Of the entire 2008 season of American Idol, there was one moment that stood out as the very best. Enjoy.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
Sophie is Hopped Up
Sophie is doing better and better in terms of her energy returning. She is running around like she is four years old. She is back to playing ball with me on walks, she is increasing her number of throws when she goes to the park, her speed has picked up. We are very hopeful that much of this remains when we start to dial back her medications.
We are really enjoying this return to the "Good Ole Sophie". The only drawbacks are she is obsessed with eating dirt, and she isn't interested in napping. Because of this combination, we can't let her hang out in the yard by herself. We read online that eating dirt is a symptom of low blood iron. We'll get the vet's opinion about this on Wednesday.
We are really enjoying this return to the "Good Ole Sophie". The only drawbacks are she is obsessed with eating dirt, and she isn't interested in napping. Because of this combination, we can't let her hang out in the yard by herself. We read online that eating dirt is a symptom of low blood iron. We'll get the vet's opinion about this on Wednesday.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Stitches, Smitches
Joey has been feeling GREAT the past 2 days. Ever since the last vet appointment, when she had some of the fluid drained off, she has been reabsorbing just as fast as a little labra can. Last night and this morning she was doing doughnuts in the computer room and racing around the house with her pheasant.
She was scheduled this morning for a resuture. That was going to be a quick procedure, but still she would have to be put under and be at the vet all day. First of all, she broke my heart when we arrived at the vet and she wouldn't come out of the car. I climbed in the back seat with her, just to talk and the poor little tyke was trembling. I finally had to pick her up and climb out of the car with her. We left her at the vet with a hug and a kiss and her Bite Not collar.
Well the vet called just as we were finishing up with Sophie's appointment (good news!) to let us know that Joey was cleared to come home! Dr. Blount said that she rechecked the abdomen and concluded that the indentation she felt was not a tear in the internal stitches, but rather remaining inflammation. She had two other vets check too and they all independently came to the same conclusion.
Instead of surgery, Joey got a pedicure. Fair trade.
She was scheduled this morning for a resuture. That was going to be a quick procedure, but still she would have to be put under and be at the vet all day. First of all, she broke my heart when we arrived at the vet and she wouldn't come out of the car. I climbed in the back seat with her, just to talk and the poor little tyke was trembling. I finally had to pick her up and climb out of the car with her. We left her at the vet with a hug and a kiss and her Bite Not collar.
Well the vet called just as we were finishing up with Sophie's appointment (good news!) to let us know that Joey was cleared to come home! Dr. Blount said that she rechecked the abdomen and concluded that the indentation she felt was not a tear in the internal stitches, but rather remaining inflammation. She had two other vets check too and they all independently came to the same conclusion.
Instead of surgery, Joey got a pedicure. Fair trade.
RBC is Up
Sophie had a vet appointment this morning to be reassessed. She gave some blood and had her vitals checked. Her heart rate is good, her weight is good her pulse is good. The in house RBC showed that she is up to 27% from 15%!!! 30% is considered normal so she is nearly there. They send the blood out for a more accurate and complete reading. We will know those results this afternoon and that will determine our course of treatment. It seems as though we will stay the course for the next two weeks anyway.
In terms of how she is acting, she is sooooo much better. She is getting all of her adjectives back. She is hungry, interested, playful, and sweet. She is still slow on walks, but I'm not so sure that isn't due to boredom with walking the same old routes for 9 years. It is so nice to have her back.
In terms of how she is acting, she is sooooo much better. She is getting all of her adjectives back. She is hungry, interested, playful, and sweet. She is still slow on walks, but I'm not so sure that isn't due to boredom with walking the same old routes for 9 years. It is so nice to have her back.
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Joey is Full of... Fluid
Joey just came back from a trip to the vet. She is much improved over yesterday. She is much more comfortable and less... fluid. Her incision from her spaying leaked a bit last night and this morning. Clear, no infection.
The vet was very impressed with Joey's ability to create fluid in vast quantities. Joey has always excelled at everything she attempts you know. The vet poked around Joey's tummy and feels that Joey may have torn her internal stitches (I learned there are three layers) and she wants to play it safe by going back in to re-stitch her.
So, Joey goes back in on Tuesday. Then, yes, I have to try to figure out how to keep her inactive for yet another 5 days. Our vet was very nice to me by telling me several times this was not my fault - that a birthday trip to the beach 8 days after surgery should have been absolutely fine. This was dumb luck.
The vet was very impressed with Joey's ability to create fluid in vast quantities. Joey has always excelled at everything she attempts you know. The vet poked around Joey's tummy and feels that Joey may have torn her internal stitches (I learned there are three layers) and she wants to play it safe by going back in to re-stitch her.
So, Joey goes back in on Tuesday. Then, yes, I have to try to figure out how to keep her inactive for yet another 5 days. Our vet was very nice to me by telling me several times this was not my fault - that a birthday trip to the beach 8 days after surgery should have been absolutely fine. This was dumb luck.
Sophie is Home!
Sophie is home! She is in no way out of the woods, and she is pretty wiped out, but the doctor said she was happy with how the lab work came back. Sophie is producing her own red blood cells, and in great number. I was told that she ate a nice breakfast, so I'm hoping she will eat her dinner. She is napping on the cool tile floor now. She goes back in on Tuesday for more lab work and a vet recheck.
We'll be learning a lot about AIHA in the next weeks and months. We've already learned that Sophie can never be vaccinate again for anything. That is going to make travel tricky if not impossible without her. She can't stay in a kennel if she can't be vaccinated and as of yet, Joey doesn't know what to do with my parents cats (of course that is making a huge assumption my parents would take care of my dogs.)
She is on prednisone (40mg/day), azathioprine (50mg for 3 days, then off 4), and prilosec OTC (20mg/day). The goal is to get her stable, get a normal red blood count (and other lab values) then cut back on the prednisone and hopefully get her off it completely. Keep your fingers crossed for her!
We'll be learning a lot about AIHA in the next weeks and months. We've already learned that Sophie can never be vaccinate again for anything. That is going to make travel tricky if not impossible without her. She can't stay in a kennel if she can't be vaccinated and as of yet, Joey doesn't know what to do with my parents cats (of course that is making a huge assumption my parents would take care of my dogs.)
She is on prednisone (40mg/day), azathioprine (50mg for 3 days, then off 4), and prilosec OTC (20mg/day). The goal is to get her stable, get a normal red blood count (and other lab values) then cut back on the prednisone and hopefully get her off it completely. Keep your fingers crossed for her!
Friday, May 02, 2008
Sophie is Anemic
If you know Sophie, you know her to be fun, playful, ravenous, and energetic. Well, this week she took a nose dive. Each day she lost an adjective. She lost her energy, she lost her interest in games, she lost her prankster side and finally she refused to eat. I can tell you there is nothing sadder than a Labrador that has lost her wag, nor anything more terrifying than a Labrador who won't eat.
I made an appointment for Sophie to see her regular vet on Friday. She continued to decline so I thought I should take her in for lab work before her appointment so we could move more quickly toward a treatment. The vet took her in the back to take the blood and urine samples and when they returned her to me the vet (not her regular vet) came out to look at her gums. The lab tech reported that Sophie's gums were pale, and the doctor was coming to check it out. She said they were quite pale and then told the tech to run a portion of the CBC in house so we could get some of the results more quickly.
What she found is that Sophie was very anemic. This isn't the same thing as being human and being anemic, it is much deadlier in dogs. It is WAY more serious than just taking some iron supplements. Her values indicated she was somewhat close to needing a blood transfusion. Yeah, I felt nauseous too. We took an x-ray of her so we could have a better picture. We talked with the vet for a while about what this means. It could mean: she was bleeding internally; she was bleeding into a tumor, her immune system was killing her red blood cells; the list goes on and it is merely shades of bad.
The vet recommends we take her for an ultrasound - it gives a better picture and more information. Hopefully that would show us if there was bleeding or a tumor or some other abnormality. We scheduled the appointment for Friday.
Friday morning was more of the same in terms of Sophie's behavior. She wants to go on walks, but she has a hard time walking. She wants to swim, but she has a hard time shaking off. She still doesn't want to eat. That is the scariest part.
We took her to VMS in San Mateo (they are phenomenal there), meet with the vet there and get the ultrasound done. The remainder of the lab work was complete and now we can diagnose and treat. The good news is she has regenerating anemia (Autoimmune Hemolypitic Anemia, or AIHA) caused by her immune system attacking her her blood cells. Now that doesn't sound like good news but it gives more hope than a bleeding tumor. And her blood work showed that she was already starting to fight this on her own... she just needs help.
So, Sophie is spending the night at VMS. She has a nice fluffy bed and an IV and the same nurse and vet that talked with us are on shift this weekend (happy coincidence). She is going to be treated aggressively with IgG Gamma Gard, and prednisone and another medication that protects her GI tract (which has a tendency to bleed in anemic patients during this treatment). She may end up spending the entire weekend depending on how she does.
Sophie is by no means out of the woods. Fingers crossed she will do great and be home with us soon, but it is possible she won't ever come home. Once home she will remain on predisone and another med for the rest of her life. Should she get a recurrence of this, it usually comes back much more virulently. But we hope she will be in the group that does well on the cocktail of meds and is back chasing down Frisbees in no time.
Suffice it to say, Roy and I are a mess. This has been a tough, teary week watching Sophie, our beacon of light, slowly but swiftly dim. She is my angel. I can't believe we might lose her. And as this was happening to Sophie, Joey has been fighting a dramatic reaction to her spaying. Her abdomen has filled with fluid and the incision is hard. The vet gave us some antibiotics and pain medicine for her. Recheck tomorrow.
Really tough week.
I made an appointment for Sophie to see her regular vet on Friday. She continued to decline so I thought I should take her in for lab work before her appointment so we could move more quickly toward a treatment. The vet took her in the back to take the blood and urine samples and when they returned her to me the vet (not her regular vet) came out to look at her gums. The lab tech reported that Sophie's gums were pale, and the doctor was coming to check it out. She said they were quite pale and then told the tech to run a portion of the CBC in house so we could get some of the results more quickly.
What she found is that Sophie was very anemic. This isn't the same thing as being human and being anemic, it is much deadlier in dogs. It is WAY more serious than just taking some iron supplements. Her values indicated she was somewhat close to needing a blood transfusion. Yeah, I felt nauseous too. We took an x-ray of her so we could have a better picture. We talked with the vet for a while about what this means. It could mean: she was bleeding internally; she was bleeding into a tumor, her immune system was killing her red blood cells; the list goes on and it is merely shades of bad.
The vet recommends we take her for an ultrasound - it gives a better picture and more information. Hopefully that would show us if there was bleeding or a tumor or some other abnormality. We scheduled the appointment for Friday.
Friday morning was more of the same in terms of Sophie's behavior. She wants to go on walks, but she has a hard time walking. She wants to swim, but she has a hard time shaking off. She still doesn't want to eat. That is the scariest part.
We took her to VMS in San Mateo (they are phenomenal there), meet with the vet there and get the ultrasound done. The remainder of the lab work was complete and now we can diagnose and treat. The good news is she has regenerating anemia (Autoimmune Hemolypitic Anemia, or AIHA) caused by her immune system attacking her her blood cells. Now that doesn't sound like good news but it gives more hope than a bleeding tumor. And her blood work showed that she was already starting to fight this on her own... she just needs help.
So, Sophie is spending the night at VMS. She has a nice fluffy bed and an IV and the same nurse and vet that talked with us are on shift this weekend (happy coincidence). She is going to be treated aggressively with IgG Gamma Gard, and prednisone and another medication that protects her GI tract (which has a tendency to bleed in anemic patients during this treatment). She may end up spending the entire weekend depending on how she does.
Sophie is by no means out of the woods. Fingers crossed she will do great and be home with us soon, but it is possible she won't ever come home. Once home she will remain on predisone and another med for the rest of her life. Should she get a recurrence of this, it usually comes back much more virulently. But we hope she will be in the group that does well on the cocktail of meds and is back chasing down Frisbees in no time.
Suffice it to say, Roy and I are a mess. This has been a tough, teary week watching Sophie, our beacon of light, slowly but swiftly dim. She is my angel. I can't believe we might lose her. And as this was happening to Sophie, Joey has been fighting a dramatic reaction to her spaying. Her abdomen has filled with fluid and the incision is hard. The vet gave us some antibiotics and pain medicine for her. Recheck tomorrow.
Really tough week.
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