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Does anyone know of bacterial infections that can cause extreme illness with extreme fever within a short period of time that has a 10-12 day incubation time? I say 10-12 day incubation, because we were at a dog show a week and a half before he got sick and I am guessing he may have picked something up from there.
I have a young male dobe, under 2, that went from being his energetic usual self to vomiting once and becoming extremely lethargic and confused within an hour. I took his temp, which was 104.7 and immediately rushed him over to the Universities emergency clinic. Once there, they took his temp again, which had then gone up to 105.7. They did a full work up on him and did a stomach xray, as they food he threw up was his breakfast and it had not been digested. They administered fluids and monitored his temp while waiting for results to come back. His temp slowly began to lower and the results that came back that evening were unremarkable, so they sent us home with a diagnosis of acute gastroenteritis, pending the remaining result which we would get at a follow up with his primary in the morning.
That night I monitored him and checked his temp hourly, around 4:30am his temp had risen to 105.8, which at that time I called the University back and was told to just keep an eye on him and that if his temp reached 106 then to bring him back.
The following morning, I called his primary to express my concern regarding his lingering fever and they noted that the only abnormal result was a low white blood cell count with a slightly elevated number of immature white blood cells. Because of this, she thought that this could be some type of tick born disease and asked us to come in for a SNAP tests, and to put him on antibiotics. Upon getting him to the clinic, the immediately performed the SNAP test followed by checking his temp again, which at this point had now risen to 107.2 according to one thermometer and 106.8 on another. The techs immediately placed an IV and proceeded to administer fluids along with cool packing him while his vet called to the University to let them know we would be returning.
Once his temp was down under 105.5 we headed back over to the University where he was admitted into ICU and spent the following 3 days. Within 8 hours of IV fluid and antibiotic administration, his temp returned to normal and he stabilized, however, he was not out of the woods yet, because his primary did not realize that the low white blood cell count was actually so low it was at a critical state.
Many test, xrays, and ultrasounds later, the only abnormalities found were his white blood cell count and a caudodorsal interstitial pattern in his lungs, comparable to that of allergic bronchitis or the onset of pneumonia. A couple of other things that were noted, but the doctors found to be irrelevant were that the abdominal xray showed a smaller than normal liver, but all of his liver and pancreatic values came back normal, and the chest xray showed left ventricular enlargement, but no murmur or further evidence of heart failure was present.
That being said, the doctors felt the only plausible explanation for his illness was pneumonia, however, I did not think pneumonia had such a sudden onset. And when I say sudden, I mean sudden, as I brought both my dobes to the University the day before my male got sick to get full workups done on them so they could participate in the blood donor program. The results from my males blood work the day before was all within the normal range and comparable to that of my my females blood work.
My boy has been home for a week now and is on the mend, however, his primary vet, the breeder, myself and my network of dobe people are at a loss as to what this was and have a hard time believing the pneumonia could come on so suddenly and be so sever. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated...
I have a young male dobe, under 2, that went from being his energetic usual self to vomiting once and becoming extremely lethargic and confused within an hour. I took his temp, which was 104.7 and immediately rushed him over to the Universities emergency clinic. Once there, they took his temp again, which had then gone up to 105.7. They did a full work up on him and did a stomach xray, as they food he threw up was his breakfast and it had not been digested. They administered fluids and monitored his temp while waiting for results to come back. His temp slowly began to lower and the results that came back that evening were unremarkable, so they sent us home with a diagnosis of acute gastroenteritis, pending the remaining result which we would get at a follow up with his primary in the morning.
That night I monitored him and checked his temp hourly, around 4:30am his temp had risen to 105.8, which at that time I called the University back and was told to just keep an eye on him and that if his temp reached 106 then to bring him back.
The following morning, I called his primary to express my concern regarding his lingering fever and they noted that the only abnormal result was a low white blood cell count with a slightly elevated number of immature white blood cells. Because of this, she thought that this could be some type of tick born disease and asked us to come in for a SNAP tests, and to put him on antibiotics. Upon getting him to the clinic, the immediately performed the SNAP test followed by checking his temp again, which at this point had now risen to 107.2 according to one thermometer and 106.8 on another. The techs immediately placed an IV and proceeded to administer fluids along with cool packing him while his vet called to the University to let them know we would be returning.
Once his temp was down under 105.5 we headed back over to the University where he was admitted into ICU and spent the following 3 days. Within 8 hours of IV fluid and antibiotic administration, his temp returned to normal and he stabilized, however, he was not out of the woods yet, because his primary did not realize that the low white blood cell count was actually so low it was at a critical state.
Many test, xrays, and ultrasounds later, the only abnormalities found were his white blood cell count and a caudodorsal interstitial pattern in his lungs, comparable to that of allergic bronchitis or the onset of pneumonia. A couple of other things that were noted, but the doctors found to be irrelevant were that the abdominal xray showed a smaller than normal liver, but all of his liver and pancreatic values came back normal, and the chest xray showed left ventricular enlargement, but no murmur or further evidence of heart failure was present.
That being said, the doctors felt the only plausible explanation for his illness was pneumonia, however, I did not think pneumonia had such a sudden onset. And when I say sudden, I mean sudden, as I brought both my dobes to the University the day before my male got sick to get full workups done on them so they could participate in the blood donor program. The results from my males blood work the day before was all within the normal range and comparable to that of my my females blood work.
My boy has been home for a week now and is on the mend, however, his primary vet, the breeder, myself and my network of dobe people are at a loss as to what this was and have a hard time believing the pneumonia could come on so suddenly and be so sever. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated...
the only thing that comes to mind is the low WBC, which could mean that whatever infection or virus he has, has been stewing for a while.
