Tomorrow We Go Back To The Vets

[ShantisMom]

Tomorrow is the day we go back to the vets and start the immune suppression on Shanti. We are down to our final couple options on her. I pray this works! I have backed her off all the Previcox for several days so we can start tomorrow. She is so lame it is sad. But hopefully, tomorrow brings us hope!

 

I have done a lot of searching and reading on Immune Mediated Poly Arthritis. I have seen some good stories and information and some not. I pray we are one of the good! I have a stock of chicken thighs, Tripe, Rice and some stinky canned food in case we need it.

 

Please keep your fingers crossed that we can get my Shanti pain free soon!!!

 

 

[Guest greytloves]

fingers and toes crossed here!

[CaliforniaGreys]

Sending lots of prayers from here for your little girl.

[2hounds]

That is what Mia has, after we got rid of the Erlichea, her swelling joints and arthritis didn't go way so that is her "diagnosis". We put her on Prednisone (20mg twice/day) and were slowly bringing her down off of it and added Azathioprine.

 

Also, I sent her records to Dr. Couto for a consult, I am hoping he will have a brilliant plan for her!

 

Lots of good thoughts for Shanti, I hope you are able to find a treatment that works.

Edited April 2, 2008 by 2hounds

[Guest lotsagreys4me]

One of my greyhounds had poly artiritis. I beleive he was given cancer drugs. I am at work and can't look into his file right nowl. Please let us know and I will be praying for a good outcome.

[Xan]

Custom chant for Shanti and Mia:

*Pain is passing out of your joints, and into your stuffies. Kill the stuffies, and the pain can't come back!* *Pain is passing out of your joints, and into your stuffies. Kill the stuffies, and the pain can't come back!* *Pain is passing out of your joints, and into your stuffies. Kill the stuffies, and the pain can't come back!*

[ShantisMom]

That is what Mia has, after we got rid of the Erlichea, her swelling joints and arthritis didn't go way so that is her "diagnosis". We put her on Prednisone (20mg twice/day) and were slowly bringing her down off of it and added Azathioprine.

 

Also, I sent her records to Dr. Couto for a consult, I am hoping he will have a brilliant plan for her!

 

Lots of good thoughts for Shanti, I hope you are able to find a treatment that works.

 

Please let me know how Mia does and what Dr. Couto says. I would love to know! What I am learning is that it does not appear to be that uncommon in Greys. Give your girl a hug for us. If you have any advice on what to do for her while on all the medicine, please share!

 

Custom chant for Shanti and Mia:

*Pain is passing out of your joints, and into your stuffies. Kill the stuffies, and the pain can't come back!* *Pain is passing out of your joints, and into your stuffies. Kill the stuffies, and the pain can't come back!* *Pain is passing out of your joints, and into your stuffies. Kill the stuffies, and the pain can't come back!*

 

 

Love the chant! Hopefully she will renew her interest in stuffie killing. Only when Banjo and Finn were here taking them did she go after them. It required her to walk.

[Guest vahoundlover]

Sending lots of prayers!!

 

I think Xan has outdone herself on this chant!! I think I'll join her once again....

 

Pain is passing out of your joints, and into your stuffies. Kill the stuffies, and the pain can't come back!* *Pain is passing out of your joints, and into your stuffies. Kill the stuffies, and the pain can't come back!* *Pain is passing out of your joints, and into your stuffies. Kill the stuffies, and the pain can't come back!*

 

[2hounds]

It has taken almost a year but so far so good, she is down to 20mg pred every other day and 50mg Azathiaprine every other day (we alternate, one day pred, one day aza). If they put Shanti on pred, you will see pretty fast results (for Mia it was literally just a few days) BUT you will be looking at side effects from the pred. When she was on her highest dose, Mia had to pee every 2 hours. We didn't go ANYWHERE that we couldn't be back within 2 hours or we knew she would have an accident. Also, pred stimulates the appetite so she will eat any and everything that you leave out (we just got more dilligent about putting everything away and not leaving crumbs or plates where she could get to them). Her personality changed slightly, which our vet told us was normal with super high doses of pred. Now that we have her on a much much smaller dose, she is starting to play with stuffies and have more energy again.

 

I will let you know what Dr. Couto says. Like I said, I hope he has some brilliant magic pill that fixes everything with no side effects and my sweet Meems will be healthy and happy forever. If I am going to hope, I have to hope BIG!

 

And Xan, you come up with the best chants!

[ShantisMom]

It has taken almost a year but so far so good, she is down to 20mg pred every other day and 50mg Azathiaprine every other day (we alternate, one day pred, one day aza). If they put Shanti on pred, you will see pretty fast results (for Mia it was literally just a few days) BUT you will be looking at side effects from the pred. When she was on her highest dose, Mia had to pee every 2 hours. We didn't go ANYWHERE that we couldn't be back within 2 hours or we knew she would have an accident. Also, pred stimulates the appetite so she will eat any and everything that you leave out (we just got more dilligent about putting everything away and not leaving crumbs or plates where she could get to them). Her personality changed slightly, which our vet told us was normal with super high doses of pred. Now that we have her on a much much smaller dose, she is starting to play with stuffies and have more energy again.

 

I will let you know what Dr. Couto says. Like I said, I hope he has some brilliant magic pill that fixes everything with no side effects and my sweet Meems will be healthy and happy forever. If I am going to hope, I have to hope BIG!

 

And Xan, you come up with the best chants!

 

 

I am hoping BIG right there with you! I would bet Littlegreys (Sue) is too!

 

What type of behavior changes did you see? That is the part that concerns me, and is why we waited 2 weeks to start so I could monitor closely. I have small kids. I will be extra careful with her and them. My Nala is pretty good, she will steer clear. The behavior is why I did not take on Banjo and Finn. She loves having them for a while, and then is like a 2 year old. Mine, Mine, Mine. I was afraid she might turn aggressive. We have a dog door, she has access to it 24/7. Not that it means she will use it... How long until you reduce doses of medications?

 

There was talk of antibiotics too, this might counteract the prednisone eating path. But I will put EVERYTHING away. Including my TV remotes.

 

I totally understand wanting the "magic pill with no side effects". Shanti is only 4 and we have been doing this game, as I call it, for 2 years. I hate the fact that I could be shortening her life, but I also know that the pain she is in can't continue. It is like a catch 22. I am thrilled to hear Mia is doing well on it. There is hope that they go into remission and can stop all medicine for a while. It tends to come back, but it is not constant. I will send you the links of story's I found if you would like. It gave me hope.

 

Tomorrow is a wild day here. I will let you know what doses of what she is put on when I can. May be later tomorrow night.

 

Thanks to all for the good wishes. I just want my baby girl pain free!

 

By the way Alisha, when you get more ribbon for the Hope for Hounds let me know. I know it is for cancer, but the Hope, Believe have a different meaning here. My birthday is coming up, I get a little guilt free spending.

[2hounds]

Actually Mia's behavior changes were more that she became very mild and sedate. She was a little pistol when she first came home, her favorite pasttime was stealing the bathroom mat and flinging it around the house and she enjoyed a few laps up and down the stairs any time possible. She gave kisses constantly, if your face was in reach, it was being bathed with her tongue.

 

On the higher doses of pred, she is just much more calm and sedate but still very loving and sweet. It was just a much calmer kind of sweetness. I didn't get a single kiss from her from June when she first went on the high dose of pred until December when she went down to 15mg/day and I remember celebrating the first tiny kiss I got from her like it was a miracle As her dosage decreases, her personality is coming back (the bath mat was in the hallway the other day...I have my suspicions! ) and she is much more kissy and just more like herself.

 

I do know what you mean about the internal debate. It really does suck that we might be shortening her life by keeping her on steroids long term, but the alternative was even worse in her case.

 

About the Hope ribbon - I was expecting it today (every time I heard a car, I jumped up to see if it was the "Big Brown Truck") so hopefully it will be here tomorrow!

[gracegirl]

Feel better Shanti, we'll be thinking of you and chanting!

[Guest argolola]

I will be praying. God bless.

[Xan]

Reading all this ... I didn't know this stuff. What a lousy deal.

But, on the positive side ('cause that's what we're about, right??), with the drugs as balanced as possible (and whatever other alternative therapies might be helpful), the life they will have is one based on quality over quantity. Concentrated, distilled, dense, juicy, tasty, happy life.

:bighug

[ShantisMom]

Okay, we are back from the vets. Slight change in plans. Since she was doing so well today (go figure!) we are shifting courses. She has been off the Previcox for 4 days. The swelling did not go out of control, nor did her other joints swell up. She is still very gimpy, but not as bad as she was the other day. So...we are trying a round/series of adequan. It is a 3 week process. Hopefully this will build up her joints a bit. If that does not improve it, we will then move onto the Imuran. We are going to hold off on the prednisone. The vet thinks the risks are greater than the benefit on Shanti right now. Since we did not see such a huge difference coming off the NSAIDs, she did not think it was right to jump into steroids.

 

I am once again, hopefully optimistic, but have a bit of doubt. We will do 2 injections a week for 3 weeks. If she turns worse, we will change course yet again. I must say I was pleasantly surprised at the cost of the injections. When I looked into it with another vet a couple years ago for Kona, it was $100 per injection. It is only $42 here.

 

I had to laugh at Shanti. First off, she is a DIVA! And a serious pansy. When we got to the vets, she was barely limping. I know she hurts, but I am beginning to think she may be snowing me a bit.

 

We did discuss the joint fusion and possible amputation. We will exhaust all other options first.

 

Xan, you hit it on the nose. I have come to the conclusion that I want Shanti to have a great quality of life. I will take the quantity I can get. The longer the better!

 

We are just rolling with the punches here. She goes back on Monday for her second injection.

 

Thanks for all the good wishes! We need them!

[Guest BlackandBrindle]

Shanti has been much in my thoughts these past weeks. I hope this works for her!

 

 

I think at the very least she deserves more cookies today

[Xan]

That's all pretty good news! Let us know how it plays out.

[Guest lotsagreys4me]

I am watching this closely. Please let us know how this all goes. prayers to you

[2hounds]

Re: barely limping at the vet - my vet told me you can't always tell how an animal is feeling while they are at the vet. The car ride, change of scenery, change of routine, etc gets their adrenaline pumping and sometimes a very very sick dog will act perfectly normal at the vet's office because the adrenaline boosts their strength and knocks out the pain. So she probably isn't snowing you at home, she loves her mommy and would never try to fool her!

 

Glad to hear she feeling a tiny bit better a few days off her meds. I hope she continues to improve and is feeling better in a short short period of time!

[Guest Winterwish]

Shanti is in my thoughts and prayers for the injections to help a great deal. Her sweet self in your siggy picture is always just so adorable to see!

[iluvgreys]

Keeping prayers and light flowing to Shanti. So hope this course of treatment is effective for her.

[jamngrey]

keeping you both in my prayers and hope for help