o_rooly Posted February 18, 2014 Author Share Posted February 18, 2014 I've sent Aston's CBC and blood chem results from Thursday to Dr.Couto, awaiting his response. He said that we may want to culture separately for mycoplasma, but it's likely not necessary if his symptoms don't return while he's on pred. The problem is, the symptoms haven't left -- Aston can only barely touch that foot to the ground. To top it off, we let him out back to pee before dinner, and a bee stung him in his only good leg. gave him benadryl, and thus far, no swelling, though he's newly uncomfortable. Bless this poor dog... Quote every day a tiny adventure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mychip1 Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Best wishes for your boy. Quote Robin, EZ (Tribal Track), JJ (What a Story), Dustin (E's Full House) and our beautiful Jack (Mana Black Jack) and Lily (Chip's Little Miss Lily) both at the BridgeThe WFUBCC honors our beautiful friends at the bridge. Godspeed sweet angels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawthorn Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Poor Aston. What dose of pred is he on? Quote When a relationship of love is disrupted, the relationship does not cease. The love continues; therefore, the relationship continues. The work of grief is to reconcile and redeem life to a different love relationship. ~ W Scott Lineberry Always Greyhounds Home Boarding and Greyhounds With Love House Sitting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
o_rooly Posted February 18, 2014 Author Share Posted February 18, 2014 Poor Aston. What dose of pred is he on? 60mg daily, along with 50mg azathioprine every other day. Quote every day a tiny adventure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remolacha Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Poor boy, he just can't catch a break Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawthorn Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Obviously I am not a vet, and have only my experience of dealing with something very similar to go on, but I am wondering if that dose of pred is enough to be immune-suppressing for him. How much does he weigh? My boy used to weigh around 39kg (85 pounds) and the specialist put him on a dose of 100mg daily initially. When he reduced the dose to 50mg daily Sunny relapsed within 24 hours and had to be put back on the 100mg daily for another couple of weeks. Quote When a relationship of love is disrupted, the relationship does not cease. The love continues; therefore, the relationship continues. The work of grief is to reconcile and redeem life to a different love relationship. ~ W Scott Lineberry Always Greyhounds Home Boarding and Greyhounds With Love House Sitting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
o_rooly Posted February 18, 2014 Author Share Posted February 18, 2014 I just read around (and of course, the internet is always right )... an immunosuppressive pred dose is 2-4mg/kg/day?, and Aston's ~66lb (has lost weight since we upped pred ) = a little under 30kg = minimal immunosuppressive dose. hrm. I think that right now, my vet is waiting on the rheumatoid-factor test results, which should come back any day now. Still waiting to hear Dr. Couto's input on the CBC/chem, too.If rheumatoid-factor results come back negative, I'll push for a mycoplasma culture. At least Aston seems to be in good spirits. He's getting better at being on three crappy legs. Goes out back to our wee backyard in the morning and tries to play-stretch, wags his tail, tries to do sillies, can't, stops, wags, looks at me. Quote every day a tiny adventure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carronstar Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 I just read through this whole thing. You and Aston have certainly been on a roller coaster. I hope that all the vets and tests are able to resolve this. Wags and attempted sillies are wonderful. Go, Aston! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
o_rooly Posted February 18, 2014 Author Share Posted February 18, 2014 My husband just messaged me to report that Aston cried when he tried to get up for his walk this morning after I left for work, and it was all he could do to go out back to pee. he can barely walk now. His condition hadn't changed when I checked on him and fed breakfast this morning -- he was on three legs, but chipper, and I could manipulate the joint without a peep. I've texted the vet. Don't know what to do. My husband has been very supportive in my care decisions for Aston up to this point -- has basically left it up to me, and has been there 100% to keep up with meds, soaks, icing, carrying -- but he is very distressed that Aston is suffering without answers (as am I... but it's so hard... he keeps rebounding, and there are still possibilities to explore... but our friend and charge faces a lot of suffering through it, ups and downs). I am going to leave work ASAP to check on him. My heart is falling apart. Quote every day a tiny adventure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MnMDogs Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Oh no... I have been following this intently and truly feel for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawthorn Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 I feel for you too ... My boy was just as bad, if not worse, before he was on the correct dose of steroids - he could not stand at all when we emergency hospitalized him at a specialist centre because we were getting nowhere with our GP vets. We got him back a week later but he had to be emergency hospitalized again when he relapsed due to the steroids being reduced too soon. It was one of the most stressful periods of my life but we got through it and 20 months later my boy is fine and enjoying life. Hang in there. Quote When a relationship of love is disrupted, the relationship does not cease. The love continues; therefore, the relationship continues. The work of grief is to reconcile and redeem life to a different love relationship. ~ W Scott Lineberry Always Greyhounds Home Boarding and Greyhounds With Love House Sitting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
o_rooly Posted February 18, 2014 Author Share Posted February 18, 2014 The vet called in a round of doxycycline (200mg 2x daily for 20 days). I just gave his first dose with more ground bison and green beans. Aston had almost made it to the door to greet me when I got home. He hightailed it to the kitchen after me when he heard the refrigerator open, and proceeded to hound me for the food I was preparing. Cleaned his bowl, hopped out back, peed, then proceeded to hop over to his couch and rub his face all over it. :beatheart I (gently) manipulated the joint without a peep from him.I'll be lucky if I live to see my 33rd birthday. Quote every day a tiny adventure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carronstar Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Holding all of you in my thoughts and prayers. It is unbelievably hard to see them going through any kind of pain. Happy almost (?) 33rd birthday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
o_rooly Posted February 24, 2014 Author Share Posted February 24, 2014 An update:When I came home from work on Thursday (the 20th), after a little over 48 hours since starting doxycycline, Aston greeted me without any trace of a limp (!!!!), whereas he had still been a tripod that morning. He will still occasionally rise from his bed holding that foot up, but will then put weight on it without a problem. His medial wrist is still swollen and warm; the allover swelling around the joint reduced a bit from Thursday-Friday, but has remained steady since.He is wasting quickly from the upped prednisone. I've increased his food to 4 meals a day (2 with meds, 2 extra) to try to keep up. Unfortunately, bison is too rich for him to be able to absorb 4 meals' worth, so I'm going to start using boiled chicken for his extra meals... hope he won't react badly. He is RAVENOUS, though, so at least getting him to eat isn't a problem. I'm just trying to find a happy medium between keeping him satisfied / fighting the wasting and feeding him so much that it all goes right through him.Aston had been panting following the first few meals with doxy, so I asked his vet about adding carafate. She recommended upping to omeprazole instead of pepcid; I started him on the Costco delayed-release version last night (dosage is 20mg 1x daily). Thankfully, Aston has been restful after meals over the last 24 hours.His movement is fluid, he's happy and sparkly to go on walks, likes to trot, is able to settle in bed (or on the couch) quickly, and he sleeps peacefully. His teeth are turning really crappy really quickly (as they tend to do on higher pred doses), so I've picked up some more Petzlife oral gel to get things under control. I used to give him raw turkey necks, which kept his teeth looking great, but I'm leery of giving him anything raw while he's on the immunosuppressive dose of pred + azathioprine.It's interesting that whenever I mention Aston's severe weight loss on higher pred doses to my friends whose dogs have been on it, they scratch their heads. Everyone I've spoken to (not on GT) is surprised to hear that Aston's losing weight, since their dogs have all gained on pred. Is that a greyhound-specific side effect? It seems like more than muscle wasting -- he's just burning through calories, metabolism full-throttle. I want to trot him out more and get some stairs in there to keep the musculature in use, but I'm afraid to burn more calories than I can get him to absorb So. We're taking it day-by-day. Dr. Couto recommended a culture for mycoplasma in the event that Aston didn't respond to the doxy, but it appears that he has. Joint is still being odd, but back when Aston was on pred and got hit by a double infection in his left-hind foot, that foot didn't turn completely back to normal (in terms of swelling, temp and skin color) until Aston had been weaned off of the pred completely. Not sure if that's an indicator that the immunosuppressants are holding things back at this point...In the meantime, here's buddy today. Very skinny, but seems to be happy, and is quite engaged and alert. Quote every day a tiny adventure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawthorn Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Nice update - I'd been wondering how he was doing. My boy lost a lot of weight/muscle on steroids: he was a walking skeleton when we got him back from hospital and on top of that he had very little appetite so you are fortunate in that respect. He started to put the weight back on as the steroids were reduced and once he was a decent weight again I started to slowly increase his exercise to rebuild his muscle. He hasn't regained all the muscle he had before: he used to weigh 38-39kg but now only weighs 35kg, and he's not thin, so somewhere along the line he's lost 3-4kg of muscle. I'm not complaining though - the outcome could have been a lot worse. All in all, I think Aston looks pretty good! Quote When a relationship of love is disrupted, the relationship does not cease. The love continues; therefore, the relationship continues. The work of grief is to reconcile and redeem life to a different love relationship. ~ W Scott Lineberry Always Greyhounds Home Boarding and Greyhounds With Love House Sitting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carronstar Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Nice update! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest grey_dreams Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Glad to hear Aston's doing better. He sure looks happy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remolacha Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 He looks very happy! No help for you on the weight loss, except to say, can he eat things like cottage cheese, scrambled eggs (maybe w/cheese), ensure? Just to get some weight on him until the pred can be reduced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramonaghan Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Good update and for your sweet, smiley boy with some of the best earsies ever. Quote Rachel with littermates Doolin and Willa, boss cat Tootie, and feline squatters Crumpet and Fezziwig. Missing gentlemen kitties Mud, Henry, and Richard and our beautiful, feisty, silly Sweep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
o_rooly Posted February 24, 2014 Author Share Posted February 24, 2014 He looks very happy! No help for you on the weight loss, except to say, can he eat things like cottage cheese, scrambled eggs (maybe w/cheese), ensure? Just to get some weight on him until the pred can be reduced. We've been doing a bit of a food trial ("a bit of" as in not completely strict) in case food sensitivity has factored into the acute/intermittent arthritis. I've just been feeding him ground bison and sweet potato, used rice as an add-in to a few meals though we're trying to avoid grains, so I'm off to buy potatoes if not more sweet potatoes. Unfortunately, the bison is pretty rich even if drained and rinsed (it's already 90% lean), and it starts to go right through Aston if I try to feed more than 2 meals of it per day, so I'm boiling chicken for his extra meals and crossing my fingers. I think I'll try eggs next (if chicken is OK), since dairy isn't great on his stomach, if my memory serves... Quote every day a tiny adventure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatricksMom Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Despite 4 meals a day and lots of treats, Murphy kept dropping weight rapidly on Predisone. I'm not sure how much of that could have been the Lymphoma though. Quote Beth, Petey (8 September 2018- ), and Faith (22 March 2019). Godspeed Patrick (28 April 1999 - 5 August 2012), Murphy (23 June 2004 - 27 July 2013), Leo (1 May 2009 - 27 January 2020), and Henry (10 August 2010 - 7 August 2020), you were loved more than you can know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
o_rooly Posted February 27, 2014 Author Share Posted February 27, 2014 (edited) Here's Aston this afternoon: Two passersby on today's lunch walk asked if I just rescued him from a bad situation. Thankfully, we are going down to 30mg of pred from 60mg, for now. Hopefully, that and the continuance of 4 meals/day will stop the wasting. Happily, Aston is still ALWAYS willing to scarf some food. I gave him a few egg whites and a little ground bison for lunch, and lo! wee firm poops on his dinner walk!!! so hopefully, that means I've found something that he can easily absorb... so egg whites it is, at least for his "extra"/non-med meals. Will add more enzyme powder, too.Another happy note is that the omeprazole has had a few days to take effect; I stopped the pepcid yesterday (which I had been overlapping to cover any possible gap), and Aston was restful with no signs of discomfort after eating a medication-meal.Wrist swelling is slowly, slowly dissipating. I'm massaging his wrist very gently to try to distribute lymph.One day at a time Edit to add: Just fed him dinner -- more ground bison, with 2 egg whites that I had cooked earlier in coconut oil and refrigerated. I opened the wee piece of gladware that I had stored them in, and OMG, the fart smell. That's the reason I can't bear to eat precooked hardboiled eggs...I dumped the blob of egg whites into his bowl with the bison, and guess what he went for first?? dogs are gross. Edited February 27, 2014 by o_rooly Quote every day a tiny adventure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seeh2o Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 I'm so glad Aston is feeling better. Are you feeding him raw? Does he have food sensitivities? I'm on my phone and haven't read through the whole thread. If you are buying meat for him, do you know about Harmony Farms? Quote Sunsands Doodles: Doodles aka Claire, Bella Run Softly: Softy aka Bowie (the Diamond Dog) Missing my beautiful boy Sunsands Carl 2.25.2003 - 4.1.2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jetska Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 wow, what a skinny butt! glad to hear he's getting better though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
o_rooly Posted February 27, 2014 Author Share Posted February 27, 2014 I'm cooking Aston's food -- I would just feed him raw at this point, except that he's on the high pred + imuran for immunosuppression... I'm afraid raw could harm him right now? not sure. It seems that chicken and grains are at least irritating to him. My sister told me about Harmony Farms -- I haven't checked them out yet. The bison from Costco seems to be holding okay for him, though :\ Quote every day a tiny adventure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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