Pancreatitus and still overweight?

[Venus]

Hi all,

Thank you all for this forum. Maybe my registration is somewhat premature, since we are still waiting for the result of the test. But here is our story.

Venus is a gorgeous six-year old shepherd-retriever mix, who lives in the Netherlands. Last year she started to gain weight and lose energy, but it was not so noticeable since her best friend Romeo (shepherd) was battling with arthroses. He passed away suddenly on Christmas day. This seemed to start the downward spiral for Venus.
Despite more walks,, she gained more weight, but at the same time muscles seem to wither slowly. The babysit says he is now walking an old dog, both in looks as well as in energy. From a energetic dog, she can now only walk short distances without sitting down for a rest. She pants at the slightest exercise. Always wants to be in a cool place. She wants to eat everything in sight. She has days that she drinks excessively (and thus pees more) but this alternates.
The belly is the classic potbelly. Unlike the most common hair loss, she simply does not shed any hair any more. And I mean, none. Her hair colour is changing and she is getting curls! From the vet I understand this may occasionally also be an indication.

Blood tests revealed amongst other things a low T4, high bilirubine and positive for leishmania without. clinical signs (she is from Spain).

I told the vet that despite the ravenous appetite, she always suffers after a meal. She tries to stretch herself, licks the floor and you can see she is very uncomfortable, if not in pain. The stool is yellow/green and fatty. A day after the dexamethon was given, this was so much worse. She was totally lethargic, in pain and a green/yellow diarrhoea. I gave her just a little rice in small portions during the day and alerted the vet. She thought it was just a side effect and that if Venus would have chronic pancreatitus, she would be skinny.
Since then I feed her small portions 4/5 times a day, which seems to help.

Has anyone of you have experince with Cushing’s and pancreatitus.

Sorry for the long post, especially since we have no formal diagnosis. But like all of you, we are very anxious!

Warm regards and a paw,
Venus and Letty

[Squirt's Mom]

Hi and welcome to you and your precious baby girl!

I am getting ready to run out the door again but did want to give you a link about leishmaniasis in dogs. MANY of the things you have described *are* signs of that condition so I'm not sure why they are telling you -

leishmania without. clinical signs

To me, there are LOADS of signs and that is what I would be focusing on with all my might - the leishmaiasis to the exclusion of everything else. If her current vet is not up on that disease find one that is asap. The IMS would be a good start in my mind.

One other thing - any time a dog is sick testing for Cushing's should not be done because the stress from the other illness can cause false-positives on the cush tests. So if she had the LDDS or ACTH while this sick I would not trust those results. Her vet should have known better than to test while other illnesses are in play. So DO NOT start any Cushing's treatment based on tests done recently.

I'm glad you found us and look forward to learning more as time passes.

Hugs,
Leslie

https://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions...leishmaniasis#

[molly muffin]

Hello and welcome from me too. Leslie is right, this screams leishmaniasis to me too.

https://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions..._leishmaniasis

This is a link about it. I would pursue finding a specialist with knowledge of leishmaniasis and go from there.