Fever

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Ok so my pup got sick again a few days again. He was healed last friday, then a few days a go on Wednesday he got a fever again. The fever won't go down. We tried IV, gave him tolfedine for the fever med. It helps maybe for a few hours and fever is back again (ranging from 39.5C - 40.5C). I thought it was from the botulism creeping up again, so we gave neostigmine shots 2x. He doesn't seem "paralyzed" like he was before so maybe it's from another cause. The vets don't know what's causing it, only some sort of internal infection most likely. Anyone have experience with any of this? I might leave him at the vet for a few days so they can deal with the fever better. It's just unnerving sleeping at night not knowing if the fever will go up to 41C or not and the nearest 24 hour vet is 45 minutes away with no traffic.

[S_B]

Basically by my quick read on those 2 drugs they are just making him comfortable? What are they doing to treat the infection (causing fever)?

If this dog were mine I'd try this first.
http://www.vetbook.org/wiki/dog/inde...=Metronidazole

As well as get him on a good kibble, no more table food and good probiotics. If he still became symptomatic after that I'd put him down. Being constantly sick is no life for a pup.

I hope he recovers Skip, but it looks grim from my perspective.

Good luck,
S_B

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Thanks for the advice. I just messaged the vet about the metronidazole. They don't know the exact cause of the infection so they can't treat it. They're just helping with the symptoms.

It's just frustrating because it's just not clear what causing it. Littermates were all fine, never sick and he was healthy when he was younger. I hope he recovers too, I have such high hopes for him =(.

[S_B]

I sure hope they give him the meds, it certainly can't hurt at this point. I have little trust in most vets these days, a truly good one is hard to find.

I sure hope he pulls through, he's a beauty. Please keep us updated.

S_B

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Thanks S_B.

So they are giving him the metronidazole through IV for 3 days along with doxy for 3 weeks (just in case he has babesia or other blood parasite that's undetected or a false negative on his blood parasite tests). He's looking a lil fresher when I visited him and the fever is down. He's staying there till at least Monday and we'll see from there if he can go home or not. The neostigmine shots are not given anymore because he's already moving better and it's not needed anymore. Waiting on the lab report for his hematology, organ functions, and electrolytes (last time his leucocyte was abnormally high, CPK levels was also super high, and calcium level was a tiny bit low).

[S_B]

That sounds like a good deal on the meds Skip!

I'm very curious where the correlation to possible Babesiosis infection was made? Care to share?

If that is a real suspicion they need to administer a shot of Berenil as well.

S_B

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They said because he has a history of ticks (he got like 1 or 3 when he was like 5 or 6 months but removed 1 right away, ticks were there maybe for only 1 day). After that he never got ticks, consistent tick meds (the drop behind the neck) every month.

Visited him and the fever got up again, sigh. I'm starting to think this is something else than botulism. Previously the fever never got this bad. This time the paralysis wasn't bad but the fever just never came down. Still waiting on the blood work from the lab to be more clear. This is a very strange case even for the vets and the fact that he got the best care possible from us makes it even weirder.

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Ok so bloodwork and electrolyte came back and not looking good. I never know how to resize pics here because the allowed size is too small (150kb or something). Even with a resize site it doesn't work. But the gist is calcium is high at 14.96 (the last time he was sick it was a bit low). Leucocyte is at 33,3 (down from 51,6 when he was sick before this but still way high). Red blood cell is low = 5.23, haemoglobin is low = 11.7, hematocrit is low = 32.8, lymphocyte is high = 6.5, monocyte is high = 1.7, granulocyte is high = 24.6 (but down from 42.1), albumin is slightly low = 2.5, globulin is slightly high = 4.6, alkaline phospatase is high = 313. So yeah they're running a blood parasite check again and giving him something to help reduce the calcium.

So now I don't know, maybe it is botulism or maybe this time it's something else. The fever hasn't gone down but he's still on continuous IV, hopefully it'll come down by tomorrow.

[S_B]

It doesn't sound good Skip but don't give up just yet.

Interesting read: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2942055/

I'm betting the tick is coincidental, but it could have played a role in the dogs weakened immune system. Along with the topical drugs. I say that about topical drugs because what are these chemicals we are trusting to cover all of these things systemically? It just seems we really don't know all of the side effects yet.

However this turns out it's a learning lesson for us all. Please keep the updates coming.

S_B

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So lookin better today. Fever has finally gone down to 38.8C, what a relief. He's still weak and lethargic but definitely moving around more and a lot better compared to yesterday. They're gonna run a PCR test for babesia. I have a feeling it's some sort of a blood parasite or something else other than botulism due to the anaemia. If it is a blood parasite (babesia or other tick borne disease), I'm curious if he has a chronic condition that goes undetected because the last time he has a tick was when he was 6 months old and has consistent tick med every month.