I have been asking questions about my moms dog (14 yr old shih-tzu) named "Bear". We discovered Friday that his liver was failing, after begging one of the THREE vets that were seeing him to do blood work. His ALK were 2000+, they didn't even register on the test. They spent the first 2 wks that he was sick telling us that it was nothing just seizures, IVD or begining stages of Addisons. We had to fight with them to get them to do bloodwork. We always felt from the beginning that it was something serious, but the vets told us since we weren't the ones with a degree hanging on our wall that we shouldn't worry or second guess them. Sadly, Bear passed away Saturday night. He will be greatly missed by his mommy and family. I just wanted everyone out there to be aware that even though you get a second or third opinion, always follow your heart even if it takes seeing 20 different vets. We went to three different vets and they all told us that it was nothing serious because the first bloodwork that we had done (the second day he was sick) were all normal, but after a lot of internet searching, I have learned that the liver can be fine one day and give out the next. I just wish that Iwe would have followed our hearts more instead of putting our trust in some @#&$ with a degree hanging on his wall. To bad Bear couldn't make it to see a fourth vet, maybe things would have been different.

hi shonna, so sorry to hear about bear.
violet-anne

I am so sorry for you, your mum and family Shonna
Take care
Gina

We would like to THANK YOU for your condolences!! It has been a long battle for us and bear and we tried everything to save him. I guess it was his time to go. We know his other mom will be there waiting to take care of him.....

Thanks,
Judy & Shonna

Shonna
So sorry to read about Bear. Please pass my sympathies to your mum, try not to blame anyone...just remember the good times.

Bear will be happy and running free now at "The Rainbow Bridge."

Sami

Hi Judy and Shonna,

I am so sorry that Bear is gone, but 14 years is a good age for a Shihtzu. He was obviously well loved and cared for throughout his life.

I know you would have liked him with you longer. A year ago August a lost my Moxie, a Yorkie, two months before her 13th birthday. She was the love of my life and I miss her every day.

Until she became very ill she showed absolutely no signs of illness. One evening she had a seizure. I took her to the vet and he ran blood tests. It showed a slightly abnormal reading with her liver, but all the vets agreed it was nothing that would cause a seizure. Two days later she had another seizure, I went back to the vet and was referred to a specialist neurologist. She did a scan of Moxie. She found lumps all over her liver and bladder cancer. Even so, she did not think the seizures were from either condition. The next step would be to do an MRI of Moxie's brain, because at that point it was suspected she likely had a brain tumour. However, their was no point since the cancer was not treatable. By then, Moxie's seizures had become more frequent and she was put on antiseizure medication. She stopped wagging her tail. The last few days before we put her to sleep (saddest day of my life) she was in constant seizure. It was horrible beyond belief to see her suffering. The only thing I regret is not putting her to sleep sooner, to spare her the distress.

Sometimes when a dog is near the end of its natural life span the kindest thing to do is to do nothing and let them go. My husband's friend's father is a vet and he said that when a very old dog has seizures it is almost always a sign that their time has come.

So, be glad that Bear had a wonderful long life and that in the end his suffering was short.

Stacey

shonna

really difficult time for you and I agree when you think there is an emergency there is a lack of agreement with vets. If you pay huge amounts of money for "emergency treatment you will get a consultation" and this isn't a pop at vets, just a personal experience. The emergency vet will sadly just refer you back to your own vet after charging "their fee" which is huge. My pet was the same - died the next day. Although my own vet to be fair told me there was just no hope and duly did the deed. Hard for all. But get several opinions - I always will now.

CG

Four years ago my cat became very ill, paralised, incontinent, high fever etc. All tests came back negative. After much research my money was on Polio (troll had been immunised four months earlier) Vets disagreed. After Four days at vets on drips and meds, I was told that 12 vets had discussed her illness and agreed she should be PTS. She was on the table, paralised and with head tilted at a crazy angle but dragged herself up onto my shoulder with one front leg - purring. With fight like that there was no way! She came home on steroids, unable to maintain body temp, paralised etc. to see if a weekend at home improved things. She started to improve slowly with intensive care and four weeks later she started physio. Two months after that she was given the all clear. Today at 16 years you would never believe she had been so ill. The vet admitted she had learned a lot from this case, and so have I - vets don't have all the answers unfortunately.

Regards
Dill

Sorry to hear about Bear.  I agree about vets.  We knew something was wrong with our 1 yr old Sara.  We took her to 3 vets before she was diagnosed with tetanus.  She is now in intensive care on IV. We don't know if she'll make it.  If the other vets would have recognized the tell-tale signs, we could have started treatment before she got so bad.  Ann

what i want to know is .. we pay enough for out vets fee's if the vets get there jobs wrong isent it about time we started sueing them.im talking recurring problems they fail to bother looking into

I feel strongly enough now about how my one was treated , i feel that they knew what was wrong but treated all her symps as seperate illnesses just to peny pinch.
even when the dog was on its death bed they were saying no no we will take a tooth out.
at the time we was seriously wondering if we should put her to sleep. if we could see it then how come the vet was so dumb. more like they were after more cash!.

unfortunaly nearly 3 yrs have passes and i think its to late to look into these things.but if i had my time again then i would start looking into exactly what was wrong and sorted these so called vets out , after all they take these old folks money and keep penny pinching , knowing there probably lonely dont want to loose there freind and living on a small amount of money. i feel for those people.