Allergy symptoms: restlessness, head shaking & throwing up?

[janice7920]

Hello again, I had another thought about my dog that is going in on Monday for. Liver enzyme panel. It appeared that an allergic reaction last Sunday was what drove us to the vet with her last weekend. She had facial swelling, restlessness and had thrown up earlier in that day. We gave Benadryl til Tuesday. Today she threw up in the morning, has done some occasional head shaking and seems restless or agitated, as if she can't get comfortable and keeps getting up from every place she lays down and paces to another room ands back. I am wondering if dogs can have seasonal grass type allergies and if I maybe should have continued longer with the Benadryl after the initial doses. Has anyone had a similar experience? Her face is not swollen at this point and I originally thought she may have reacted to eating pork but I found a blade of grass in this mornings throw up. Thanks for reading.

 

[BarbV]

Hey Janice,

Dawn asked me to contact you and share my experience with my 4.5 year old dog Bacca

(btw - normally I would have found your thread and responded by now, but I've not been online as muchy lately)

So briefly, here is Bacca's history: (I'm attaching links to some Bacca's story below)

One morning we woke up and I immediately noticed that Bacca's left side of his mouth had completely swollen up. He was drooling and having a hard time breathing. Off to emerg we go. They finally take him in and start taking about cancer and all that, but first we'll start with antibiotics and then go back to your vet for full bloodwork

First diagnosis was not cancer, but hypothyroid. This is more common in Shelties than you want to think. After being on meds for awhile and going back for his next bloodwork update, now we start seeing that his ALT and AST counts are way out of whack. At the same time, he has totally rejected his food and won't eat. The vets diagnosed potential liver shunts, but at this point, we are still managing with milk thistle and reduced protein diet.

I changed his food to a more moderate protein diet and all is good for awhile. He's been on Now! Senior for about 2.5 years now and it seems to be a good balance.

That being said, he still has days where is very shaky and other days where he is perfectly normal. Just when I get to witts end, he suddenly recovers and is fine again. He's on a downturn this week.

I've been meaning to buy Dr. Dodd's book forever. I'm ready to do it now.

Here are the links to some of the threads that talk about liver and hypo

http://www.sheltieforums.com/showthread.php?t=3219&highlight=liver

http://www.sheltieforums.com/showthread.php?t=7661&highlight=liver

http://www.sheltieforums.com/showthread.php?t=11363&highlight=liver

http://www.sheltieforums.com/showthread.php?t=13863&highlight=liver

http://www.sheltieforums.com/showthread.php?t=14394&highlight=liver


btw - Bacca's Bilrubin counts have always been the in the normal range. Its his T3, T4s, ALT, AST and Cholesterol that have always been the issue

Hope this helps
Barb

 

[janice7920]

Thank you so much, Barb. I really appreciate the response; I have been worried since Delta's bilirubin and ggt were elevated last week. We were supposed to take her in for a liver panel tomorrow but yesterday afternoon/eve, she starting shaking her head a lot and appearing to itch on the face and was very restless so we ended up back at the ER where they gave her another shot of the anti inflammatory and more Benadryl. So now we will probably have to wait several days for that to clear before we can do the blood panel. There was the one throw up yesterday morning and so far today she is eating ok and keeping it down so far. It's so distressing not knowing the cause. Thank you for all of the valuable information, I sincerely appreciate that you were willing to share.

 

[BarbV]

One thing I should mention is that Bacca's Bilirubin counts are both within normal range.

I'm not sure what to make of that in connection with his Bile Acids and ALT being out of whack.

He was doing really well until this summer when suddenly he started acting weird again. He paces around sometimes and is sometimes really woobbly on his legs.

I've been holding off bringing him in because he went off his meds for awhile and I've only now got him back on. I wanted to be sure to get an accurate reading, so I'm forcing him how to eat his pills twice per day. In a about a month, I'll get him fully tested again and then we'll see.