Food Issues

MK's mom · Post by **MK's mom** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 5:47 pm

MK has been skipping meals lately and his KBr is put in his food. Have any of you noticed this with your dogs? We went thru this a week ago and he had diarrhea, now he seems alright and plays, etc. but didn't want to eat this morning and again tonight. Aside from throwing out expensive food and medicine, I dont' know how many doses they can miss before it becomes a problem. I squirted the KBr down his throat once and said I wouldn't do it again because it made him sick.

Vivian

skrpio · Post by **skrpio** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 8:31 pm

Hi Vivian,
I had this problem with KiKi but in her case she did not have the KBr in her food - she just forgot what eating was about and sometimes this went on for days. I eventually had to feed her small bits by hand even putting them in her mouth and making her chew them.I even put very small pieces of salami (her favorite) sprinkled on the top to see if that would tempt her. After a while she seemed to remember what this stuff was for and began to eat by herself again. You could try an egg mixed up with some milk with his meds in.
I noticed to with Brock - he does not eat his food when it is straight out of the refrigerator. If he does he usually throws up after about an hour.
Try to give him his food when it is cooler for him to eat it. I gather it it quite warm over there at the moment cause it is freezing here.

High_Voltage_Head · Post by **High_Voltage_Head** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 10:15 pm

"Quite warm"...it's like the fiery pits of Hell....still beats winter though.

Vivian, I might start to get worried about those symptoms of MK's. The neuro told me that 3 things to watch out for, as far as problems with KBr, are diarrhea, refusing food, and vomiting. Of course any of them can be caused by lots of other things too, so there's some guesswork.

Jackson has acted like he's starving to death for 2+ years now, ever since starting the drugs. It's never gotten any better with time. I would expect him to be at death's door before he ever refused food. But I guess some of the dogs get over that and some don't.

How much KBr is MK on? Jackson was on 2.2ml (550mg) until a week ago and as of today he is off it completely with no bad effects (so far). Isn't the half life of KBr something like 3 weeks? Skipping a day or two shouldn't be any problem I wouldn't think.

I'm not sure what tests the vet would do to determine if MK has a KBr problem. I think (??) the worries are mainly pancreatitis, and then also maybe this megaesophagus thing, especially if you say irish setters are prone to it.

Anyway, as usual, i only know about half of what i'm talking about, but i'd suggest seeing the doctor if this stuff continues.

MK's mom · Post by **MK's mom** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 6:21 am

Thanks Jane and Kurt,

Last week, MK went off his food for a couple of days and had diarrhea, no vomiting and he was very lethargic one of the days. I gave him Pepto Bismol tablets and Pepcid AC, he was fine after that. He started the diarrhea again this morning, so I can't help but wonder what's going on. A friend has a dog that went through the same thing 2 weeks ago and he's NOT an epi dog nor on any medications. Her other dogs and my 2nd dog had no symptoms. This is very puzzling! I have heard that giardia can affect one pet and not another, I do hope that's not what is happening here.

Kurt, I do worry about pancreatitis and am half-tempted to try and wean MK off of the KBr. He gets 6 ml, BID and I'm wondering if it's too much and he would do fine with just Pb. When we tried to wean him off the Pb, that didn't work and he went into terrible cluster seizures. I fear the KBr is irritating his stomach.

Vivian

Carolyn · Post by **Carolyn** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 10:47 am

My non epi, Apache has been off his food since the hot weather set in, but no matter what he still goes crazy for his bedtime milkbone cookie. When the day comes that he don't want that cookie Im running to the er.Kiya couldn't care less about weather, fireworks, thunderstorms. I wish she'd go off her food for a week & loose some fat. You could try spliting the food ration in half.

High_Voltage_Head · Post by **High_Voltage_Head** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 11:07 am

Vivian, i don't know, that's all very complicated, but i have a few thoughts.

First, i wouldn't wean him off the KBr without serious thought and discussion with the vet. That is a ton more KBr than Jackson was on and maybe that's what is working to keep MK's seizures so infrequent. It's just that it never did much for Jackson's seizures, and much smaller doses than yours really seemed to make him very sick within only a few weeks of taking it or increasing the dose. Diarrhea was a huge problem....he had it for 1-2 months this spring, on & off, mostly on.

If MK has been on that dose of KBr for a long time then maybe that isn't the problem. Perhaps the dogs who are going to develop KBr problems have problems right away, or perhaps the problems sometimes develop over a long period of use, i don't know the answer to that but it would be good to find out.

I think giardia is one of those things that's hard to detect and sometimes the vet gives medicine just in case. Jackson took Metronidazole (for giardia too???) during this diarrhea thing and that may have been what finally cured it, not sure.

Also, it's interesting that MK's illness came at the same time as his seizure and i can't help thinking there is some connection there.

Dylans Dad · Post by **Dylans Dad** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 12:17 pm

getting Dylan to eat is not a problem here! even in 90Ã¯Â¿Â½ +
we switched the kbr over to pills. easier to give with a snack instead of a meal. he sure doesnt need many more meals.
read on one of the sites that raw beef liver was a good supplement and have been giving dylan a couple bites a day sence oct. just roll it around the pill and its gone.he had a brief bout with the runs when first started on the meds, vet said give amodium ad. cleared it up and no problem sence.
in 2 days he will be 9 months free.

MK's mom · Post by **MK's mom** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 9:49 am

I took MK to the vet last night and we're going to try flagyl and amoxicyllin first and see how he is. He ate his dinner last night and had a ton of energy, so with those symptoms it's tough to pinpoint what might be going on. I'll have to take a stool sample in to rule out giardia and will do so when MK cooperates?

Finndog · Post by **Finndog** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 12:04 pm

Hey MK, sorry I have been away. In reading the posts, I would have thought it was heat and I would have asked if MK has been drinking a lot of pond or lake water. Let us know how she is doing.