A Major Update

Well, I wish I had better news to report ... the vet dealt us another blow when she came back with the official diagnosis. Major has a fungal infection called Gastrointestinal Pythiosis that is pretty rare and most often fatal.

Here are a couple of links to what it is:

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1554&articleid=345

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/51112.htm

http://www.addl.purdue.edu/newsletters/1999/spring/pythiosis.shtml

I can't say that I am not frustrated that he was not properly diagnosed sooner and that when they had the chance to remove it, they didn't. Now we are looking at more surgery or medicine, neither of which have a very high success rate of getting rid of this aggressive disease.

A couple of excerpts from the above links describe Major and his symptoms perfectly, such as: "is seen most often in the GI tract of young adult dogs, especially Labrador Retrievers"; "Clinical signs include vomiting, weight loss, and anorexia. The weight loss can be severe, but affected dogs usually do not appear systemically ill until late in the disease." ; "particularly around the Gulf Coast region"; "Dogs with gastrointestinal pythiosis often have a history of retrieving objects, such as sticks, from water and then chewing on them; young male retriever-type dogs are particularly at risk. "

I have no doubt that this is what he has now (and it has been confirmed from the fungal stain) ... so now we have to determine the proper course of treatment for Major. A friend of mine from high school, Virginia, is starting her 4th year at A&M vet school and I spoke with her about Major yesterday. She was going to check out a couple of options and report back. At a minimum it was good to have a friend confirm what I had read online and heard from our vet -- at least I trust what she says :)

I will post more as I get more information.