Cool “Signs Symptoms” Images

A few nice signs symptoms images I found:

(12 noon) Andy’s Unknown Illness

Image by timtak
The stomach is sill full of air.

After returning from our local vet, and having seen the air enlarged
stomach I looked up bloat again and there are lots of web sites saying
"get rid of the air quick"
tinyurl.com/8vmwd
www.animalclinic.com/bloat.htm

So I phoned up the local Vet and said, " Why not use a stomach tube?" He said, "well yes, perhaps" and we went to the vets again.

Arriving there he explained that since Andy is a 20 kilo strongish dog,
it would be difficult to put this tube (shows us thickish tube) down Andy’s throat without an anesthetic. And anesthetics tend to depress the movement of the digestive tract counterbalancing the effect of the digestive tract stimulating medicine that we have just given then dog.

So we took another X-ray, this time after making andy drink radium milkshake. The first X-ray did not quite catch the stomach in its entireity (Andy moved) so another one was taken about 10 minutes after andy ate the radium. Both showed, according to the vet, that the stomach while containing air (perhaps very slightly less than the morning) did not seem to be twisted. The second Xray showed that the radium milkshake had in part left the stomach and could be seen inside the intestines. If the
stomach was twisted blocked then this would not happen. So he recommended that we did not attempt to use a tube to remove the air, bearing in mind the negative effect of the anaesthetic that would probably be required.

We are also schedule to take Andy back again very soon when the barium has worked its way through the system to check for other blockages and stuff.

He remarked that the movement of the barium down the oesophagus and from the stomach was slow, and that muscle activity was generally reduced.

This morning he said that there was an outside chance of the serious disease called "myasthenia gravis," which made the muscles of the whole body weaker (bearing in mind perhaps that andy face, legs and guts do not seem to be strong)

However checking the Internet again it says that it is only the voluntary muscles that are effected by MG.
www.akitaclub.org/health/acquiredMG.htm

Aside from the inactive intestines, MG does seem to be appropriate. This description of MG does seem to fit Andy’s symptoms.

CLINICAL SIGNS / SYMPTOMS of Myasthenia Gravis
Symptoms center on muscle weakness affecting the eyes, muscles of facial expression, throat / esophagus (in dogs), and limbs. This translates into early exercise fatigue (in about 60% of patients), megaesophagus, voice change, or difficulty swallowing. There is an acute form which is rapidly progressive and quickly lethal. This form is associated with "thymoma," a tumor of the thymus gland (located in the chest). Because Myasthenia gravis is so common, any dog with general muscle weakness, difficulty swallowing, or megaesophagus should be tested for Myasthenia gravis.