Help! My 5 year old beagle has a mysterious disorder that the vets and specilaits cannot figure out. He is producing a bloody Pleural Effusion in his lung cavity. They have told me to give him rutin, but has had to be tapped twice. They have done tests , x-rays, catscan and more and have not found anything that could be causing it. Has anyone else ever had this happen to their baby. He is fine , otherwise, but when the fluid accumulates he cannot breathe well or smell. I keep telling them, I think he has an allergy, but they don't think that could be causing it. I moved, only a town away, but now he likes to be outside and have alot of trees and grasses, where my other place didn't
Thank you
Buddy747

labman

I can't help much, and it would be quite a coincidence if one of the few people here had a similar problem. Be a good time for Korinai to stop in. She is a vet tech. Too bad he can't enjoy his new home. If you are correct about the allergy, the one thing that might help would be to limit his time outside. On the other hand, it could be something in the new house.

Our house still stunk of the industrial grade urethane we put on our hardwood floor just before bringing Prince home. Prince never liked chemicals. If I spilled a little gasoline on me, he wouldn't come near me. he wanted nothing to do with smokers or ladies wearing too much perfume. Each dog is different, and some are very sensitive to things that do not bother most dogs.

We visited the dog guide school school recently. Thought I would share some of what I learned. One of their veterinarians gave a talk on current hazards. Xylitol, a newer artificial sweetener finding wide use in sugar free gums, is very bad for dogs, see http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=2&aid=75125. The word on grapes and raisins being toxic to dogs has been around for a while, but new findings show some dogs are very sensitive to them, only taking a few to kill them. Her last point was bottle caps. Their sharp edges can cut dogs internally is swallowed. And like many other things, they can block the digestive tract. She had some nice X-rays of dogs that had swallowed all sorts of things. They fish the bottle caps out with a magnet. Other stuff, they have to operate.

mybuddy747

Thank you. I also sent an email and hope you got it. Furniture polish is also poisonous to them

mybuddy747

He is still filling up and have to bring him again to get fluid tapped out. They have no idea what is wrong. 3 vets and 2 specialists. I don't want to have to put him out, but they won't give me medication or anything as they don't have a clue what's causing it

Melinda

Have they done any blood tests? It sounds to me like it's possibly liver trouble, Lepro will attack the liver, heart , kidney's and lungs.

mybuddy747

Yes, Blood tests and urine tests both more than once and did not find lepro.

He has been sick over 2 moths now. It started with vomiting and tarry stool. That cleared up and was on antibiotics for over a month. They also found he went into renal failure, but that has cleared up completely over a month ago.

We though someone may have poisoned him at first, but the vets could not find anything to suggest it. He has had about 18 x-rays, ultrasound and a catscan and they still have found nothing!! I switched from his regular vet, as he said it should just go back to where ever it came from. Well it didn't. He had 1 1/2 liters!!! of fluid taken out the first time. Both lungs were collapsed and so glad I took him to another vet.

He was great for weeks and then had to get it taken out again last Saturday. This time much less .5 liter on the left and .125 on the right.

I have to take him again to get it out. By seeing him you would never know. I try to keep him calm, but he is so active it's almost impossible.

I have read about a creatinine deficiancy causing it, but they said no.

The specialist has no idea either and he was recommended by more than 1 vet. He wants to fuse him with tetrycyckine, but I don't see how he can if he doesn't know where it's coming from. I don't want them to just cut him open if they have no idea what they are looking at. I also read, it seldomly works.

Thanks for your help

flotsam46

I have no answer - except that we have EXACTLY the same problem with our Great Dane. He's had his pleaural cavity tapped three times now - the first time they removed 2.5 litres of (mostly) water. His breathing is very strenuous, hard work, and from being the picture of good health, he can no longer run, never mind his greatest pleasure, swimming.
He's been scanned, x-rayed etc - nothing. Even the Washington University Vetinary School could find nothing wrong - they too suggested Rutin at extremely high doses, which for a short while seemed to help.
Now this gentle giant is back to square one, and I suspect it is only his natural previous strength which is keeping him going. The vets have basically admitted defeat: never seen anything like it, but at least with mybuddy747 we know we're not the only ones.
Therefor, someone MUST KNOW the what and the why: Bubba is a real gentle giant, a great character... but we are slowly losing him.
Does anyone out there have any answers, any treatment? He's now five years old, and had this for about six months. it seems the number of times he can be tapped is potentially limited as scar tisuue will ultimately take its toll, and render healing impossible.
If you ever got any answers, Buddy747, please: let us know - we/he is getting desperate!
Heart is fine, blood tests OK

mybuddy747

Hi, We ended up having to put him down 3 years ago. It still breaks my heart that we never found the cause 11 vets and every test known to man was done. 1 thing is , did you happen to put any flea & tick products on him, or a collar? They thought for a moment he was allergic or poisoned by that. If so take it off and give them a good bath. Please let me know how all goes

flotsam46

Thanks for the prompt reply. We, too, thought we wee going to have to put him down in January, but the wife insisted on one last check while we were at the vets: his breathing had imrpoved... all 11th hour 59th minute stuff. One thing I did notice: it's my feeling that "this" started about eight or nine months ago, when he suddenly didn't want to swim as much as he used: three months later he was at death's door. Since then, a partial recovery, I suppose I could call it, but he also only eats and drinks spasmodically, and has dropped from 165 lbs to 155. No heart problems etc - exactly the same route as you followed. Like your Beagle, he too is still game, though we make things easy for him.

No flea collar, but we do use Avantix - always have done on both of them, with no ill effects, but a good thought.
Thanks for trying - if we ever do find out the what and the why, I'll let you know.

mybuddy747

Great. Thank you. I would love to know. They call it idiopathic as they just don't know. They told us they could do exploratory surgery. Cut him open and see if they saw anything, but I read that there was little chance of a good outcome. We believe he may have been poisoned by a woman . I know how 4 beagles and watch them like a hawk. I would say don't use the advantix on your babe, while they are sick. They have a notation not to. They also told me, it's normally a sign of cancer somewhere, but they didn't find any. Try to limit sugars, as I heard they can make cancer spread , if indeed it is the cause. We thought maybe a stroke, but his heart was fine. His kidneys were going and mysteriously got better. He was getting tapped way to often. At 1st it was a month and it was done to a few days appart.The vet said he was geting better as he went almost a month and then got worse agaiin. I asked them for prednisone as I read it could help some effusions. Ask your vet if they think it could help. Ours had trouble eating and drinking when he filled up too much as it does collapse the lungs and can't breath and eat at the same time. Try giving him something smaller to eat, so the entire esophagus is not filled with food and air can get through. We were giving him tuna , when he had a tough time. He would then get tapped, come home and run around the yard like his old self. He did develope scar tissue, from being tapped and that made some paint to him also. Don't give aspirin or anything like it, as that thins the blood and may bleed more. We also made a bed in our living room and stayed with him, so he didn't attept too many stairs. The other thing I read, was if he had eaten something sharp, it could have made a puncture, though the ultra sound din't find anything