Iron Supplements?

[eyelikerancid]

I have an approximately 4 year old male Great Dane, Apollo, who just underwent some major surgery last night; he had a splenic torsion and had to have his entire spleen and some of his mesentery removed. When I first got him about two years ago, I had the vet perform a gastropexy (for those of you who might not know, it's a procedure where the

Comments

[eyelikerancid]

It was pretty worrisome! It just happened so quickly, I didn't have time to get really worked up over it (which was good) In the morning, I noticed he looked funny-- not "close to death funny" just not feeling well funny; checked on him at lunch and it was worrisome enough to take back to work with me (pale gums, slow CRT), did xrays, saw the huge spleen and he was in surgery about 2 hours later. Crazy.

Removing the spleen (it had twisted on its axis 5 times)



Spleen out...



And happy Apollo, a couple weeks ago

[meig]

Wow! Any ideas on cause?

[eyelikerancid]

Nope. Vets said it was really unusual for this since usually it's the stomach bloating & twisting that makes the spleen twist. Just breed disposition, being deep chested was their best guess. They were impressed that he was still walking around with how bad it was... I still can't believe it, either. I am so, so glad I checked on him at lunchtime. I almost didn't because I was expecting my husband to be home around then; I don't think he would have noticed the gums/CRT at all and it might have been too late to do much for Apollo by the time I got off work.

[ajb92504]

Wow, glad he is doing ok!

[veracosa]

Whoa, momma! That is an angry spleen!

*standard you-need-to-talk-to-your-vet disclaimer is right here*

As far as iron supplements, I have never heard a vet specifically recommend it.
Looking it up, I think you could supplement: use any of the "ferrous x" types (ferrous sulfate, ferric chloride, etc) but don't use iron oxide as it is not really biologically available. One issue with possible over-supplementation of iron is that it antagonizes some other minerals like zinc and copper. You could do "natural" supplementation by cooking some extras for him, like organ meats (beef liver, spleen).

I know the body likes to hang onto iron, keeping it bound with plasma proteins like ferritin. So I guess long-term you will want to keep an eye on liver function and plasma protein levels.

Oh and in that last picture, I just wanna tickle that belly!

[eyelikerancid]

Oh yes, as I said above I will definitely be talking to the vet before starting anything other than what he's all ready told me. Thank you for your suggestions! I bet he'd love it if I cooked liver for him :)