Katie Update

[philospher77]

Brief history for those who may've missed the first thread:

 

Katie showed signs of distress (panting, pacing, gagging and dry heaving) in the wee hours of the morning. I thought bloat, took her to the emergency vet, at which point she seemed much better. Did x-rays. No signs of bloat, but showed an enlarged spleen. Did ultrasound of the spleen and fine-needle aspiration, which showed that yes, the spleen was enlarged, but otherwise seemed normal. However, the ultrasound also detected distended vessels in the liver, and fluid in the abdomen. Recommended talking to the cardiologist, who did echocardiogram, and said that the structure and function of the heart seemed normal, although there might be a minor bit of left ventricular hypertrophy. Tentative diagnosis after all of this was possibly Budd-Chiara-like syndrome, essentially a partial blockage of the vena cava somewhere between the heart and the diaphragm. The final recommendation after all of this was to do a CT scan. And the note that you really don't want to see in your dog's records: "She's an interesting case."

 

So, I did the CT scan, and got to hear the second thing you don't want to hear from your vet: "She's a bit of an enigma." No signs of blockages, the liver vessels seem to be less distended, no signs of fluid in the abdomen. Best guess right now is that she threw a clot, which may have been the cause of the distress that started this entire cascade of events, but that the normal physiological processes have broken it down. No clot, no increased blood pressure in the liver, no fluid in the abdomen. The spleen is still larger than normal, but still regular. Without anything to compare it to, it's possible that it's "normal for Katie". The advice from the vet is to just keep an eye out, and unless I see additional symptoms or signs, just consider it "one of those things".

 

So. Part of me is happy that there is nothing wrong with her. Part of me, on the other hand, would have liked to have a firm diagnosis, a smoking gun of some sort. It's a lot of things to have happened to not have any resolution!

[greysmom]

So... Good news. Mostly. You can always send the test results and such to Dr Couto. He does consult on non-cancerous cases, and he might have some sort of insight or direction to explore.

[seeh2o]

Oy, talk about good and "bad" news. I'm glad she's feeling better, though!

[tbhounds]

That's good news. I understand it left you head scratching but, whatever it was is now resolved. You may want to run this by Dr Couto-I would ask him if he thinks you should start a low dose aspirin regimen.

[Remolacha]

Good news is that whatever it was is apparently over I always want to know why, but sometimes, you just never find out.

[Batmom]

Hope nothing like that ever happens again!