I am happy to be on the Leerburg website which was referred by a friend, to me.
I need some help and comments/suggestions re my male GSD. I purchased him in August overseas and he seemed fine...around December 2010, my other female, 2 1/2, was deteriorating...he was very close with her, so I thought many of the things he was doing and how he was acting were due to her...in January/February, after she passed away (feb 4th) and yes, she was very sick, ie...DM, microcardia, IBD, and so much more, he got worse. I know a dog will feel stress, as his "pack" was disrupted, but he started to get reactions to every food he ate. I took him to a local holistic specialist and ran a slew of allergy tests...nothing too terrible, but they did exist.
Note that this dog, when I got him, had a roundworm infestation of a 4> and Giardia as well, which was treated. It took a while, but they did not make any attempt to reimburse me. He has not been the same...issues with his bowels, etc. He was just diagnosed with a II out of VI murmur as well...I called breeder and he said it was not genetic, and that none of his littermates had any heart issues. He wanted me to ship the dog to someone else in the USA, and not back to Czech Republic, and he would give me a new puppy but I still had to pay for the shipping of the new pup. I got disgusted with him at this point, and I felt that I needed to get this dog MORE help, not that I didn't. I did it all, echo, ultrasound, barium. I have not scoped him as I tried another vet and he said he felt that his cortisol(sp) levels were off...but the was 13.1 for EPI, all tests were done, nothing really standing out with my boy...he's way too young to have to go through this. If the new tests do reveal Cushings, what would his prognosis be, and would he suffer? I had a dog with EPI, but maintainable...the last GSD I had died not even hitting her 2 1/2 birthday, and we are still grieving...now I have my boy, who's an amazing dog, and now all he does is not respond to any foods...he always has the runs, a murmur, and now, more issues. Has anyone experienced this in this Breed? I also have another dog which I just bought, a Bongo Vikar daughter, sold black female, but she is a mix of many lines, Czech, W and E German, etc., and so far, is OK, or is it too soon to "tell" if she is OK? Everyone said "never go site unseen" but the female I just lost, was SEEN! and purchased in the state of CT...I love this boy very much, and a ton of PPD is on him now, and he is my guide and best friend. Not sure what to do, what other tests to run (if any), and if so, now what? Can he be maintained IF a diagnosis (hormonal) is labeled on him? How long will he live and will his murmur get worse? I am livid, as the first vet I had said he heard an echo, but it was because the dog had a high level of roundworm infestation, and that was causing the echo in the heart, he said it was not a Murmur. A mess, please, I'm open to ANYTHING here, and private messages or private emails...I really could use some help, opinions here...thanks so much.
vhk_inc@yahoo.com