At only 3.5 years old. He has had inflamation in all of his joints since about March that has been getting progresivly worse and he also has been losing weight even though I have uped his food so much he should weight 150lbs.....
I have been working with my local vet for a while on this. She did everything and every test, x-ray, etc possible but found no cause($2000 in tests). Tried him on Rimadyl but he had absolutly no improvement. This has been a drawn out process....
He has gotten progressivly worse and I brought him to Cornell University ( top vet school ) on Monday as my vet could not figure it out and he has pain even walking, getting up, etc.
Cornell vets said he has pain in every joint and he only weighs 56lbs right now.....thats 14 lbs of weight he lost in a few months.....he was 70lbs or better.
They kept him the day and did an ultrasound on his abdomen, joint taps for fluid, and blood screen again and titer test for various tick born diseases.
Well $700 later the news is no better. The closest diagnosis is that it's polyarthritis caused by an auto immune response that is caused by an unknown chronic disease. The immune system attacking itself is causing vasculitis where the blood vessels around his joints in particular are leaking fluid into the joints causing the inflamation. The RBC count was even lower than just 2 months ago. They found many different types of WBC's in the joint(synovial) fluid.
The progressive weight loss cause is unknown. They found nothing abnormal in the ultrasound.

This is the hardest thing I ever had to do. Justice went fast and happy and I was holding him during it all. I kept it kinda together until he went under..tried to be strong with good thoughts for him....but lost it after that. He was an amazing dog and even tried to please me despite the pain. The heart was there....Man I loved him so much....he will always be in my heart. This is hard for me to write this.

I wanted to list his symptoms and such in hopes that the information may help someone sometime.
I didnt do yearly vaccinations as I dont believe in them but it is believed that autoimmune responses can be caused by doing so. It makes sense...

Pat

Patrick, I am so sorry for your lose...it is a most difficult decision to make. I know you did the right thing. He will be waiting for you at the rainbow bridge.

Regards, Debbie

Focus on this, if you can: You gave your good friend a blessed gift: The gift of a painless passing with his friend at his side.

The grief can be pretty overwhelming, and you need to go through it the way only you can know .. please don't let anyone say that you should "get over it" or "look on the bright side" -- you will start to remember the joys of having Justice in your life, in your own time, and those memories will start to predominate.........in your own time. There's no "right" way to grieve and there's no "right" schedule.

Also, there is never any question for me of "replacing" a dog -- there's no such thing -- but it has always helped me immeasurably to honor the friend who's gone by opening my home to another dog who needs me. (I know it's a personal thing.....just saying what helps me. I lost two dogs in November, both at least 12 years old, and I'm just starting now not to cry every day. It was a GREAT help when I rescued again in January, though.)

I am so sorry for your loss...it sounds like Justice was a wonderful dog...and it's good that he is no longer in pain...

(((hug)))

Hey Pat,
From the few private emails we've had, I know how much you loved Justice. It was the hardest yet kindest thing you could've done for him. You let him go out with dignity, rather than letting him suffer. Feeling for you, bud. Take care and remember the good times.

Pat,

So sorry to hear about your dog <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />. I had to put my female down suddenly in February. It was also one of the hardest things that I have ever done. It sounds like you made the best decision for Justice. It's never easy though....

Thanks Mike and thanks to everyone. Supporting and kind words are always nice to hear.


Pat