duncan41

Oh, I LIKE that idea! Have to file it away "just in case"!

Aawww! I'll bet if Mommy kisses Lucy's toes, they will be AAALLLLLLL better! (Worked with my kids.) Diesel, hon, milk it for all it's worth. You deserve just as much attention!

Poor Kasey! Sierra is being such a good sister! It's so nice when everyone is sympathetic! Get better soon, Kasey! And, Sierra, thanks for being such a good nursemaid.

From Monty's Florida Fanclub: HOORAY! YIPPEE! HALLELUJAH! HOLY COW! GREAT! FANTASTIC! SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS! FABULOUS! EXTRAORDINARY! And besides that, it couldn't have happened to a better "guy"! Have to stop now. The screen is getting blurry. Must have something in my eyes.

Sending healing white light, prayers and hugs for sweet Carrie.

Hope he's feeling better this evening. Even nasty tummy bugs can upset everybody and everything. Hugs and calming thoughts headed your way.

Darcy obviously has Winslow's number! What a contented guy he is! I must be l-o-v-e!

Bless you and DH for hanging in there with Beau. I just cannot imagine how excruciating this whole process has been for everyone! Prayers and hugs all around.

I am so very sorry for your loss. Praying for healing. Run pain free Pikachu.

Ok everyone! You have done it! You have created a miracle! Dr. L called - he said, "I'm not going to waste your money by sending this slide to a pathologist. There were no lymphoma cells. This lymph node was just a reactive lymph node; reacting to the assault of the infection." OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? MY LITTLE GIRL ACTUALLY HAS BEEN GIVEN A CHANCE! Now I can amend my initial question when this nightmare began: How does a 4-1/2 beautiful girl go from perfectly healthy to complete renal failure in less than 24 hours followed by a near miraculous recovery 78 hours later? IT'S THE POWER OF GREYTALK! Hugs and kisses to all of you. Please, right now, go and give your hounds a hug and a kiss and a belly rub from me, OK? Tell them, that if they are ever feeling poorly, their "Auntie Linda" will be chanting for their recovery. My next post will be when we bring Suze home and I promise to include photos. BTW: She is the one in the back in my ID photo.

Ok, we need to chant, chant, chant! Dr. L is doing the fine needle aspiration this afternoon! No cooties in the lymph node! No cooties in the lymph node! No cooties in the lymph node! No cooties in the lymph node!

Guess who walked out without the catheter this morning??? Guess who was allowed to go OUTSIDE for a walk??? You guessed it - Miss Suze in all her gorgeous self with the swollen leg and shaved belly! And for the first time since Saturday at noon she didn't want to go back to the treatment room! She wanted to go with Mom and Dad! Whoo-hoo! We're waiting for today's blood values, but Dr. L is talking discharge in two to three days! I don't know whether to laugh or cry! We talked about TBD and narrowed the possibilities to Lyme or Erlichia. At this point, her response to the treatment is still pointing to infection, but the origination point is still unknown. Depending on test results to be determined, we may visit TBD in the next month or so. Re zero platelets: She was septic upon admission which affects the bone marrow's ability to produce platelets. Please keep in mind, that everyone connected with this case remains totally baffled by the absense of the usual symptoms prior to total renal failure - she ate, peed, pooped, played, barked, took walks, all with enthusiams until Friday at noon. She has never had a fever and has continued to eat through everything! I had a urine culture done in December and a urinalysis last Wednesday - both negative. Now for the banana peel. There is still the enlarged lymph node to deal with. We have pretty much decided that when her platelets get back in line, Dr. L will do the fine needle aspiration of the kidney and lymph node. If we get really lucky with the kidney sample, we'll get a diagnosis. After all she has been through, we certainly don't want to hear, read, see the work "lymphoma". Ssssooo............................... We need to change the chant. "No cooties in the lymph node. No cooties in the lymph node. No cooties in the lymph node." Thanks all for your continued support. Just knowing that there are people out there pulling for her has given me much comfort. From the bottom of my very weary heart, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Yes, she has been on two different antibiotics and fluids since Saturday noon at a Specialty Hospital. This hospital only sees referrals for specific issues and provides after-hours emergency medicine. She is receiving excellent 24 hour care. TBD is on the list for tomorrow's conference. There have been conversations about biopsy and fine needle aspirate. Until this afternoon, biopsy was preferred only if we "had to know EXACTLY what caused this." Fine needle aspirate may not have picked up enough "material" to provide an adequate diagnosis. However, this afternoon her kidney values improved by 30%! (See, I knew you guys could do it! Those chants really do work!!) If I told you what they are now, you would be horrified, but the improvement was so encouraging that Dr. L (the internal medicine specialist) started talking about doing a titer for Lepto in "3 to 4 weeks"! Yippee! At least he's indicating that she's going to be leaving the hospital under her own power! So, the plan now is to do a fine needle aspirate in the next day or two, depending on platelet count, to "get lymphoma off the table" as Dr. L put it. Another ultrasound was done this afternoon and her kidneys still look the same, but there is a lymph node that is a concern. The purpose of the biopsy was to refine the diagnosis should there be little or no movement in kidney values in the next 48 to 72 hours; basically a last ditch effort at targeted treatment. We are just a little over 48 since total renal failure and there has been significant improvement, so the focus is now toward identifying what's in the lymph node. I now have to learn about kidney diets. Anyone care to dive in? You guys are amazing! I have read about the power of GT, I have tried to provide a little measure of comfort to others because I would have loved to have had some of that GT comfort and support when we sent Nikki on ahead of us to The Bridge 3 years ago. Thank you very much.

Wish it were........................the internist said that he wouldn't even consider doing a kidney biopsy unless her platelets were at least 50,000, so no, they really were 9,000. She had NO platelets on Saturday. "Kidney values good, good, good. Kidney values good, good, good. Kidney values good, good, good."

What chapter is this? We're still on the roller coaster. We visited her this morning and Suze WALKED OUT TO SEE US! It was wonderful. She is eating and producing a "good amount of urine". BUT, met with the internist and he's KNOT happy with her "kidney values". (Don't know the numbers but at this point it's not important.) He's going to do another ultrasound today to see if anything has changed since Saturday afternoon. Another nasty word was inserted into the conversation - lymphoma. If her kidney values don't start moving toward normal in the next 48 hours, we talked a little bit about a kidney biopsy. Since the possible causes of this renal failure are now: infection, poison, Lepto or lymphoma, there may be some excruciating decisions that may have to be made. Her platelet count is only 9,000 so a biopsy is out of the question and may stay that way if the platelet count doesn't improve. Has anyone had experience with a kidney biopsy? The cautionary dialogue given by the internist is really scary. I would sure appreciate it if "mike" the Vet or Dr. Feeman as well as Batmom would chime in on this one. We have sufficient pee, so I think the chant needs to be changed to "Kidney values good, good good. Kidney values good, good, good. Kidney values good, good, good." Thanks again for all the support. The chanting seems to work with the prayers.

This evening's report is encouraging. Suze's potassium is back within the normal range as is her WBC. The E-Vet was almost waving the results as we walked in the door! Suze was much more comfortable and is getting up and moving around more. She ate a little more - she wouldn't take the food from anyone but "Mom" - the little stinker! Her urine output is acceptable - the docs would prefer to see more. (Chant with me: "Need more pee! Need more pee! Need more Pee! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for all your prayers. Tomorrow the internist takes over her case "officially" so I will have a new person to whom I can direct my questions. Poor man, doesn't know what he's in for! We're not out of the woods quite yet, but I will have a much better feel for when to look for the next improvement leap sometime tomorrow.

For my sweet girl, Suze.

Is he drinking water? Depending on the severity and duration of the diarrhea, dehydration can become a problem - for which lethargy is a primary symptom. Hope you can get this resolved soon. FWIW: I like Pepto or the generic form (Kaopectate is the same thing). Just don't be alarmed when/if the stools turn a very dark color. Good luck!

Congrats, Tony and welcome to the wonderful world of greyt dogs! Don't have anything to add to the previous posts, just take heart and proceed slowly especially with the food. Best thing you can do right now is find out what food was being fed at the track and start the transtion process again........slowly. p.s. Castor & Pollux is a very good food, but keep in mind that just because it's very good doesn't mean it will agree with every dog. p.p.s. What his name and do you have pics?

This morning saw small improvements. She is producing a greater quantity of yellow urine today which is very good. Her bloodwork is improving, just not with the speed that the internist would like to see. She is not as uncomfortable today as yesterday but she's still flat as a pancake. One of the techs fed her about a 1/4 can of AD just before we arrived and I fed her another 1/4 can which she kept down. Good sign. It will be another 3 or 4 days before we know if she's going to make it. I will return to check on her this afternoon. Thank you so much for your prayers and support. Suze needs something more like a miracle right now. Please keep her in your prayers. I don't dare even start to tell you what an incredible girl she is because I will lose it for sure. Heather, no Suze hasn't done any serious running for quite some time. She did take a couple of laps around the yard last week, but not even enough to cause her to breathe hard.

Sending prayers and hugs.

I am so sorry about what you are having to deal with. Sending hugs and prayers to you and your boy.

It wasn't her back. I could babble, but I just need an answer to one question. How can a perfectly healthy 4-1/2 year old girl who had a clean urinalysis Wednesday afternoon be in acute renal failure at noon on Saturday? Even the e-vets are scratching their heads. No temp, ultra-sound is clear with slightly enlarged kidneys. She did KNOT get into any poisons. Bloodwork shows NO platlets and high WBC - massive infection. The next 3 to 9 hours will tell the story. Please, please, PLEASE pray for my girl. She needs your prayers. Edited to add: Thanks so much for the prayers. I spoke to the Vet about Lepto on Wednesday because Suze and Fuzz will be due for vaccine updates in May and he said that no one in our area has yet to diagnose a case of Lepto; he keeps in contact with all the Vets in the area. Suze was vaccinated for it in 2004 - when she and Fuzz adopted us. They have had titers each year since, but I don't remember if Lepto was included. She received only PBA on Wednesday due to a leaky bladder, no shots. She was on no other meds. I will ask the e-vet about TBD at 6 pm when I am to receive an update. She has been treated regularly with Frontline Plus. Update 9:00 pm: Spoke to the E-vet. Her blood values are going in the right direction and she is producing YELLOW urine instead of brown! I just love the color yellow! We're not out of the woods yet, but the improvement is certainly promising. Thank you all so much for your prayers! It's comforting to know that there's a support system like GT out there. Will talk to the E-vet at around midnight and we will go and see her first thing tomorrow morning. I'll update then.

Not quite sure what "apparent sedation or bizarre behavior" is, she wasn't anywhere near "asleep", but her pupils were dialated and her eyes has that "bug-eyed" look to them. From about 7 to 9 pm, it appeared as though she wasn't "seeing" anything. I can't imagine what she would have been like if we had tried to get her up. She was crashing into furniture, walls and doors when we walked in the house at 4 pm! That's one of the reasons she was crated immediately. After my first post, she vomitted again, but I think I may have given her too much water at one time. She is sssooo thirsty! Going back to sips every 30 minutes. Called the Vet but with limited hours, he's probably going to tell us to take her to the e-vet.