caayenne
Member
Our Cavalier Charlie is not doing well at all. He's only a year old, and has always had great health until now. His heart has always checked out clear. On Dec. 18, he was a little bit lethargic in the morning, but not so much that I was concerned. Around lunchtime, he suddenly started limping with his left hind leg. I called my husband at work, and he came home on his lunch break to see Charlie. We were worried but because we couldn't think of any way that he could have been hurt, we decided to give it a few hours. Charlie mostly laid around in his crate for the rest of the day, and we decided to take him to the vet in the morning. But when my husband went to take him out before bed, Charlie couldn't walk. My husband picked him up, and Charlie yelped. When he put him down in the yard, he collapsed and yelped again. My husband rushed him to the emergency clinic, where they did x-rays and an exam. They couldn't find anything wrong, so they gave Charlie a tentative dx of a cruciate ligament injury, and put him on Rimadyl.
The next morning Charlie was acting a lot better, walking around and only limping a bit, less than originally. We felt pretty good about the medication, but we didn't want Charlie to hurt himself, so he still spent most of his time in the crate for that day and the next. (We just took the crate with us from room to room). However, on Dec. 21, he went from seeming to feel well to feeling terrible. He wouldn't come out of the crate, and he didn't want to eat. His limp got much worse, and when my husband carried him out to pee, he would just stand there, not moving at all. Then he would take a step or two and then his hindquarters would just kind of collapse. He went to our regular vet on Monday, who said that he now thought that Charlie had injured his other rear leg from trying to compensate for the original injury. He said that we should completely confine Charlie to his crate and keep him on the Rimadyl.
Over the next few days, Charlie continued to decline physically. He went from being a little off his food to not eating at all. He stopped drinking entirely. We bought some chicken broth, which he liked at first. By Christmas, though, he would only lick the broth very slowly from my husband's fingers. He also started having respiratory symptoms, coughing and making this wheezing almost purring sound when he breathed and having nasal drainage. And he wouldn't walk almost at all. He went to the vet the day after Christmas, and had a fever of 104.5. The vet still wasn't super worried, but we insisted that he put Charlie on an antibiotic. By that time, we had taken Charlie off the Rimadyl, because after doing some research, we were also worried that he might be showing the signs of a bad reaction to the medicine. The vet didn't think so, but he went along with us and put Charlie on a different pain medicine.
Charlie has contined in our eyes to decline. He is on prescription invalid food, which my husband has to force-feed him. He will not drink anything, so my husband has to pry his mouth open and use a medical syringe to squirt it down his throat. The vet has injected fluids under his skin twice to stave off dehydration. He will almost never walk, and he is now showing a limp in the front as well. His respiratory sounds have gotten louder and more frequent. He won't take his medication unless my husband forces it down his throat. He still has a fever, his eyes look so sick, and he just lays there for hours and hours, mostly sleeping, but almost never moving.
When his bloodwork came back, he showed two high enzyme levels that the vet said show liver damage. He talked to an internist, and their best guess at this point is leptospirosis. They ran the test, and the vet said if we're lucky, we might know the results tomorrow. Charlie does have many of the symptoms, but he has been on antibiotics for nearly a week with no improvement at all. Up until yesterday, he showed no signs of kidney problems, but yesterday morning, he had peed all over his crate overnight. And now he pees more frequently, and in really large amounts, much more than usual, even though he's not taking in much fluid. He's also starting to limp with one of his front legs as well.
We just don't know what to do. If it is lepto, it must be really bad, since he's not responding to the antibiotics. And if it's not lepto, what could it be? We never really thought that he was injured, and with the other legs having problems, we're virtually certain the lameness goes along with the illlness. I keep bringing up Lyme disease to the vet, but Charlie has absolutely no history of ticks. Besides, the vet says that his lymph nodes are completely normal and that Charlie would certainly be improving by now from the antibiotics if it were Lyme. He'll go back to the vet in the morning, but we just don't know what we're missing. Does anyone recognize these symptoms? Or has anyone experienced a Cavalier having problems like these?
Thanks so much,
Andrea
The next morning Charlie was acting a lot better, walking around and only limping a bit, less than originally. We felt pretty good about the medication, but we didn't want Charlie to hurt himself, so he still spent most of his time in the crate for that day and the next. (We just took the crate with us from room to room). However, on Dec. 21, he went from seeming to feel well to feeling terrible. He wouldn't come out of the crate, and he didn't want to eat. His limp got much worse, and when my husband carried him out to pee, he would just stand there, not moving at all. Then he would take a step or two and then his hindquarters would just kind of collapse. He went to our regular vet on Monday, who said that he now thought that Charlie had injured his other rear leg from trying to compensate for the original injury. He said that we should completely confine Charlie to his crate and keep him on the Rimadyl.
Over the next few days, Charlie continued to decline physically. He went from being a little off his food to not eating at all. He stopped drinking entirely. We bought some chicken broth, which he liked at first. By Christmas, though, he would only lick the broth very slowly from my husband's fingers. He also started having respiratory symptoms, coughing and making this wheezing almost purring sound when he breathed and having nasal drainage. And he wouldn't walk almost at all. He went to the vet the day after Christmas, and had a fever of 104.5. The vet still wasn't super worried, but we insisted that he put Charlie on an antibiotic. By that time, we had taken Charlie off the Rimadyl, because after doing some research, we were also worried that he might be showing the signs of a bad reaction to the medicine. The vet didn't think so, but he went along with us and put Charlie on a different pain medicine.
Charlie has contined in our eyes to decline. He is on prescription invalid food, which my husband has to force-feed him. He will not drink anything, so my husband has to pry his mouth open and use a medical syringe to squirt it down his throat. The vet has injected fluids under his skin twice to stave off dehydration. He will almost never walk, and he is now showing a limp in the front as well. His respiratory sounds have gotten louder and more frequent. He won't take his medication unless my husband forces it down his throat. He still has a fever, his eyes look so sick, and he just lays there for hours and hours, mostly sleeping, but almost never moving.
When his bloodwork came back, he showed two high enzyme levels that the vet said show liver damage. He talked to an internist, and their best guess at this point is leptospirosis. They ran the test, and the vet said if we're lucky, we might know the results tomorrow. Charlie does have many of the symptoms, but he has been on antibiotics for nearly a week with no improvement at all. Up until yesterday, he showed no signs of kidney problems, but yesterday morning, he had peed all over his crate overnight. And now he pees more frequently, and in really large amounts, much more than usual, even though he's not taking in much fluid. He's also starting to limp with one of his front legs as well.
We just don't know what to do. If it is lepto, it must be really bad, since he's not responding to the antibiotics. And if it's not lepto, what could it be? We never really thought that he was injured, and with the other legs having problems, we're virtually certain the lameness goes along with the illlness. I keep bringing up Lyme disease to the vet, but Charlie has absolutely no history of ticks. Besides, the vet says that his lymph nodes are completely normal and that Charlie would certainly be improving by now from the antibiotics if it were Lyme. He'll go back to the vet in the morning, but we just don't know what we're missing. Does anyone recognize these symptoms? Or has anyone experienced a Cavalier having problems like these?
Thanks so much,
Andrea