I've just rung the vet and got an emergency appointment at 6.15. My 11 and a half year old Golden has just gone out and there's quite a bit of fresh blood in her poo!!  My poor old girl has an underactive thyroid, is pretty much deaf, is going blind, has really bad arthritis and is on antibiotics for a urinary tract infection.

I'm sooooo scared that they're going to give me bad news.  My girl has seen me through thick and thin and I'm so afraid to lose her!

Has anyone had any experience of this?  She really picked up when we started on the Metacam but the last week or so she's seems to have gone a bit lethargic, as if it's not working any more.

Any advice until I go to the vet would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry for the messy post

Sorry I can't help with this but I hope everything is ok.

Hi

Hope you got on okay at the vet - sorry I saw this a bit late,

May have missed you, not sure what time it is - but the Metacam can cause ulceration\blood in motions - in which case it should be a question of stopping the medication and treating it not sending her over the Bridge just yet. Infections can cause blood there too. Hope all goes OK at the vets.

Thanks for that.  The vet seems to think that all the meds she's on has caused some irritation to the bowel.  He's changed her from Metacam to Tramadol for a week, stopped the Activait (for dementia), but was a bit worried that she had a high temperature despite already being on antibiotics.  He gave her a Zantac jab to settle her tummy too.  Apparently she has nerve damage to her back legs too.

Sorry for posting such a panicky post - she's my first dog so I've never had an oldie before - with so many bits and pieces wrong with her I just worry that anything more wrong with her the vet will say it's time for her to cross the bridge.  I spoke to the vet nurse tonight and she said when the time comes the vet will come to the house if I want them to (and I do).  I want to be prepared, because I know when the time does come I'll go to pieces.

Paula

Paula, dnt worry about panky posts, I know I have sent a few, and know other people have.
I did the same with my old girl. I made sure I knew what was available when the time came, and that was one thing to not worry about as I had already discussed it with the vet.
I used to panic about the slightest thing.
One that Gemma was put on was Previcox. It helped Gemma for a while as she had got immune to Rimadyl. But dont think it is widely used, maybe it is expensive!!!
I hope the things the vet have given her help, I am sure they will :) :)
Lea :)

hope she is feeling better tonight.

I had an oldie who became ill at seven to many probs to list them all he rattled when he walked he was on so much medication he was also on vivitonin which seemed to help by giving him that little spark!
Although we had quite a few visits to the vet thinking it may be the end we had him until he was 15 and a half and it was his old creaky body that gave up on him  in the end, we knew it was his time and are so gratful for all those years we had together.

Ahh bless hope she's feeling better.  I also have an oldie who I thought I was going to lose nearly 2 years ago now, she's 15 next and fighting fit at the moment.

> Sorry for posting such a panicky post - she's my first dog so I've never had an oldie before

Don't ever worry about that!  I have had to have dogs PTS and still panicked in January when my eldest girl went for her annual check up and had blood tests.  I was beside myself, and needed to talk to people who knew how I was feeling.  My girl was 16 last month, and she's still here, but the time will come.  You will find some consolation having people who understand.  I do hope she is okay.  Jean

I've got a poorly oldie at the moment, so I know what you're feeling.

Thanks for your support everyone.  She seems ok this morning, especially as the vets given her some chicken and rice food which she's got to have 3 times a day, which means she gets fed more than the others lol.  We're due to go back to the vets next week, so I'll update you all then.

The only problem with dogs is that they just don't live long enough, I could quite happily have Ellie with me forever :-)

Thanks again

I'm glad it was good news. :-) My dog had tramadol for his back and it kept making him sick, so just watch for that too - I expect they've told you. :-)

these oldies can surprise us ,I have had my share of loosing oldies and a youngester ..loosing a oldie last friday and the youngest Monday but Have got two 14yr olds brother and sister of which the old girl was diaginosed with spondilosas (Hopeless speller)of the spine 6yrs ago,she has been on and off metacam when ever required giving her a break every so often lowering the dosage to nothing so her body doesn`t get use to having it and so far so good,.. so take heart I know we can`t help panicking  how every many years we have had dogs but you are doing every thing for her.
we are all routing for her

Jan

Ahh bless so pleased that things have improved, hope it continues.

We have a 10 year old Golden, about 2 years ago she had an X-Ray on her front right shoulder and early stages of Arthritis was detected this was treated with Metcam, she reacted very badly to Metcam, became horrendously lethargic, vomited bloody mucus and was bleeding from the bowel when passing motions. Another visit to the vet and we were told that some dogs can react badly to Metcam, she was treated with anti-inflamatory's, anti-biotics and some weird chalky looking gunk for her stomach. It took about 2 full weeks to get her right again. She made a full recovery and we would now never allow her to have Metcam again. We care for her mild arthritis with Glucosamine and Chondroitin, Omeaga 3 and Codliver oil. Hope your poor pooch is feeling better soon and to be honest I think it is likely to be the Metcam as your experience mirrors ours

Thanks for that Nicola, it does sound very similar, though Ellie's not being sick. She pooed in the house three times overnight though :-o, which she hasn't done since she was 8 weeks old, poor girl.  Mind you it's probably due to being fed 3 times a day at the mo.  She's still pretty quiet in herself though.  I'll see how she is tomorrow and maybe take her back to the vets to see if she's still got a temperature.

Thanks again for all the support

ps have just thought she'd been on the Metacam for about 3 weeks before this happened, did your dog react straight away?

Tessa became ill within 4 days of starting Metcam, she looked terrible, could barely walk, her eyes went very red and her bottom eye lids dropped so much they looked like those of a blood hound, she would not eat which is unthinkable for a mobile garbage disposal unit Retriever, we had her back at the vets on the 4th day, the jabs etc perked her up a bit within several hours but she did not start eating for a day or so and getting the chalky gunk into her was fun!! When she did get round to eating it was that Hill's Science diet Chicken and Rice stuff that costs an arm and a leg from the vet. She's never had that problem since and for a relatively old girl she still loves to run and play and is a demon at the beach when we go caravanning in Cornwall. We keep her slim to help the old shoulder and the old girl is a trim 28kg, the only problem she has is that she doesn't realise her age and will try to keep up with our 9 year older Border Collie and 2 year old Sheltie and now there's another 2 Sheltie pups to annoy her. Typical Goldie though she has the patience of a saint. Anyway hope yours is feeling a lot better soon.

My eldest Rottie girl (2 1/2) can't have metacam, she was diagnosed with HD at 7 months (despite coming from hipscored lineage). Within a couple of hours of the first dose she was vomiting (all over my newly cleaned carpets). We now have a supply of Zubrin in case of a flare up, but she currently isn't on any pain medication - just GLucosamine, cod liver oil etc. The other 2 have no problems with Metacam. My dogs take more supplements than I do!

Glad it was good news for you, dont worry about the panicy post!!!

Just glad your feeling better now, its such a heartache when things go wrong, but just glad it seems to be on the up!! :)

Just an update: poor Ellie's had a 'dire rear' all week.  Rang the vet, he reckons she might now have an overgrowth of bacteria, so wants her on more antibiotics and on the Hills special diet, even though I've kept her on a light diet all week (I feed raw). She seems a bit subdued but you can see she's still 'herself' in her eyes with the odd playful moment.  We've to stay off the metacam and Activait and on the Tramadol for now.  She's done another runny one in the house overnight and we've just caught her about to do one again just now.

My poor girl - she's had more health problems in the past 3 months than she's had in the whole of her life put together!

Paula

Poor Ellie. :-(

Is she on probiotics as well - can't remember if you said?

I've just seen this post - my golden also got bad ulcers from Metacam. He was very ill; vomiting blood and had to be rushed in and put on an IV drip. He was on the metacam for a few weeks so it wasn't immediate for him - never again.

I hope Ellie improves. Poor girl.

Hi Lori, it sounds like the same sort of thing.  I wish I'd known that the Metacam can cause these sorts of problems :-(

Have been and picked up all her meds this morning, we're going to see if we can get the Tramadol down to twice a day.  She's now on 1500mg of Oxytetracycline a day too for a while to see if that sorts out her tummy problem together with the Hills i/d.  We're back at the vets this week if she's no better by Tuesday.

I hope she improves too, she's still a bit subdued, though I suppose I would be too in her position.

Poor girl. :( I hope she starts feeling better.

Have you ever tried glucosamine/chond supplements for her arthritis? I have a handful of friends that were able to take their dogs off of pain meds or use much less . Milo and I share these. I take 2 for my bad knees and he takes 1 to stave off his.

I know this sounds to simple a solution to work but have you tried Tree Barks Powder http://secure.dorwest.com/prodinfo.asp?number=TB
I personally over the years have heard all the things that your vet has said and everything I tried for one dog did not work.  She ended up ill from the changing of drugs so often that I stopped them all and tried this instead.  After a scoop being put in her food for 2 days she had stopped the excessive squirts.
Their is a dog version and a human version of this.  It acts as a water absorber stopping it for travelling so quickly, giving the dog more time to absorb the nutrients in their food and give the gut a chance to rest.  I personally dont believe a lot of vet drugs work for this type of problem.  I have also tried the human version and that works great too.

Hope she gets better soon

Emma

Have ordered both, thanks for that.  She seems to be 'firming up' a bit today, so fingers crossed.

I know what you mean about the vet drugs, I just feel they're chucking all sorts at us in the hope that something will work!

Just a quick update - We've been back to the vets for a check up and her booster this week.  Her tummy's better but she's started leaking again so have got to do another urine test.  The vet says the nerve damage in her back legs is CDRM so has recommended hydrotherapy which we're going to do - she loves swimming anyway. 

She's on Previcox for the arthritis and so far seems to be ok on that, mind you the metacam was ok at first.

Anyway, she's plodding along quite contentedly at the mo, so we'll just take things one day at a time (thank goodness I bought that Vax!)

Thanks again for all your support, don't know what I'd have done without you :-D

Hi Paula

We have a German Shepherd and he has just been diagnosed with CDRM (he's 8).  How is your Golden?  We have a Golden too. 

I have 2 gsds as well!

Ellie is having good days and bad at the mo.  Yesterday she seemed to be in a lot of pain and spent all day sleeping.  Today she's full of the joys of spring!!  Obviously we can still see the effects of the CDRM even when she's feeling good but we're just taking the lead from her.  We were going to take her to her favourite place in the world today (the Millpond at Lyme Park) but unfortunately I've been laid up with a virus (am typing this from bed! Dogs do seem to manage illness better than us!), so it's going to be on New Years Day now I think depending on how she is.

I think if she was younger and only had the cdrm I'd look into those cart thingys you can get but given her age and her arthritis and dementia, I don't feel that it's an option for her.  How is your GSD otherwise? 

Hi Paula

He seems to have deteriorated very very quickly.  We took him out yesterday and he tried to keep up with our Golden - it was a dreadful sight.  He kept tripping and falling over.  We cut the walk short and went home.  He seems much much worse than he was a week ago even.  He doesn't seem to be in any pain and is, apart from looking like he isn't sure what his back leg is doing, his normal self.  It's pretty heartbreaking and I just feel astonished at how quickly he seems to be getting worse. 

Hope you are feeling better soon?!

That's the problem with cdrm, you just can't tell how quickly or slowly it will progress.  We really noticed with Ellie last summer, we took her to the beach and her back legs seemed to be criss-crossing so really hers seems to have gone worse more slowly than your boy, though she is finding more and more difficult to get up now, though this may be as much due to the arthritis as we've had to stop the anti-inflammatories for now.  According to our vet the cdrm doesn't cause her any pain, she just can't use her legs, though I feel that she worries about it and that causes her as much stress.

What lines is your boy from?  I'm just interested because I'm 'into' gsds, I'm not asking because it has anything to do with the cdrm, because I have no idea if it comes from certain lines or not (pm me if you prefer).

Maybe it's just because you're more aware of the problem that it seems worse?  I know what you mean about it being heartbreaking, I feel like I'm watching my poor girl fade away from the giddy young thing she was.