Last saturday evening our 7 month old Golden Retreiver puppy called Gracie didn't eat her dinner and had a sore eye. The next morning she was still off her food and seemed unwell, so I took her to the vets. She had a very high temp. and the vet gave her an injection to bring her temp. down and also some drops for her eye. She remained subdued but was responsive to us and seemed OK ish. At 12-30am she had the first of 3 fits and we took her to the emergency vet where she had various tests and was put on a glucose drip. The vet was baffled as to what was wrong, but he gave her vitamin jabs, antibiotic jabs and medication to keep her temperature down. He thought she may have become blind. At 8am we collected her (with IV attached) and took her to our vet. She remains in their care this evening, they too are puzzled as to the cause. The illness fits no known profile. She is consious, but is in an very subdued state, her temp. is now normal, breathing is OK. She has no sickness and their best guess is some sort of poisoning, but I think that would produce a gastric upset. They are waiting for bloods to come back, to see if it is Toxoplasmosis or possibly lungworm, but she has such an acute illness that it doesn't seem likely to be that. We are so worried, especially as we don't know what we are dealing with. She remains in a very sorry state. She can't stand up, is hardly responding to anything, she can't even lift her head up from the blanket. She has 2 IV's with glucose and antibiotics and we are desperately hoping she will pull through. Has anyone else had this sort of problem?

Hi Susie

I don't have any ideas of what could be wrong but wanted to offer my support to you at what must be such a worrying time.  If she is no better by morning perhaps your vets should transfer her to a vet hospital.  Davies Vet Specialist in Bedfordshire are excellent - they cost the earth but hopefully your little one will be insured.  Just a thought - they saved one of mine earlier this year and the very best care is available.  I have attached a link for your information.  I really do hope you have better news in the morning.

http://www.vetspecialists.co.uk/

Dogs can also get meningitis, but not sure of the symptoms in dogs.

Sorry to hear of your desparate time,hope Gracie makes a quick full recovery.Thoughts with you.

I am so sorry to hear about your baby. I hope she is well very soon.

I dont have any advice, but i just wanted to wish Gracie better soon, poor baby x

I have just spoken to vet and she says Gracie is slightly better... She ate her dinner and breakfast. Temp is normal and so is respiration, but she appears to have limited sight and is very diorientated. New antibiotics are on order for her and blood test results are due. She has taken the glucose IV off now and we shall have to wait and see if she can recover from this assault on her immune system.

Glad to hear she's showing signs of improvement & I hope you get to find out what's wrong with her.  Maybe you could keep us all updated as it might help owners in the future with the symptoms etc..

Hope Gracie continues to improve. Some virus attack so agressively they are frightening and the high temperature probably caused the fits. Hope the worst is over and Gracie gets better by the day.

Oh Susie I just want to say that I hope your Gracie makes a full and speedy recovery, I'm keeping everything crossed for her xx

Just wishing Gracie well and hope she makes full recovery soon.

Keep us up dated with her progress.

I have been to visit her this afternoon and she recognised my voice! I was so pleased at that. She is still very unwell and is unable to stand but she is (as always) enjoying her food. All her vital signs are normal, but the vet still thinks she may be blind, or partially sighted now. She has always been very healthy and I hope that will get her through this next stage of her recovery. She can hear me so I can cope if she is blind, how grateful we become for small mercies at times like this. She will be staying at the vets for at least a few more days, untill she regains her strength (I hope). My 3 other Goldies miss her too.
The vet is waiting for the toxicolgy reports but now suspects Toxoplasmosis, I am shocked that such a devastating illness could result from this infection, she is still on an IV with a specific antibiotic and we are all hoping for the best.
Thank you for all your kind messages and I will continue to post her progress.
Kind Regards XXX

It's great that she is improving :)

Just been to visit Gracie and she contiues her slow recovery!!! She has been across to the park for a wee with her IV and the blood test results show she has pancreatitis and an inlarged liver. They think that Toxoplasmosis may have caused all the problems. They now think she can see, but may have some sight impairment....That's fine as far as I'm concerned. We just want her home now.

Fantastic news that she's recovering more :) How wonderfull that she managed to get to the park for a wee, bless her :)

A sight impairment is mush better than total blindness :)

I hope she continues to recover so well.

Good news, hope she continues to improve and make a full recovery, keeping everything crossed for Gracie x

Thats good news, glad to hear she is getting a bit better everyday, you, hopefully, will have home very soon.

So pleased to hear she is improving and may she continue to do so.

Gracie is still recovering and may be home today!!! The results of the toxicology test won't be known until next week but she is so much better now. I think she may have some residual problems but she is well enough to live a "normal" live. She will need a special diet for the next few months as she now has pancreatisis and liver changes, but they think she can see!
I am so relived that she has recovered. It looked pretty hopeless on Monday. Thanks again for all your support. X

Glad to hear Gracie is getting better and continues to grow stronger and leads a normal life.

Good luck for the future.

so happy for you

big hug to your baby...:)

Gracie is still getting better. She did not have toxoplasmosis! The results now show that her liver is getting better, still very high levels but better than they were. The vets say it is very unusual for such a slim young dog to get acute pancreatitis out of the blue. We are having to keep her muzzled in the garden as she eats the other dogs poo. She is on Royal Canin low fat food and must not have any fat in her diet. Today she got the muzzle off and before my husband realised she had eaten the other dogs poo again. She has been unwell with diarrearea(??) and has seemed to be in pain again. She is unable to process fat in her diet and of course the other dogs poo must contain some......
She has been out for walks, stays on a lead but seems happy to be out. She will take a long time to fully recover, but the vet assures me that the pancreas is similar to the liver in that it can recover in time.
Does anyone else have a dog with pancreatitis? How do you cope? I would love to compare notes on our dogs.
Regards
Susie

So pleased to hear she is on the mend now

Susie, I have an old girl that collapsed with pancreatitis about 5 years ago.  She has been on pancreatic enzymes ever since.  I don't allow fat in her diet, and she has Hill's ID tinned twice a day (with her Pancrex.)  I do buy the ID dry food, simply so I can give her a biscuit when the rest of the gang have a dog biscuit.  She was desperately ill when this happened, and spent a week in hospital on a drip, with no food and water, to rest the pancreas completely.  I realise that there is a great deal of difference in the ages, but just to assure you that it is liveable.  Misty was 16 in September, and still with me.  Good luck, and a kiss for Gracie.

Hi Susie, yes Floyd has pancreatitus, it was the 10th January last year when he got it at 10 months old, this also bewildered the vet, epecially because he was so young, he was also put on the Royal Canin Low Fat High Digestive, but even when he was on this, he was probably housed in the vets about 4 days out of 2 week periods, incredibly stressful, as he didn't seem to be responding too well, he also had very bad colitis, the vet even told me that if they couldn't settle him on a food, we may even have to consider having him pts.  After about 4 months of not really progressing very much, we opted to have biopsy's done on his pancreas, stomach, intestines (I think he had about 4 different sites that they took from).  The wait for results to come back was a long one, I think you always start imagining the worse. 
The biopsy did come back with IBS (but because he didn't have a bout of pancreatitus at the time of the biopsy the vet did say that the result on this would come back as normal which it did) so they changed his food straight away to Royal Canin Sensitivity Control, he came away with 2 different antibiotics, a human drug to stop his stomach making bile, he was on these for about 2 1/2 weeks, taking something like 12 tablets a day.  But it did the trick, he still gets bouts of it now again, we also have some doggy antiacids that we can give him, because I had been giving him rennie, can be brought on by stress I think as well and also if anything is out of his routine, ie. having breakfast a bit late or tea not at the correct time.  The new vet that we see now, tells us to feed him through his pancreatitus, which the other vet told us not to....   but by tempting him with Salmon or Tuna with mashed potato just to get something into his stomach to give his stomach to work on he is fine.
We can usually tell if he is going to have a turn, this is if he turns his nose up at his breakfast and his stomach starts making the most awful noises so we have to start raiding the goody cupboard.
I have just changed his food, as the RC Sensitivity is a horrendous price, we are now feeding him Wafcol Salmon & Potato so he does have a mainly fish diet, good job he likes fish.
Apologies for the ramble, any other questions, please ask.
Jane

So sorry to hear about your baby.  Pancreatitis actually occurs when animals ingest a large amount of fat or protein.  The pancreas struggles to help the body digest the overload of these products and because enlarged and very angry.  It is also, very painful!!  This disorder is very hard to treat.  Animals do not want to eat because of the pain, and in turn, they become dehydrated and the blood sugar can crash (especially in puppies) this is why I assume she was on a dextrose drip.  What I would like to know is which enzymes are elevated and to what extent.  Was amalyse elevated (this enzyme is a good indicator of pancreatitis). I have never seen an animal with pancreatitis have any difficulty with their sight.  How how was her tempature?  When you say fits I assume you mean seizures, if so how long did they last, and what type?  And by type I mean, was she paddling, or did she become very rigid and stiff.  I am concerned that the sight impairment may have been caused by the high temp.  I can also see where your vet would see a toxin could be involved...sudden onset, multiple organs affected.  The GI upset you are looking for is the lack of appetite, there doesn't always have to be vomiting.  Dogs with pancreatitis should be what is called NPO (no food or water) for at least 24-48 hours just to "calm" the stomach and stop the vomiting if occuring.  Food should be reintroduced slowly with a bland diet to start and animals can usually return to their normal diet after a complete recovery.  As far as the diarrhea, this could be a result of the temperature as well.  Even a slightly elevated temperature can cause the lining of the intestines to slough.  I know this sounds really scary, but it happens and most animals make a recovery from this.  Also the pancreatitis can cause the diarrhea, I tell clients all the time "it has to make its way out the exit"  meaning all the irritation had to make it from the stomach and out the colon.  Also seek a referral to have the eyes looked at by an ophthalmologist, maybe it can give you some insight on what happened with Gracie's eyesight. Feel free to ask me anymore questions, if you have any!