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- New Thread-Frankenstein
Hello Ladies,
We are now dealing with a fungal issue on Frank’s tongue. The vet dropped his pred to 15mg in order for him to fight it. She gave me some antibiotics as well (I don’t get why she gave me antibiotics-low dose- since this is a fungus we are dealing with). However, the tongue infection looks like thrush and I have been giving him coconut oil and probiotics in his food. It looks better, but he keeps rubbing or scratching it with his teeth. Ice has been helping, but he hasn’t been drinking as much water.
Yesterday his PCV was 36% and his body temperatures has been fluctuating between 101 to 103.5 F. Today in the morning it was 101.3.
The vet would like to wait a week in order for the other vet to do a biopsy of the tongue. However, they told me that they would have to stitch it up since they don’t have a laser. This puts me off, because he will just be aggravating the tongue and it will cause more damage. I am so frustrated! On top of that, they want us to pay money that they know we don’t have.
Has anyone dealt with this issue before?
Oh, and they did a blood culture back on September 2. So far, that it pending because they haven’t seen any bacteria growth. They thought he had a systemic blood infection. So, that cost me $300 USD that I don’t have!
Do you think it would be too much to get him some pain medication? Maybe so that he would stop chewing/rubbing his tongue on his teeth? If yes, what kind do you think would be okay to give? I can keep trying to numb the tongue with ice, but I can see he is uncomfortable.
With much furry love,
Wendy and Frankenstein “Frank”
Wendy,
Oh dear, this sounds frustrating for you. Can you take a very very good picture of this and upload it on the right side of the forum where it says Upload Your Photo, browse, Give Your Photo a Title.
Can you tell me what other medications besides prednisone Frank is on? I am thinking cyclosporine, but want to check with your first.
Also, tell me if you have ever seen allergy symptoms in Frank, goopy eyes, biting or nibbling legs, paws etc? Do you feed kibble? He may have allergies that are contributing to this. Dogs cannot digest grains (all kinds), soy, corn. Many dogs can become allergic to beef, chicken at a minimum. Allergic dogs can have all kinds of skin and mucous reactions. And, also, any dog taking prednisone is actually constantly dehydrated, even if they drink tons of water, so this could just be a dry mouth symptom.
So for now, get me a picture. And if you are feeding kibble with grains, try making his food for few days. You can try the Dr.Dodds liver cleansing diet which should really decrease the chances of any food allergies.
Go to this page:
https://www.secondchanceaihadogs.com/nutrition-resources/
and click on Dr. Dodds picture. This will open a pdf of the diet. If you want to print it, expand it with the arrow on the upper right and then in the pdf click the picture of the printer. This will open it in a pdf window for printing.
If you have any questions about the diet, be sure to ask us!
I would not do any more explorations of testing with your vet. This appears not to be dangerous to him, correct? So it’s not an emergency?
my best
patrice
Hello Wendy, I am exploring new diet options for Dean and I read that you add coconut oil to Frank’s food. What is this for? Also, concerning cost, Dean was recently approved for funding through the “Pet Fund”. They aren’t able to provide money for emergency procedures and even after getting approved, there is a waiting period for the funds to actually come in. They send this money directly to your vet as a credit on your account. It isn’t the best solution, in my opinion, but since this requires long-term expensive treatment, it is better than nothing. http://www.thepetfund.com
Frank was on a kibble (high protein) and Dr. Dodds diet. However, I think he was having a reaction to the white potatoes, so we changed him over to the sweet potatoes.
Medications he is on at this time (some we had to stop because of this fungal thing):
Famotidine (1 1/2), Prednisone (15mg for the whole day), Clidamycin (150 mg 2 times a day-spelling?) , Tramadol for pain (2 per day), Aspirin (1/4-once a day), and Atopica (1 a day-100mg).
She wanted to stop the Thyro med for the moment, she added the following: Milk Thistle with SAM-e, Coconut oil (3 times a day), Probiotics (twice a day).
I’ll be cleaning his teeth later on today so I’ll see if he will let me get pictures of his tongue. I have one that I took about a week ago, so I’ll upload that one.
And they are not treating it as an emergency I think its the fact that he is rubbing/chewing on it since it is probably itchy/painful and he has started to remove some skin. They would like to remove some of the excess skin that he has destroyed and use it for a biopsy. I am just hoping that by adding the good bacteria in his tummy that he lost while being on antibiotics that his body will just heal at its own rate. He has an appointment on Thursday, so I am hoping that with cleaning the tongue and icing it, it will help it.
I have seen improvement in his tongue, but with the chewing it looks worse than what it is.
Wendy and Frank
Amber,
Coconut oil has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. It also helps regulate thyroid issues. I myself use coconut oil for my thyroid issues. When possibly, I like to add natural foods to my dogs diet. My other dog, who has beginning stages of arthritis, we use a turmuric paste that has worked wonders. She seems like a whole different dog. We adopted her at 8 years old, she is now ten and walks and jumps (even though we tell her not too) all the time.
I have contacted petfund before, but they had turned me down. I make too much money according to them. They didn’t take into account that I help my sick parents pay their bills and leaves me will little wiggle room for my paychecks. : ( I even told them that I could be able to show them what I pay for my parents, but they weren’t having any of it.
Wendy and Frank
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