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Chase Episode


Tracey

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Guest wmlcml6

I'll be waiting somewhat patiently. I have been thinking strong healthy positive thoughts since this first happened, and am hopeful that it's going to be a one time episode or something easily treatable.

 

Chase, did you know you had so many friends? :-) Isn't it awesome? Love you so much, Superman.

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Guest MomoftheFuzzy

Cathie, you got it right -- Chase really is Superman! :) Just heard from Tracey before who said she'd indeed dropped him off with the vet tech for his ultrasound. Sending more good thoughts and hugs for them.

 

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I'm back home for now. Chrissy was kind enough to talk me down after I dropped Chase off at the vet. I realized it's the first time I've ever left him somewhere and it made me sad. Plus he didn't want to go with the tech; he pushed his butt against my leg and didn't want to leave me. Made it tough to let go. I saw Dr. Matz briefly and she said the radiologist usually comes by in the mornings so hopefully I'll get the call to go fetch him sooner rather than later.

...............Chase (FTH Smooth Talker), Morgan (Cata), Reggie (Gable Caney), Rufus
(Reward RJ). Fosters check in, but they don't check out.
Forever loved -- Cosmo (System Br Mynoel), March 11, 2002 - October 8, 2009.
Miss Cosmo was a lady. And a lady always knows when to leave.

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Guest MomoftheFuzzy
I'm back home for now. Chrissy was kind enough to talk me down after I dropped Chase off at the vet. I realized it's the first time I've ever left him somewhere and it made me sad. Plus he didn't want to go with the tech; he pushed his butt against my leg and didn't want to leave me. Made it tough to let go.

 

:grouphug I meant it all. Thank you for keeping us posted.

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Trying not to be too worried here. When I called they actually had to schedule a discharge because Dr. Matz wants to meet with us. We're supposed to go by at 6:30 to get him.

...............Chase (FTH Smooth Talker), Morgan (Cata), Reggie (Gable Caney), Rufus
(Reward RJ). Fosters check in, but they don't check out.
Forever loved -- Cosmo (System Br Mynoel), March 11, 2002 - October 8, 2009.
Miss Cosmo was a lady. And a lady always knows when to leave.

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Guest MomoftheFuzzy
Trying not to be too worried here. When I called they actually had to schedule a discharge because Dr. Matz wants to meet with us. We're supposed to go by at 6:30 to get him.

 

Could mean this episode was just that -- only an episode -- but he wants to touch base about how to handle such occurrences. That's how I'd think if I were a vet. Hang in there, Tracey and Jason.

 

:grouphug

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I'm sorry I'd missed this.

Sending lots of good thoughts out to you and Chase.

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Nancy, Mom to Evangelina and Kiva
Missing Lacey, Patsy, Buster, my heart dog Nick, Winnie, Pollyanna, Tess, my precious Lydia, Calvin Lee, my angel butterfly Laila, and kitties Lily, Sam and Simon
My Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Catsburgandhoundtown

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Finally back home, fed the kids and in process of feeding myself.

 

First the good news; nothing super serious found.

 

Now the bad news; Chase does have mildly leaky mitral and tricuspid valves and nothing on the ultrasound or EKG explains why. Dr. Matz showed us the report from the EKG (ultrasound official report will be in tomorrow) and there was a recommendation of a couple of blood tests. One of the things they would test for typically only shows up with lyme disease and he tested negative for that, so she doesn't see any point in doing that test. The other test he suggested turns out is some sort of test usually only done on people to determine if they've had a heart attack. Dr. Matz had a call into him to find out why he's recommending this. She drew blood just in case and is waiting to hear back from the technician to find out more about the other test (I believe it started with a T but I have no idea what it was called).

 

Anyway, Chase does have this occasional arrhythmia but nothing that would explain his seizure-like event. She doesn't recommend doing an MRI or anything that extreme since it would require anesthesia. Basically she wants us to keep Chase on limited activity for another day or two while she finds out a bit more about the other blood tests and decides whether we need to do them or not.

 

So, Chase has had a nice dinner and is now sleeping on the couch. Dr. Matz told us he was a really good boy and Chase LOOOOOOOVES Dr. Matz. In fact, when the tech brought Chase into the examining room he was more excited to see Dr. Matz again than he was us. ::) It's okay; we're just happy to have him back home.

...............Chase (FTH Smooth Talker), Morgan (Cata), Reggie (Gable Caney), Rufus
(Reward RJ). Fosters check in, but they don't check out.
Forever loved -- Cosmo (System Br Mynoel), March 11, 2002 - October 8, 2009.
Miss Cosmo was a lady. And a lady always knows when to leave.

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Finally back home, fed the kids and in process of feeding myself.

 

First the good news; nothing super serious found.

 

Now the bad news; Chase does have mildly leaky mitral and tricuspid valves and nothing on the ultrasound or EKG explains why. Dr. Matz showed us the report from the EKG (ultrasound official report will be in tomorrow) and there was a recommendation of a couple of blood tests. One of the things they would test for typically only shows up with lyme disease and he tested negative for that, so she doesn't see any point in doing that test. The other test he suggested turns out is some sort of test usually only done on people to determine if they've had a heart attack. Dr. Matz had a call into him to find out why he's recommending this. She drew blood just in case and is waiting to hear back from the technician to find out more about the other test (I believe it started with a T but I have no idea what it was called).

 

Anyway, Chase does have this occasional arrhythmia but nothing that would explain his seizure-like event. She doesn't recommend doing an MRI or anything that extreme since it would require anesthesia. Basically she wants us to keep Chase on limited activity for another day or two while she finds out a bit more about the other blood tests and decides whether we need to do them or not.

 

So, Chase has had a nice dinner and is now sleeping on the couch. Dr. Matz told us he was a really good boy and Chase LOOOOOOOVES Dr. Matz. In fact, when the tech brought Chase into the examining room he was more excited to see Dr. Matz again than he was us. ::) It's okay; we're just happy to have him back home.

 

Troponin more than likely, but that will only show heart damage if it's drawn within the first 12-16 hrs (unless it's different in animals, and that's Always possible, because they aren't people!!) It's a cardiac marker -- a special biomarker that is secreted when the heart is injured like from a heart attack. i just did some reading because it's usually drawn multiple times within the first 24 hours of the onset of chest pain, but if there is heart damage it can stay elevated for a week or two I just learned. it apparently can also be elevated in myocarditis (myo = muscle, card = heart, itis = inflammation. so it's inflammation or infection of the heart muscle), congestive heart failure (seen frequently with failing valves aka heart murmurs) and even in severe infections or kidney disease. (the last two I didn't know!)

 

Angie, Pewter, and Storm-puppy

Forever missing Misty-Mousie (9/9/99 - 10/5/15)
Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Finally back home, fed the kids and in process of feeding myself.

 

First the good news; nothing super serious found.

 

Now the bad news; Chase does have mildly leaky mitral and tricuspid valves and nothing on the ultrasound or EKG explains why. Dr. Matz showed us the report from the EKG (ultrasound official report will be in tomorrow) and there was a recommendation of a couple of blood tests. One of the things they would test for typically only shows up with lyme disease and he tested negative for that, so she doesn't see any point in doing that test. The other test he suggested turns out is some sort of test usually only done on people to determine if they've had a heart attack. Dr. Matz had a call into him to find out why he's recommending this. She drew blood just in case and is waiting to hear back from the technician to find out more about the other test (I believe it started with a T but I have no idea what it was called).

 

Anyway, Chase does have this occasional arrhythmia but nothing that would explain his seizure-like event. She doesn't recommend doing an MRI or anything that extreme since it would require anesthesia. Basically she wants us to keep Chase on limited activity for another day or two while she finds out a bit more about the other blood tests and decides whether we need to do them or not.

 

So, Chase has had a nice dinner and is now sleeping on the couch. Dr. Matz told us he was a really good boy and Chase LOOOOOOOVES Dr. Matz. In fact, when the tech brought Chase into the examining room he was more excited to see Dr. Matz again than he was us. : :) It's okay; we're just happy to have him back home.

 

Troponin more than likely, but that will only show heart damage if it's drawn within the first 12-16 hrs (unless it's different in animals, and that's Always possible, because they aren't people!!) It's a cardiac marker -- a special biomarker that is secreted when the heart is injured like from a heart attack. i just did some reading because it's usually drawn multiple times within the first 24 hours of the onset of chest pain, but if there is heart damage it can stay elevated for a week or two I just learned. it apparently can also be elevated in myocarditis (myo = muscle, card = heart, itis = inflammation. so it's inflammation or infection of the heart muscle), congestive heart failure (seen frequently with failing valves aka heart murmurs) and even in severe infections or kidney disease. (the last two I didn't know!)

 

 

Yes, that was the test! I knew someone would know. And our vet did say they've ruled out myocarditis, so the test would've been just to see if he'd had a heart attack. But no one she conferred with had heard of doing this test on a dog before. My guess, once she's talked with the technician, is she will opt not to perform this test.

...............Chase (FTH Smooth Talker), Morgan (Cata), Reggie (Gable Caney), Rufus
(Reward RJ). Fosters check in, but they don't check out.
Forever loved -- Cosmo (System Br Mynoel), March 11, 2002 - October 8, 2009.
Miss Cosmo was a lady. And a lady always knows when to leave.

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Guest vahoundlover

Keeping Chase in my prayers. I can imagine this testing...waiting...testing...waiting...has your nerves on edge, hang in there, we are here for you :grouphug

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Update - 10/31

 

The latest is we spoke to Dr. Matz yesterday and she spoke to a couple of cardiologists. She decided the Troponin test was not worth doing, but the second cardiologist she spoke with thinks we should do a 24 hour Holter Monitor test to find out if the arrhythmia Chase has is severe enough to have caused his seizure-like episode. And just how serious his arrhythmia is period.

 

For any of you who, like me, have no idea what a Holter monitor does, here is some language I've lifted from www.petcardiology.com:

 

"Holter monitoring is a valuable noninvasive tool for monitoring the cardiac rhythm over a prolonged period during normal daily activities. The advent of this diagnostic test has demonstrated that the incidence of serious arrhythmias is much greater than previously determined using routine electrocardiography. A resting electrocardiogram is typically recorded for several seconds to several minutes and is likely to miss or underestimate the underlying arrhythmia.

 

24 hour Holter Monitoring is a good way to detect heart problems that other tests can’t, in particular, Cardiomyopathy which is a disease of the heart muscle. Dogs and cats that seem fit and seemingly healthy, even with normal ECGs and echocardiograms, can suddenly collapse and die due to lethal arrhythmias."

 

I have found out that the need for this kind of testing is especially great in Boxers and Dobermans and as such, a lot of Boxer and Doberman breeders will loan these monitors out. Unfortunately, I haven't found any kind of loan program for Greyhounds or dogs in general and Dr. Matz said when she did this test last year it wound up costing about $400. I left a message with Dr. Matz asking her to look at the above-mentioned website, since it looks like you can get the testing done from them a lot cheaper and the machine supplied for free. Jason and I agree we need to get the testing done but anywhere we can economize on this would be a huge help.

 

Oh, and just to further explain, once the monitor is shipped in we would bring Chase in to the vet's office and they would get him all hooked up and then we'd take him back home for 24 hours during which he would do what he'd normally do, hooked up to the monitor. Some photos I have seen make it look like a vest they wear with electrodes underneath. So that's the latest. And Chase continues to seem fine, thank goodness.

...............Chase (FTH Smooth Talker), Morgan (Cata), Reggie (Gable Caney), Rufus
(Reward RJ). Fosters check in, but they don't check out.
Forever loved -- Cosmo (System Br Mynoel), March 11, 2002 - October 8, 2009.
Miss Cosmo was a lady. And a lady always knows when to leave.

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Well, I took Chase to the vet again today and now for the next 24 hours he's all "holter"ed up. They had to shave part of his chest, attach five electrodes and put him in this vest that holds the monitor in a pouch on his back. Basically he's just supposed to do what he would normally do so they can see how his heart reacts over a longer period.

 

When we got back home (I took Chase by myself because Jason had a phone meeting) I told Jason we were going to have to have a little chat with our son. A little background... Chase is 92 pounds of beefcake who, in the two + years we've had him has NEVER ONCE made anything even resembling an attempt to get into our car on his own. Jason has to lift him in, or if I have to do it I lift his front feet in and then wheelbarrow his back half into the car. Meanwhile, Chase is 92 pounds of dead weight.

 

So after Chase was all electroded up tonight I thought maybe I should have some help getting Chase in the car so he didn't become disconnected. So Dr. Matz and her vet tech Karen came out with me to help get Chase in the car. I held the hatch open and just as Dr. Matz and Karen were getting ready to lift Chase in -- the little stinker jumped in on his own! >:( So for the past two years while we've been breaking our backs laboring under the delusion that Chase was somehow incapable of getting into the car under his own power, it turns out he was just lazy. Or unmotivated. I know I've mentioned Chase is a huge baby. He's a big scaredy cat at the vet and I think maybe he was so relieved to be going home he finally found a little bit of ambition. What a goof.

 

By the way, we're returning the monitor on Sunday when Dr. Matz is holding an open house at her new facility. I expect we'll have the results sometime next week then. I'll keep you posted.

...............Chase (FTH Smooth Talker), Morgan (Cata), Reggie (Gable Caney), Rufus
(Reward RJ). Fosters check in, but they don't check out.
Forever loved -- Cosmo (System Br Mynoel), March 11, 2002 - October 8, 2009.
Miss Cosmo was a lady. And a lady always knows when to leave.

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Guest 3greysinPA

Sending good thoughts your way for your beefcake...and hoping that the holter monitor will help the vet decide how to better care for your big baby beefcake Chase...

awwwww.... i love the fact that he jumped in the car... what a stinker... many many hugs to you and your hound... and hoping he gets better very soon.

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