Can anyone offer advice on treating our Akita's swollen hock? long....
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We have a 4 yr old male Akita. Several months ago he came down with an unexplained swollen hock. He had had a minor problem a couple years ago in the same hock but it was after tearing around the yard in excited play, & it went away after a couple days. This time there seemed to be no cause, it was much worse, & it wouldn't get any better. We took him to the vet & the long process began. At first he was put on Rimadyl (100mg, 1tab 2Xday) until his appointment for X-rays a week later. No change in that week. His X-rays showed nothing wrong. Another week after that our Akita was seen by an orthopedic specialist...he couldn't determine the reason through examination & ran a joint tap. Culture & Sensitivity & Cytology were done. When the tests came back about a week later, there was still no obvious cause determined, & he was put on Cephalexin (500mg, 2caps 2Xday, enough to last 1.5 months). About 2 weeks later with still no improvements, the orthopedic specialist speculated the swelling was caused by Auto-immune Disease, although dogs with the disorder tend to have more than one joint affected (& not always the same ones). In addition to the remaining Cephalexin prescription, our Akita was put on a high dose of Prednisone (20mg, 2tabs 2Xday) along with Cimetidine (300mg, 1tab 2Xday) for 2 weeks (the swelling was completely gone within a day or 2), then a lesser amount of Prednisone (1 tab 2Xday) for another week, & was supposed to take the Prednisone at an even lesser amount (1tab 1Xday) for another week, but we had a serious problem...our dog became weak, lethargic, his gut was swollen, he was eating twice as much as usual but was losing a lot of weight. I immediately suspected the medication was having an ill effect & wanted to take him off of them. I took him to the vet, he was examined & blood was drawn for tests. A few hours later the test results came back- our poor Akita's liver enzymes were high, ALT was 1100 when the normal level is around 90! To my relief, the vet allowed us to stop the Prednisone (I would have regardless at that point). Within days of halting the meds, there was dramatic improvement in our dog. He gained his energy back, slowly his abdomen shrank & he began to regain weight. He still needs to go back in to check his liver enzymes to make sure, but I think they will be very much improved. Happy ending right? Unfortunately not. I just noticed today that our Akita's hock is again beginning to swell. Yes, the same one. It doesn't seem to me like your "typical" Auto-immune Disease response, but I am no expert by any means. Anyone have any input? Even if it is AD, he sure can't be put on the same meds he was previously...any suggestions? Please help!
