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Very sick mini dachshund need advice thanks

I"m trying to help someone living far away. He has a wire hair mini dachshund who is about...

Posted by Pweebes

I"m trying to help someone living far away. He has a wire hair mini dachshund who is about six and a half years old. Below is his history. Can you give an suggestions what he might be sick with? Thank you.

Doc has been on seizure medication since he was just over 1yr old. He went through a serious medical ordeal where he needed to be put into a medical coma for a few days. As a result of being under for so long he lost his sight and has to take seizure medication.

It all started with a large swollen area on his left side along with a bare spot on the right rear of his back towards the tail. The swollen area had fluid, he broke it open and it was reddish/clear liquid, that area has not healed in 7 weeks. It was first suspected as a spider bite and treated as such. The sores broke out about a week later and progressively got worse to where they are all over his back and sides, neck and hips.

He's been on multiple antibiotics which seem to slow things and heal some sores but not completely. After taking him to my vet 6 times over 5 weeks we agreed he needed to see a specialist. I took him to a specialist about a week and a half ago. They took blood/urine samples all which were normal. They took skin cultures and skin biopsies as well. The cultures came back showing a type of staph infection. The biopsies should be hopefully in this week. They placed him on a different antibiotic and a steroid for inflammation. This seemed to help a little, less itchy and healed some sores. Unfortunately he suffered 2 seizures this week. It could have been a coincidence but they didn't want to take any chances that the new medications were causing them so they asked me to stop his medications. They were also going to give him a new antibiotic due to the results of the skin cultures but again because of the seizures they want to wait for the biopsy results to come back to be sure.

He's holding his own but without an antibiotic the sores are red and bleeding a bit again.

As far as food he's on a special diet due to a genetic liver condition. It's prescription dog food by Hill's, W/D and L/D mixed together. Outside of that I give him some natural soft peanut butter biscuits/treats as well as sweet potato/chicken discs. His appetite is good and he's drinking water as well. His personality is still pretty good all things considered. I just feel bad for him with all the sores and the itching.

The initial area on his left side that was swollen where we thought spider bite which I guess could be any insect really, just figured spider based on where I live and how it looked. That area has never healed at all, it actually opened a small hole which stays open and fluid will leak out from time to time and there are small bumps around it.

They did a skin biopsy on that area as well as some of his sores. But they are keeping the samples separate because that looks different than the rest. Without any vet knowledge my personal feeling is whatever that initial swollen area was is the cause of the sores but that's just my guess. No way to know for sure until the biopsy results are in.

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Posted byPweebes

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