My dog has a liver infection, high fever, and won't eat. What to do?

Poor guy. Not every pet with a fever has an infection, so if the antibiotic isn’t working it’s either because there is no infection, the infection is internal, or the antibiotic is not the right kind of antibiotic for the infection. Your pet needs additional testing to sort this out and make sure we are on the right track with treatment. I would start with baseline bloodwork and a urinalysis. Best to take your pet back in to your vet or to another vet for a second opinion here so that we can get a proper diagnosis and tailored treatment based on your pets specific problem. I hope that your pet is able to make a full and speedy recovery soon! Best wishes and take care.

Hello and welcome to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Hepatitis (infection and inflammation of liver) is a very serious condition and is very hard to treat. If there is an internal medicine specialist in the area I would recommend having Nala seen by them. Otherwise I would be talking with your vet about testing for infectious diseases. However, it looks like they have treated her with broad spectrum antibiotics as well as IV fluids. I would recommend continuing treatment. She may need a feeding tube placed to try to keep her protein up during this illness. Unfortunately, with how severe this is, she may or may not pull through it, but the best chance of her making it through is to be aggressive with her treatment. I would suggest continuing to monitor her liver and white cell count, and to have imaging done and possible samples of her liver to try to determine the cause of the infection. Otherwise I would be talking to your vet about the parasites and infections present in your area and get covered with certain antibiotics. The white cells have increased however not that much, and the liver enzymes are actually improving if I can read the dates right from your picture. This is very hopeful. I would continue with antibiotics (IV if you cannot get them in orally), as well as IV fluids and I would think about syringe feeding or placing a feeding tube. Best of luck with Nala, I hope she makes a good recovery.

Hello, sorry to hear about your dog. Its likely that his liver disease needs to be further evaluated to rule out the need for antibiotics or steroids and ensure that his liver disease is not secondary to inflammation in another organ such as his pancreas. I would recommend speaking with your veterinarian about obtaining further information with an abdominal ultrasound and recheck bloodwork. It may be necessary for your dog to obtain more aggressive medical management with hospitalization. Hope this helps and best of luck.

If she is still not eating then you should take her back to the vet for IV fluid therapy. And more diagnostics. Make sure they did bloodwork to check her kidneys. An abdominal X-Ray or ultrasound may help to diagnose the issue as well. If her kidney enzymes are elevated, that can make her nauseous and not want to eat. IV fluids will help to flush the kidneys. There are also special foods that can help with kidney issues like hills K/D food. If the kidney issue is for sure due to an infection, then hopefully the antibiotics will kick in soon. Sometimes it’s good to give cephalexin with another antibiotic like Baytril if it is a severe infection.

A fever this high is usually indicative of a bacterial or viral disease going on. Your veterinarian will need to run some tests to try and determine the cause of the fever. Once the cause is identified the proper antibiotics, antifungals, or antipruritic drugs can be prescribed. The tablet given to your dog is basically a fever reducer but will not treat the cause of the fever. I would recommend taking your dog in for a recheck as soon as you’re able to. The exact cause of the fever cannot be determined without further workup and diagnostics. I hope this helps. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Best of luck.

Poor Baby! I would make sure you have him on a liver supplement and make sure you have consulted with your vet about medications that he needs to be on for his liver issues. I am okay with him eating chicken because eating something is better than nothing at all. I would consider adding in a multi-vitamin to help supplement the other nutrients he isn't getting. If his appetite is continuing to decrease, I would talk to your vet about rechecking his bloodwork to see if he needs any fluids or change in his medications and also getting him on an appetite stimulant. I hope this helps and he starts to feel better soon!

The problem here is to establish the underlying cause of thrombocytopenia (low platelets). Immune-mediated thrombocytopenia is one of the most common causes. This process usually occurs in the spleen although the liver also plays a role. Thrombocytopenia develops as platelet destruction exceeds compensatory production by the bone marrow. Immune-mediated thrombocytopenia can be classified as primary or secondary. Secondary processes can be caused by infective diseases or tumors very commonly. Usually to determine a diagnosis more tests needs to be performed like abdominal ultrasound and chest x rays. Infective diseases like Ehrlichia, Anaplasma spp for example should be ideally evaluated as well. Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum (where you can post pics of the blood tests) or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.