Something creepy coming out of my dog

1607 Views 8 Replies 7 Participants Last post by benca1, Sep 12, 2016

benca1

Discussion Starter · Aug 31, 2016

For the past year there has been something suspect coming out with my dogs stools. The vets have not been able to identify whatever it is.

It basically looks like the stools are sprinkled with a fine granule. Its very tiny but it is all OVER and IN the stools. It shows up about 3/4ths of the time. The only time it seemed to be absent for a period was during a prazi treatment and about 3 days after. But it came back long before a TW could have fully regenerated. On the 4th day after the treatment, it was back.

At first I thought maybe whipworm egg packets but its in the stool and not just on the outside. I have tried to take photos but they have not turned out well. I did look at them at 25X but not strong enough to distinguish anything.

She has had GI issues off and on for the past year and recently a GI bleed and I would sure like to know if these tiny little bumps in the stools have contributed to that.

Thanks so much

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benca1

Discussion Starter · #6 · Sep 2, 2016

Yes the Vets have done in house diagnostics on the stools. Nothing ever came back except that one time when the float test timed out, the Vet had to go do something and came back 20 minutes after it timed out and some things had floated. The Vet described them as microscopic larvae with cocoons wrapped around them. The Vet had a book of known parasites & amebas and there was nothing that was even close on a side by side.

There has been nothing other than her regular food for intake but we have been looking into seeing if she can tolerate a diet change. We had one diet failure a couple weeks ago that exacerbated a GI bleed.

I already checked it with a field microscope and not enough power. May try to snap a pic with the digital microscope and send it to a parasitologist.

Thanks everyone for your replies

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benca1

Discussion Starter · #9 · Sep 12, 2016

Yes, they have sent fecal samples to a lab, however, I don't think they pushed to find out what the larvae / cocoon the vet seen earlier this year was.

The problems are compounded and they take too long to find out all of this stuff as far as I am concerned.

But I am working to find out;

1. What that larvae / cocoon was and if its still there. Vet thought it may have been contaminated dry food but unlikely as she was on RC dry veg at the time and they kill all organisms by how they package their dry food. Unless the bag had a hole but that was tested and there was no leaks in the bag.

2. Clearing up a GI bleed. Could be stomach, small intestine, and possibly large intestine. Some of the blood was dry flecks but some was wet sticky flecks. The lab said there was a significant amount of blood. No kidding, why I took her in a few weeks ago to begin with.

3. Finding the root causes of the GI bleeds. One could be her steroid usage but its at a acceptable level for the past 3 months. Her Mycophenolate was contributing to her GI bleed and that has been discontinued. She could have a diseased GI tract. And its possible she could have whipworms but the vet tested and found no eggs but I don't think they can call that 100% with one Antech test. Because of her lupus and hypersensitivity, we have to be careful treating for things unless we have good evidence.

4. And finally if we can get her GI tract back in better shape. Using Sucralfate slurry and Tagamet treatments. We then may be able to try to work on a diet change. And thats if she does not have a lupus flare in the meantime since we had to discontinue the Mycoph.

Its a lot for this little 14 pound dog to deal with, that's for sure. Her lupus really bites!

Has anyone had a dog with whipworms? I know all of the signs and symptoms but it would be good to hear from someone experiencing that first hand.

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