Name: Stripe
Description: Stripe is a silver and black male terrier mix
Age: 11 years

Presenting Complaint: Not eating, Listless, and vomiting.

Physical exam: Stripe was very depressed. He weighed 23.8 pounds( 2 pounds less than 3 months before) and he had a fever of 105.3 degrees (normal for a dog should not be above 102.5 degrees). His gums were pale, and the sound of his lungs through the stethoscope were not normal. Blood work was taken and an x-ray of Stripe was taken. The X-ray showed no abnormalities in the chest. Stripe was given some medicine to bring down the fever and an injection of two antibiotics and sent home for the night pending blood work.

When stripe returned the next morning the owners reported he had vomited again the night before and was still very lethargic. Stripe's temperature was 103.5 degrees. The blood work that had returned revealed and apparent problem with the liver( high ast, alt, alk phos), an apparent infection ( high white blood cell count) and an apparent anemia or low number of red blood cells.

Based on this Stripe was hospitalized and IV fluids were started. Because Srtipe's vomiting was getting worse he was also maintained on injectable antibiotics. Stripe was also scheduled to have an ultrasound examination. This is a test in which sound waves are used to, through a computer, create an image of the animals internal organs. With this technology we were able to see that Stripe's liver was very sick and we were able to take a small piece of the liver to send to the lab for tests without doing surgery.

At the lab doctors were able to specially prepare the small piece of liver we had sent them, and examine it under a microscope. These pathologists reported their findings to us, and it turned out that Stripe had a very severe infection in his liver that was causing parts of the liver to die. This disease is called a suppurative pericholangiohepatitis. In the mean time Stripe was in the hospital receiving IV fluid around the clock, and (because he would not eat on his own) he was being hand fed several times a day. His temperature came down, and gradually over the coarse of a week he began to show signs of improvement. His red blood cell count was increasing and he was gaining weight. So eight days after he had first come to the hospital stripe was released to go home. He, however; was far from out of the woods.

With the help of his very diligent and loving owners, six months of multiple antibiotic therapy, and a steady regimen of acupuncture treatments from Dr. Love we have managed to beat this infection back and seven months later stripe is still doing well.

-Geoff Wisbrock DVM

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