heart. She had been on a long term anti-biotic regimen along with surgery finally to remove the tooth. Even though my vet put Rose on anti-biotics that should not affect the liver, I do believe that the long term course with the high fevers from the infection in her heart and then the anestetia which was the mildest that they could use. It was one that they used in pediatrics. It was just too much for her, after one of her treatments that evening she had gone into seizures and was convulsing for a long period of time. I chose not to continue her suffering. But I would definitely get her a full blood work up. There are some dogs that can pull through this. The vet at the emergency hosp. dit tell me that liver disease is a very hard disease. My vet also said that people with liver disease if its from alcohol they stop drinking and a lot of times they'll get better or they get a liver transplant. but its not quite the same as that for dogs. I read that milk thistle is a very good herb to help the liver regenerate new cells in the liver. But dogs when they have the disease usually are very advanced by the time that you know that they have. I do wish you the very best and hope your baby can pull through this. My heart goes out to you. Sandy

Also have them do a urine test.Good luck hope everything works out ok for you.

Has she been checked for diabetes? Or cancer? I say that word quite bluntly I know - but weight loss is one of the signs of that AND chances are that if it is the big 'C' the vets will be able to help her.

You say she is drinking a lot - in humans this is one of the signs of diabetes. (I believe in dogs to - but I am not a vet so not qualified to diagnose this)

I would get her to the vet TODAY, whatever it is, it will help you to know what you are dealing with - because only then can you start to help her.

In the meantime, have you tried her on weetabix (or the US equivalent of wheat biscuit breakfast cereal, or perhaps porridge, or scrambled eggs?

If it is in fact IBS, perhaps you could do a search on the internet and see if you can find information on recommended diets - even if it is human related I am sure a lot of it would translate to dogs too.

Let us know how you get on.....

I'm so sorry to hear about your pei.
I would also recommend a complete blood work up- it should reveal what is going on. My Persian cat Blitzen went through something very similar. He started going downhill and losing weight; he went from almost 9 pounds to 5 and felt like a skeleton. He also refused to eat and I tried everything. I was feeding him meat babyfood mixed with Nutrical from a spoon. Towards the end he would only take a few licks. I had been taking him to my regular vet for a few months trying to figure out what was going on- had blood work done, they thought it was irritable bowel disease and put him on Prednisone. Then one night he was not doing well at all so I took him to the emergency vet. They were the ones who finally figured out what was wrong with him. And it cost $1,500 for his one night in intensive care there. They did EXTENSIVE work though, including several x-rays, bloodwork every few hours, iv, all kinds of medication and monitoring, etc. It turned out that he had hip dysplasia, pancytopenia (low white blood cells, red blood cells, AND platelets), lesions in his abdomen and lungs, abnormal liver values, and a signficant heart murmur/enlarged heart. Needless to say his prognosis was extremely poor. I took him home to enjoy his last few days at home instead of being at a vet hospital. Then, a few weeks before his 2nd birthday I had to let him go. Sorry, that was the long version of Blitzen's story. He was my baby and I can't help talking about him.

I would take your Pei to a veterinary critical care or emergency center. They usually have specialists from all fields and very advanced technology like MRI's and cat scans, etc. You will pay quite a bit, but I think it's the only way to really find out what's going on and time is really of the essence here. Just for an example I took Blitzen to my regular vet a few days before his death and they didn't even notice his enlarged heart or his MANY other problems. I can't believe they missed it. Needless to say, I will never go back there.

By the way, Prednisone causes extreme thirst, so make sure your Pei has plenty of water and make sure to take him outside to urinate more often. And I also know that liver problems cause a decrease in appetite- not that your pei has liver problems, but that is one thing that causes the appetite to be lowered.

I really hope you find out what is causing your Pei's weight loss and that he gets better. Please keep us posted and I'll be thinking of you.
-Tamara

Sorry, I don't know why I thought your pei was a boy. I hope your Meeha pulls through.

Hi Meekone,

Sorry to hear about your baby. Has anyone tested for kidney disease? Blood work certainly is in order.

We are giving one of our Pei Tagament twice a day for her stomach to keep her eating. It seems to be working.


BTW, Les, I reworked your Avatar image for Duke and relinked it to your profile. There was a huge white border around the original image and it was taking up too much room on the page.

Also, here is a larger version without the border. You may wish to use this on your web site instead of the one you're using now (it will download much quicker).

[img]http://www.calsharpei.com/images/forum/duke2.gif[/img]

Right click on the image and select "Save Picture As..." to get it down to your PC.


Please, everyone, your Avatar images should be square, and ideally 100 pixels wide by 100 pixels in height. Regardless of original size, the server will scale them to 100 pixels wide by 100 pixels in height so they may look distorted if you use a non-square size.

Let me know if you need help with this.

<small>[ November 03, 2003, 08:39 PM: Message edited by: Alan ]</small>

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Thanks Alan.That was the first shar-pei I ever owned he is at the bridge waiting for me now.

Thanks so much for your support and suggestions guys!! It really means a lot to me, I am very emotional right now with the thought of possibly losing her. I did take her in last night to our vet and have the blood work done, they also did a stool test as well and we are waiting on the results from that. But we have done that before and they were never able to tell me anything other than inflammatory bowel disease and then they put her on pregnazone. I think it is a really good idea to take her to emergency and if she does not get any better within this week I think I am going to do that. I cooked her some liver and oatmeal last night and she ate it (yipee). I also gave her some this morning and she ate it as well. We have a doggy door so she has access to the back yard while I am at work so that she can use the rest room. The doctor is testing her for valley fever and a couple of other things. Thanks again for all of your suggestions. I hope the test come back with some results this time so we can treat this correctly. I hate to see her like this. The vet suggested yesterday that I think about putting her down and I almost started crying right there. I hope I am not being selfish in not agreeing to do that, I don't know.

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Meek

Hello Meek,
If indeed it is IBD your Pei is being treated for, has your Vet not told you that this is a life long condition, and will require regular attention.. so no you are not being selfish..

Also, make sure that when your Pei is on Prednesone it must be given Calcium Tabs and vitamin D tabs daily as they suffer a loss of calcium and cannot retain vitamin D... therefore these supplements are a must...

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We rotate foods to keep Amber eating. One day she'll want one thing - the next day something else, including;

Lammy Whams (dried lamb lungs)

Peanut butter sandwiches

Tuna sandwiches

Boiled chicken

Bullie sticks (dried bull weiners)

Broiled chicken from the supermarket

Lunch meat

scrambled egges

cheese

cottage cheese

Anything to get her to keep eating. Soem days nothing works.

Also, get a baby syringe to administer oral meds if you need to. Grind them up, mix with a little water, and squirt in the side of the mouth near the gums in back. May not work with some meds that have a bitter taste (most human meds have a bittering agent added).

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Took you all's advice and took Meeha in to the emerg. doctor yesterday. She was a little dehydrated so they gave her IV fluids. Also recommended I go to and external med. specialist (that is the first time that has been suggested). She is now down to 29 pounds from 45. Good thing about this is that they have a payment plan, which will really help me out a lot. So when I see the specialist I have to pay for half of all of her test that day and then I have sixty days to pay off the balance which is really good, now I do not have to worry about money and I can just get her the care she needs.
Thanks for your help and advice......

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Meek

I'm glad you went with the emergency vet. It is definitely pricey, but worth it. They usually are much more knowledgeable and as this vet did, referred you to a specialist who will probably be able to give you some answers. Please keep us posted on Meeha's progress.

Very Very Very Sad Update:

Unfortunately Meeha died at home last night around 11pm. Man, I have never lost a pet before this is my first, she was more than a pet to me, and I must admit I feel so bad about it, I wished that I could have done more when I took her to the emergency last week, we were due to see the specialist this week but she didn't make it until the appointment. I just feel so bad, I feel like I have lost a member of my family that can not be replaced. Last night I just kept remembering the circles she use to run in when we got home from work and school. How she would run and go get her ball so we could play with her. I never thought that I would take her passing so hard. We are going to have a brief little memorial for her tonight (me,my son and my mom). Once again I wanted to thank you all for your advice, and say good luck to all of you who told me you were dealing with similar problems. I think I might try to look into adopting one of our rescues..........but I need a little time.

Meek

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Meek

I am so sorry to hear of Meehas passing. It is such a hard feeling to deal with not being able to help our beloved little friends(kids). We all feel that we could have done more but in time this does soften the guilt. But you do not need to feel guilty that you did not do enough. From what I read you have done everything possible to help your baby. Time just did not allow for any more, sometimes we only get a short period of time to enjoy the love that our furry family members and sometimes longer. We do feel so cheated when our time is the short span. When I had my Rose cremated this last april they offered some wonderful poems. There was one that this site did not have and if I can find it I will post it. It talks about not greiving so long and about not feeling guilty about getting a new dog t help fill in the void of losing such a good friend. But you do need time to help your heart heal. I have my Lucy she is a beagle that I adopted from the humanes society before I had Rose. Lucy has helped me a great deal coping with the loss of Rose. Again my sincerest sympathy upon Meehas' passing. Sandy

I'm so sorry to hear about Meeha.
I think having a memorial is a great idea. It's a nice tribute to your much loved Pei.

Just wanted to add that the saying "time heals all wounds" is definitely true. It will take time to grieve and accept your loss of Meeha, but eventually you will find peace with it.
Best wishes and sympathy,
Tamara