Dogs' sudden weight loss and lethargy

[lewbenson]

Our female dog Chelsea, a mixed German shepard and beagle, 9 years old, suddenly began losing weight about 6 weeks ago. We can see all of her bones. She throws up about twice per week, and she also has diarrrhea occasionally. She often doesn't want to go for a long walk, which is highly unusual for her, and she is generally lethargic.

Our vet examined her and did blood tests twice, but the tests showed only a slight elevation in white cells and a decrease in red cells (anemia). The vet metioned the possibility of intestinal disease. The vet told us to feed her rice mixed with cooked hamburger, which she eats very well, but her weight loss continues. The vet gave us oral antibiotic tablets to give her, but she consistently threw up afterwards.

The vet said she has no obvious lumps or bumps that would indicate a tumor. About 1 year ago, she had a tumor on her front leg that was removed. The tumor was examined and said to be Phase I, meaning the least dangerous type.

The vet can't find anything obviously wrong with her. The vet promised to post Chelsea's case on an Internet forum for vets, and suggested a X-ray to look for tumors, but otherwise seems to have given up looking for the cause of her illness.

Have you ever seen this condition before, and do you recognize what her condition might be? Please help.

[trayi52]

Maybe you just need to find another vet, one that is interested in finding out the problem. If your other vet has given up, sounds like its time to find one that will not give up so easily.

I am sorry I have no other advice for you, except to find another vet. Good luck to you and Chelsea.

Willie

[Albea]

If your vet didn't do a test for thyroid function, find onother one who will.
You could also check the following web sites:
http://www.vetinfo.com/
http://www.petvets.com
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index
Good luck and best wishes for finding an answer to make Chelsea feel better soon.

[3CaniBellisimi]

Hi,

The first symptoms of Canine Lymphoma that my dog Tesoro (a shepherd labrador retriever mix who was 3 years old at the time) presented were weight loss and vomitting. Tesoro was eating like a horse during that time he was losing weight and he was not being fussy about food. He still kept kept losing weight even though I was giving him more food and he was eating it voraciously. He didn't throw up everyday -- maybe once a month so we didn't think he had anything serious. We were really wrong! Tesoro looked healthy, was playing an hour of frisbee daily, and was eating, so who could have dreamed that he had cancer? At the time, I wasn't aware that both German Shepherds and Labrador retriever breeds are susceptible to cancer; I wasn't watching for early signs of cancer other than lumps or something obvious.

Anyway, 6 months later, Tesoro developed a cough that wouldn't go away even though the vet gave antibiotics. After 4 vet visits in one month for that cough, my vet advised me to take him to a famous major veterinary school at an ivy league university about an hour away from my home here in upstate NY to get a chest xray of Tesoro. That xray showed growths in his lungs. Tesoro was admitted to the vet hospital and over the next few days, the vet school ran many tests and they definitively diagnosed him as having stage 5 lymphoma type B (stage 5 means it invaded major functions such as his lungs and his bone marrow).

If Tesoro's cancer had been caught sooner (like those 6 months earlier when it was just weight loss and vomitting), it wouldn't have been nearly as expensive to treat and it wouldn't have had the chance to invade his bone marrow and lungs. Tesoro had a 93% chance of remission with chemo even though he was stage 5 at the time of diagnosis; so I went ahead and took him for 8 months for chemotherapy treatments. It was very expensive. He is presently in remission and is now 4 years of age after having spent several months on chemo. He is happy and he is able to play frisbee with me an hour a day now so it was worth it to me. At times during chemo, he wasn't happy and sometimes it was difficult when he had side effects. Any time I hear a cough out of him, I get upset and am afraid it is coming back. Now I have to be very vigilant of watching him for any signs it is returning.

Although weight loss and lethargy can be symptoms of various illnesses, they are also an early symptom of canine cancer. Since your dog had a cancerous episode before, I would feel very concerned about this possibility if this were my dog.

Just because the dog has no visible exterior lumps -- it doesn't mean that the dog does not have cancer. My dog Tesoro had no lumps whatsoever. The cancer invaded his inner organs and there weren't any lumps. It kind of concerns me that your vet didn't do more tests to rule out cancer on your dog. Tesoro's lymph nodes didn't swell until AFTER he got admitted to to the vet hospital. A dog can have cancer and it can present itself such that the lymph nodes swell after it has massively invaded the dog's systems. That is exactly what happened with Tesoro.

As you know from when your dog had stage 1 cancer, early detection and treatment are so critical to a successful outcome of the situation. If you feel your vet isn't getting to the cause of your dog's symptoms, I agree with the previous poster that you might want to get a second opinion on your dog. Do you have any veterniary schools or veterinary oncologists in your area where you could take your dog for an exam and tests?

I hope my personal experience with Tesoro doesn't upset or frighten you. I thought I should relate my experience because I wish I had pursued the root cause of Tesoro's weight loss and occasionally vomitting more aggressively than I did. Instead, I followed a wait and see outcome and changed his food which is what the vet instructed over the weight loss. I didn't know at the time that weight loss and vomitting are early warning signs of canine cancer and I wish someone had told me that at the time because I would happily have paid for more tests to figure out what was wrong and he wouldn't have had to have gone through so much chemo if this had been caught early.

Best regards,
Anna Lisa

[lv4dogs]

I would get a second opinion asap. Good luck!

[Denyce]

I too would get a second opinion. Just remember....not all Vets got A's.

Denyce

[tatsxxx11]

My thoughts and prayers are with you and dear Chelsea. Unexplained weight loss is so frightening and can be symptomatic of so many conditions. Did the vet do an ultrasound/any xrays at all? I agree with everyone else that a second opinon and a more intensive workup is needed asap. Please check back with us when you can and don't give up hope. {{{HUGS}}}

[SueBelka]

GET ANOTHER VET ASAP

[tatsxxx11]

How's Chelsea doing? I hope you'll check back with us. You and she are in my prayers.

[dragondawg]

You are either up against a metabolic disease such as Addison's, or cancer inducing a condition called cachexia.

The easiest route to go is to ask your current Vet to make a referral to a specialty Vet hospital. While there they will undoubtedly want to run more detailed blood work to check for abnormal metabolic conditions, and an ultrasound to check for possible internal tumors or other diseases of the organs.

[Sudilar]

How is your dog? Any news? Sudden weight loss and lethargy can be liver related or Addison's. I've personally seen those symptoms in both cases.