ZoomDoggy
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She ate 1/3 can of soft DOGfood (warming it in the microwave helpd, I think), all her peanut butter wrapped pills, and two scrambled eggs!
: I offered her another collop of dogfood, but she said no thanks. Baby steps. 
In a few minutes I'm going to go in to work for a couple of hours. I'm very nervous about leaving her alone at all...
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I took this pic just now. Chancy enjoying her miracle morning sunbeam.
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A few minutes ago Chancy stood up and walked to the back door without being coaxed at all.
: She really had to pee. 
: So we went outside, and she emptied her very full bladder, and even had a soft little poo. (I know that's the info you've all been waiting for 
) She wobbled back up the 5 steps and into the house unassisted. This all may not sound like much, but it feels like HUGE progress since yesterday when she was at death's door. I definitely see that her tummy looks smaller and feels softer. That can't be anything but good, right? Though now that her spleen is shrinking a bit, I can really see how skinny she's become.
The muscletone in her back legs has diminished significantly.30 more minutes until meal and med time...
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I am welcome to bring her in to work, but I'm not ready to stress her out by making her go up the six steps to get to the elevator, in front of scary strangers. Even before this latest mess started, she had a hard time there. Once in my office she was fine. It's nice & quiet there. If only I could just teleport her there... Beam her up, Scotty!
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I've been instructed to start Chancy on Sucralfate (Carafate) to protect her stomach from the battery of other meds she's getting. It's a challenging one to administer, as it must be given in the middle of a four-hour window of no eating, three times daily. The problem is compounded by the fact I need to be offering Chancy food as often as possible, as her appetite is low and she needs to be eating. So she has three windows of time when she can eat: 1am to 5am (sleep!), 9am to 1pm (work!), and 5pm to 9pm (this one is easiest). Between each of those windows, the sucralfate must be given.
I'm not sure how long I can keep this schedule up and still keep my job and get any decent sleep.
Is sucralfate always given thrice daily? I'll be asking my vet when I check in today, but wondered if anyone else here were prescribed twice daily instead...
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Still tired, but we all got a few good hours of sleep. I got up at 4:30 to offer Chancy some food before her 5am food cutoff for the empty-stomach meds. She ate two jars of baby food and drank some water, but wasn't interested in anything else right now. I wanted to get her on her feet and walk around a bit, maybe go outside to pee. Mostly just to make sure she was capable. She was extremely wobbly, but made it on her own.
: Her back feet are slightly puffy, probably from the IV fluids they gave yesterday. I also noticed that the paw with the catheter is somewhat swollen. I'm sure the bandage was too tight, so I removed the catheter (
that we won't have to put in another one soon.. for any reason) and massaged that paw for a while.Hubby agreed with me that her tummy feels softer. It's still swollen looking, but not rock-hard like it has been. I hope that's a good thing. She's sitting up right now, panting a bit, but not as desperately as yesterday, and no repeat of yesterday's copious drooling either.
All of this is good progress, if not fast progress. I hope she starts eating more normally soon, as I don't know how long I can keep up this schedule and stay employed (not to mention sleep!).
I'm going to get another hour of sleep before next med-time. I'd like to try to go in to work today for a couple hours here & there between meds & meals. It's a tight schedule though, esp since I want to feed her as often as possible, since she eats so little at a time.
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Ice cream may be a possibility. If she'll swallow it fast enough.
Everyone here is asleep except me and Zorba. Hubby crashed on the couch while watching me tangle with Chancy's meds and peanut butter. In 90 minutes I have to give her one more med. It must be given on an empty stomach, thus the delay. Man am I tired. And broke. I don't want to think about how I'll feel if all this doesn't help my poor tigergirl...
Guilty, is the front runner. For making her go through one more hard day. A day of being surrounded by scary strangers who poke her with needles while trapping her in a kennel...
They left the catheter in, in case we need to put her back on an IV tomorrow. Or in case we need to euthanize tonight...
Man am I tired.
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Dang my tigergirl is too smart for her own good! I just gave her the evening meds, wrapped in peanut butter. Normally she has no problems with this, but since the number of various pills has increased, I think she's starting to suspect my ulterior motive to the delicious peanut-buttery goodness. After lickylickylickying the first three small gobs of PB, she carefully spat out three of her seven pills, meticulously denuded of peanut butter. Thankfully PB is irresistible enough that she ate the same pills, re-wrapped in fresh PB.
I used to hide pills in cream cheese, but she no longer likes that. Sometimes I hid them in her special meatballs, but currently she's not interested in those either. What ever shall I do if/when she stops liking peanut butter?
I'm afraid to force the pills into her, due to the risk of choking/inhaling because of the tieback surgery...
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We're home. Just seeing Chancy walk to me from the vet's back room was enough to bring (more) tears to my eyes. She's very tired, not that this is a change really. But she walked, peed in the yard, drank some water, ate two jars of baby food and 2.5 ounces sliced turkey. All of this I never expected to see happen again. I'm giving her a little break to settle the food before offering more. We're starting some meds that will require tricky timing with food. I'm going to have to make a meds chart just to keep everything straight.
She's home for now. I'm still sick with worry and fear, and it's going to be another long night, but we're just taking it one hour at a time.
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I should add that if things go well, I'll be bringing her home tonight, and starting oral prednisone to continue what today's IV has started.
We really had no hope when we walked in there. Now there is a single ray, although a dim one. What finally swayed my decision to try the IV was that Chancy was still bright-eyed, and still greedily drinking water.
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We didn't do it.
We had a horrible night during which Chancy was feverish, couldn't eat, and couldn't stand up, was defecating in her bed. So we brought her in to the vet absolutely believing the worst, but Dr. Barr gave us one other option before he was willing to give up. So we left Chancy there (which I HATE to do. HATE.) to receive fluids and intravenous corticosteroids to see if that can perk her up. The steriods may also help reduce the spleen size, aiding her comfort and allowing more space for her other organs (like her poor smushed stomach).
I got a call from Dr. Barr about 90 minutes after we left (before we had even gotten back home), saying after one hour on the fluids & steroids, Chancy had already stood up and walked outside on her own to pee, and then came back in to her kennel and ate some food.
Maybe there is a God.
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I'm going to have to let her go today. She spiked a 105+ fever last night, and is no longer able to stand or eat. I'm bringing her in as soon as the vet opens. At this point, I didn't see the need to go to E-vet. My poor poor sweet tigergirl....
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Xray is usually the first step. There will be visible bone deterioration, as I understand.
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It's been just over 24 hours since the shot, and honestly I see no improvement in the symptoms that led us to try the shot. I know I shouldn't expect a miracle, but it's hard not to be disappointed when I hear how fast other dogs have benefitted from it. What it means to me is that Babesia is likely not Chancy's problem.
Chancy's vet seems pretty responsive from what you have posted, so try to be upbeat with Chancy and patient with the meds. With a very low platelet count It does take a while, and that is what Chancy needs the Doxy for. Sending prayers.
Thank you. Hope is exactly what I need right now.
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We just got back from a nice long car ride. Hubby drove me & the girls around the city lakes for a couple hours. Tipper stayed home, since he'd already had an extra walk and I wasn't in the mood to deal with his car-space snarkiness. Chancy did not trot joyfully to the garage like she always has. That alone broke my heart. Once she was in the van she seemed mostly content. She did have a moment of queasiness, but that seemed to pass, and she didn't vomit up any food, thank goodness. On our way home we stopped and picked up some meat baby food, as I know Sissy was able to eat that when nothing else could tempt her. She has already eaten a small jar of baby ham with gusto.
Tomorrow I expect I'll bring her in for a prednisone shot, or at least a quick blood test to see if her platelets have changed.
Poor gentle stripey tigergirl is sacked out for now.
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He's going down hill fast and we have NO idea what the problem is.
God I know that feeling.
I'm sorry you're going through it too.I did read somewhere about changing the needle. I'll certainly mention that to the vet for future reference. Thankfully, he is pretty open-minded about the things I gather by extensive reading & surfing.
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It's been just over 24 hours since the shot, and honestly I see no improvement in the symptoms that led us to try the shot. I know I shouldn't expect a miracle, but it's hard not to be disappointed when I hear how fast other dogs have benefitted from it. What it means to me is that Babesia is likely not Chancy's problem.
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What is going on with Chancy sounds exactly like what was going on with my Cecily (Lab) right before she had her Splenectomy.
Thank you for your thoughts. The vet felt that Chancy is not currently a candidate for splenectomy due to her low platelet count. If we can get that back into a safe range, we might be able to consider that option.
Frankly, I'm feeling sort of overwhelmed by a sudden feeling of doom this afternoon.
I was able to get her pills in her via peanut butter, but she is still disinterested in her dogfood, and now has turned up her nose at the special meatballs she ate just fine this morning. She did eat another hotdog bun and a slice of bologna, but she ate them very slowly, hesitantly.
Her eyes are still bright, but she has no energy or strength. Her abdomen is huge. The vet estimated that she's carrying around at least a five-pound spleen. It kills me to see her this way.
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Chancy has spent the day mostly sleeping. She is still very uncoordinated and stumbly. She did enjoy Carole's home-made food though.
: I've been offering her a little snack every few hours. She went outside a few minutes ago and did her business like the good girl she is. Had a nice firm little turd. Simple pleasures, right? -
Oh crap I hope that reaction does not happen to Chancy
I would not administer the Doxy either but I would also be afraid of the 2nd injection. Who is going to help this dog?????? Maybe another vet for a 2nd opinion??
FWIW, I have faith that this vet is the right guy for the job. I've seen a lot of vets around town, and so far this guy has impressed me the most.
ETA: ... I should add that I am not easily impressed.
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Chancy normally has a "stomach of iron" and has never had a bowel problem, even during the worst of her worm infestation when I first got her two years ago. My vet feels that using the two in conjunction is the best way to go, and what I have read supports this as well. Just got off the phone with the vet, and we may try the shot of atropine before the next imidocarb inj, to minimize side-effects. The vet also said if Chancy doesn't seem to perk up at all by tomorrow, we may go ahead and add Prednisone to the mix, in case it's an autoimmune problem. I know it's a lot to throw at my poor ol' gal in a short time, but my vet and I agree that we must act quickly considering the state she's in.
I did also ask the vet just now about subQ vs IM, and his feeling was that since the label said it could be used either way, and given Chancy's low platelet count, he didn't want to risk a bleed in the muscle. I just have to hope Chancy doesn't react the way Bailey did.
Basically the vet re-confirmed that we are just trying to "hold the line", preventing her symptoms from getting worse (and if we're lucky, make them better) while we try to figure out what the actual problem is.
Thank you everyone for your experiences thus far. I really appreciate the info.
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Holy cow, that looks awful! Do you think that was an unusual reaction specific to Bailey? Like an allergic reaction?
You scared me, so I tried to find Chancy's injection site. I watched it being given SubQ between her shoulderblades, but I see no sign of the spot now. Her fur is very thick for a grey. Of course it's been less than 24 hours too...
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I've read that the Dimenazine is for B. gibsoni (which I understand to be more rare), and that Imidocarb is for B. canis vogeli. Chancy is also on Doxy as of this am. We don't have test results back yet, but due to Chancy's condition and platelet count, we opted to treat as though positive for now. My understanding is Dimenazine is an even more dangerous injection than Imidocarb.
Either way, the shot was awful, and I can't tell if Chancy's declining in general, or if she's having an adverse reaction to the shot. She's panting harder today than yesterday, and is more wobbly on her feet.
The vet is due to call me any time now.
Mine got 2 shots IM last Fall. No reaction other than diarrhea and vomiting immediately after the injections and a remarkable increase in energy within days.Thankfully no vomiting, but Chancy had almost immediate diarrhea after the shot. I couldn't believe it could even affect her that fast! It was better this am, but not "normal" yet.
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Chancy got a subcue injection of Imidocarb yesterday. I'm asking this because today I've read that this shot should be given in the muscle. What have been other folks' experiences with this injection? Subcue or IM?
Also, I've read about the possible side-effects, and was wondering how many others's pups reacted poorly to the shot...
: I offered her another collop of dogfood, but she said no thanks. Baby steps. 
: So we went outside, and she emptied her very full bladder, and even had a soft little poo. (I know that's the info you've all been waiting for 
) She wobbled back up the 5 steps and into the house unassisted. This all may not sound like much, but it feels like HUGE progress since yesterday when she was at death's door. 
The muscletone in her back legs has diminished significantly.
: I've been offering her a little snack every few hours. She went outside a few minutes ago and did her business like the good girl she is. Had a nice firm little turd. Simple pleasures, right? 
I would not administer the Doxy either but I would also be afraid of the 2nd injection.
I Lost My Sweet Chancy
in Health and Medical discussion
Posted
Tell him we said hi.
Actually I just called and left an update on his voicemail. I hope he's able to help you find some answers.