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Xan

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Posts posted by Xan

    Loca Misdiagnosed?

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    :lol Well, that's what comes of hogging all the wine, lady! :lol Ya gotta watch out for those unpredictable urban features like curbs and such! :rofl

     

     

    Oh. Ahem. Sorry, really. Sorry you hurt your arm. Ahem. Have another glass of wine to dull the pain! ;)

     

     

    Yeay! Loca's back to her naughty ways!! :clap

    Either that, or she's really gone 'round the bend, and was trying to help with the dishes. ;)

    Loca Misdiagnosed?

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    What, now?? You broke your arm?? What the heck was that for?? :P

     

    *starting new chant: Arm all better...Arm all better ... Arm all better ... *

     

    Okay, well, wish I was close enough to drive you guys, but I'll be here waiting to hear how it goes! How soon afterwards will you have new info?

     

    (Happy's going in for x-rays tomorrow, too, so it'll be a doubled-up chant, like weird harmonies, deep in the otherwise empty vault of my brain! :P )

    Lumps And Bumps And Limping

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    Rash: Food or environment? Possibly. She did have the rash when we got her, so it would have to be something that she had in common with wherever she got it in the first place. Her former owner on the farm didn't remember her having either a rash or a lump, though, which says to me she didn't notice, 'cause neither one popped up overnight, I wouldn't think. (**Which is not to say she's not a lovely person, which I believe she is! She wants to have regular updates on all her dogs, and sends them all a christmas gift of cookies every year! :) ) To start ruling out environmental and food factors is, as we know, complicated, and will certainly be done if the biopsy doesn't solve the mystery. I purposely kept her on one main protein source since we got her, so it would be easy to rule that out by a switch once we'd gotten her settled in otherwise. We'll see...

     

    Thanks for the reminder about the Grassmere Hospital site. I'd forgotten where that was, with it's excellent photographs! I'll definitely bring it to his attention. :)

     

    Happy dance? Oh, you betcha! :nod Every time I look at her or think about it! :D

    Lumps And Bumps And Limping

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    Thanks again, y'all, for following along with me! :)

     

    Oddly fond of the lump? Funny you should mention that! :P I was just telling her this morning how she had the prettiest lump I'd ever seen, and it would always be the-lump-which-was-not-nasty to me. :D

     

    The throat irritation he thought could be an old-age laxness in the esophagus. He said it could progress to a collapse, but we'll cross that bridge if/when we come to it.

     

    Corns: yeah. Wabi has a corn, as I said, so we bootie her up for walks, and have done a few times for Happy as well, though she didn't show a change in her stride. But, if she's already uncomfortable on her right side, and gets corns on her left, that doesn't leave her any feet to put the extra weight on! :( So, seeing a change in her gait might not indicate anything. She does show real reluctance to cross our gravel driveway, though, which is a dead giveaway for tender pads. That was the clincher for me. Her corns aren't as hard as Wabi's yet, so I was a little unsure. Happy's not going on walks with us right now because of her other limping situation, but we do have boots enough for all the suspicious feet. :)

     

    Rash: Yes, it is itchy to her! When she first came, she had more, it was a bit angrier, and it was (or something like it) on her elbows, too. After a few baths with oatmeal shampoo, we got to about where we are now. I do put Bag Balm on it to keep it from drying out at least, and that does seem to keep the itchies down to a tolerable level. When they do the x-rays, I'm going to have them do a punch biopsy on the rash, too. The vet had many possibilities for what it might be, and that seemed like the most diagnostically reliable way to figure it out.

     

    I've been thinking about trying ACV on her rash and pimply spots. The rash might be irritated by it, though, so I've been putting it off. Any thoughts on that?

    Lumps And Bumps And Limping

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    Yeay!! Chanting worked again!!! :bounce:confetti:bounce:confetti

     

    The lump is a fatty lipoma after all, despite it's atypical presentation! It BE-NIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!!! :confetti

     

    She's scheduled for x-rays Monday morning (for which she'll have to skip her brekkers, which she will sorely miss! :( ) Hopefully, that will turn out to be just as dull and uninteresting as a fatty lipoma!!

     

    Thanks for all the chants, people (and Guinness! ;) )!!!

     

    :confetti

    Loca Misdiagnosed?

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    my vet just had digital xray equipment installed. Monday evening loca is going in to repeat the xrays, which we'll email to Dr. Couto. Michele (my vet) will also re-examine her to evaluate her level of pain. Free of charge :yay

    Nice!! :D That will be good, to get some idea of just how much pain you're dealing with ... or rather, that she's dealing with! :P Although, I'm sure you feel her pain. So, at least this way, you'll know how much pain to feel for her. :P:lol

     

    Anyway! :D

     

    Oh, hey! Monday is St. Patrick's day! Loca can have the luck of the Irish on her while she gets her new x-rays done, which will conclusively prove there's no nasty nothing to see! :D:bounce:

    Lumps And Bumps And Limping

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    Oh, I should say about the limping: He had several thoughts about limping on both right legs. He mentioned

    arthritis,

    tendon injury,

    old injuries that just bothered her and might not get better,

    the one that starts with O (but seemed less likely because of where it seemed to be, pending pinpointing with the x-ray),

    TBDs,

    and a couple things that simply had not occurred to me. One was spinal, like something out of whack in the neck, or two lesions affecting two areas. Later, he tentatively ruled out neck, since she shows good neck mobility without stiffness or reluctance.

    The other was hypothyroidism, which, he says can present in all sorts of wacky ways, including limping and skin weirdness. She came to me with the note that she was borderline hypothyroid, was tested again and tested fine, so we stopped the meds at that point. But, she already had the limp and the skin junk, so thyroid at the level she was being dosed at didn't fix those issues.

     

    I liked him a lot. He introduced himself, offered that I should call him by his first name, and promptly sat down on the floor, where we stayed for about an hour. He didn't seem in a hurry despite being called away for an emergency and being prompted by the reception staff for the next appt.. He listened, and took into account what I said, and seemed to have a pretty good working knowledge of what to expect for sighthounds and "track dogs", specifically. He did discount the idea of corns; "We don't really see true corns in dogs," going on to explain about their thick pads and how they adapt to the surfaces they are exposed to habitually, until I told him about Wabi's, which is quite classic.

     

    Gawd! Look at me going on! :P I'm sort of doing this for myself, I think. Like remembering to take notes afterwards when it's still clear in my memory! But, if you read all this, thanks again!!! :)

     

     

    Lumps And Bumps And Limping

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    Guinness, you goof! :lol

    Well, now we wait, and continue to think positive thoughts, chant, etc.. They said I'd hear from them tomorrow afternoon about the results of the histology.

     

    Thanks for coming along on this nasty ride with me! :bighug

     

    I have to say, it was interesting to go into that exam room with all the experience and information I have absorbed following the stories of others here on GT. I felt properly informed to ask the right questions, make some observations, remember to mention specific things, and to understand what he was talking about. It's a valuable aspect of sharing each others' trials and tribulations; sharing all the info that might help the next one up. :blush:

     

     

    Lumps And Bumps And Limping

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    I'm waiting while they get time to do an aspirate of the lump. He's not so convinced that it's a fatty lipoma, and thinks it might even be something glandular, although it doesn't seem exactly connected with her mammaries. Based on the results of the aspirate, we'll know what to do about that. Hopefully. The limps are also concerning, of course. I'm going to make an appt for her to be xrayed, front and back on one side. If it's just arthritis or possibly tendonitis or something soft tissue that will require long-term NSAIDS, we'll have to be monitoring her kidney and liver function, so a blood-work-up will have to be done to get a baseline. Which will include thyroid, which might be low, which might contribute to the limps and skin issues. Anyway, lots of possibilities and no answers, yet.

     

    Okay, gotta go get my gal, and Brilly, who gave blood for the first time today. :D

    Lumps And Bumps And Limping

    in Health and Medical discussion

    Posted

    Well, her appointment is for 11:45 tomorrow. DH might go, as a "patient advocate", which in his mind is to protect her from mad medical god-headedness and voodoo dangerousness. It will be a balancing act of trying to get the info from the doctor, and keeping DH from jumping to the conclusion that the vet is only trying to get money at the expense of experimenting on our dog. :rolleyes: At least he's being involved. That's good. His memory is better than mine, too, so he'll be better at remembering what's said. Besides, he has more money in his checking account than I do, so that's handy. ;)

     

     

    Keep chanting!! :D

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