Betty's Albumin Levels Are Back Up!

[jshell]

A quick recap of Betty Joan's story from the past couple of months: at the very end of April, she suddenly went into pure liquid diarrhea and vomiting, just a couple of days after I had gotten back from a 5 day trip. We got the vomiting under control but the diarrhea kept up for about three weeks (like clockwork - each Tuesday it would appear to be getting solid again, and then it would regress). She had also dropped weight from 55 pounds (in early march) down to 42. Some of that weight loss may have been due to running around doggy day care, but a good portion was definitely whatever was affecting her. Our vet expressed concerns about some low protein levels he was seeing in some of Betty's lab results. Ultra-sounds showed a lot of inflammation in the intestine and some even on the gall bladder.

 

By the end of May, Betty was doing much better. Except for some odd incidents on our walks when she would suddenly be dragging one or two of her feet. It started on her left side, and later occurred on her right side. On the first of June, I came home to a girl who could barely stand and was very wobbly. We had our first emergency vet experience and I was in total shock. My neighbor drove me and I had to have him start telling the vets what had happened as I could not speak, I was just holding on to Betty and bawling. I left her at the e-vet overnight and she had improved by morning and came back home, leaning heavily to her right side. She couldn't handle stairs and kept dragging both of her right feet, grinding one of her poor nails down to almost nothing over the next couple of weeks. But she got much better! A week and a half later and she could do stairs again. During a follow-up visit from our vet, he wanted to do another full blood panel. Betty was still very low on albumin - it was almost zero (I think... I know it was way way way way way way way way down).

 

Our vet said that this was probably due to what had happened to her back in May, and then contributed to the neurological incident in early June. He raised the specter of lymphosarcoma (sp?), IBD, etc. We could do a full scope-up-the-butt and biopsy, or start her on prednisone to go after the inflammation.

 

So we've been on prednisone (and tylosin), putting up with the annoying side affects (panting, heavy urination, etc) for the past couple of weeks.

 

We had a follow-up vet visit today to do some more blood chem work. And, finally, some good news! Betty's albumin levels are 2.8, back in the norm!

 

We've got two weeks of prednisone at full levels to go, and then I can start weaning her off. I can't wait for her to be off this pill, but it seems to have done the trick.

 

In the middle of all of this, Betty Joan turned eight. I'm re-sharing her birthday portrait and then am off to feed her a big happy yummy delicious dinner.

 

Thanks for everyone's help through all of this. It's hard to believe that just a month ago my poor beautiful girl was re-learning how to walk. Now she's dancing and prancing again!

 

Birthday Girl! (8 Years Old) by pet sounds and villains, on Flickr

[tbhounds]

Whoo hoo- happy birthday Betty!!!

[Batmom]

That is awesome news!

 

Happy Birthday, pretty girl!

[Remolacha]

:yay