Robin Is Home From The Hospital!

[fourofem]

Good to see him looking so well!!!!

[Guest LindsaySF]

Great to hear!

[DesiRayMom]

Beautiful!!!! He looks, healthy, happy, & mischievous.

[greytpups]

Awesome news

[duncan41]

Robin, you luke maahhhhh-velous!

 

He really looks fabulous and has that glint in his eye, too! Oh and yeah, what DO you mean that he's not supposed to have that toy????????????????/:lol

[carronstar]

Whoo hoo!!!!

[maximum]

Getting into trouble and being mischievous = a happy & healthy hound! Sooooooo glad to see it; keep getting into trouble, Robin!!

[Guest brady_the_greyt]

Rita,

I hope all is still well with Robin. Our 5 year old grey was diagnosed a couple weeks ago with pemphigus foliaceus although the dermatologist fears it is likely the more severe form bullous pemphigoid. Regardless, he is now on a similar heavy regimen of meds similar to what Robin took: 4 x pred, 1 x Imuron, 1 x Simplicef, and 1.5 x a pain mgt drug. Our normal vet is not very optimistic and we have agreed that we may have to make the final decision next week. However, both my wife and I and the vet do see some improvements in his skin. A lot of the crusty scabs are gone (lots of fur also gone along his spine, tail, and face) and he has healthy looking pink skin underneath. His appetite is great and he still likes to go on a very short walk before the sun comes up in the morning.

 

However, his ears are still a mess and he has lost almost 20 pounds in 2 weeks. Most of the weight he has lost is from his rear legs - his big butt muscles are all but gone. My wife and I are crossing our fingers that he continues to show improvements but the weight/muscle loss scares me. If he does pull through, what are good options to help him egt this muscle back (if possible at all)? Also, what kind of maintenance drugs is Robin currently on? Any recurrances of the disease?

 

Thanks

Chris Caredeo

[fsugrad]

Chris, I am so sorry to read this about your hound. As you can see, it took a lot of time for Robin to be properly diagnosed and he was a bony, crusty mess.

I just wanted to let you know that there is hope!! Please don't give up yet! Back when Robin looked the way he did, I thought for sure we were doomed. But he has made a complete and full recovery and you would never in a million years guess that he had (I guess I should say has--pemphigus foliaceus). His skin is perfect, he gained all his weight back (in fact, he's on a diet right now because he's gained 4 pounds in the last few months...just because he eats like a horse and he's so stinking cute I'm a little too generous with the treats! ) and he is his happy, playful, puppy-like self again. When he first was diagnosed and on the road to recovery, the vets thought he'd have to take a small daily dose of pred for the rest of his life as a preventive measure, but he was doing so well that the vets decided against that, and he takes nothing. They figured that now that we know what it is, we could always just treat it at the first sign of a flare up. Believe me, if you met Robin, you'd have no idea he was ever sick! Please let me know if I can be of help in any way. The vets at the Univ of FL vet school were superb!!

Rita

I will share a few fairly recent pics so you can see for yourself...

This was taken on 1/2/11, so less than 3 mos after the pemphigus nightmare started. As you can see, coat grown fully back, no red spots. And he gained all his weight back. Robin was a skeleton!

 

Here is a face shot of him taken 1/16/11

 

 

And here's a close up of his face/ears taken 3/14/11. As you can see, not a trace of pemphigus bumps or crusties, and all fur grown back!

 

If you want to talk, PM me and I'll send you my cell phone #. Oops, doesn't look like you have enough posts to PM yet. My email address is ritjimphil at cox dot net.

I keep adding to this post because I'm at work and getting pulled in a hundred diff directions at once right now. I just wanted to add that Robin had muscle wasting too. At the height of his sickness, his once muscular and defined thigh/butt muscles (for lack of a better term) looked like they'd had the air let out of them. He did regain his muscle definition, too. Is your vet at a vet school or private practice? Reason I ask is because my excellent private practice vet was really mystified, and once she referred him to UF Vet School and was properly diagnosed and dosed, his recovery was amazing. As I said earlier, Robin takes no drugs other than heartworm and flea meds, and he's had zero recurrences. We pray he stays this way. As far as exercise, we just kept increasing the length of our daily walks with him as he could tolerate it.

Edited July 27, 2011 by fsugrad