Alfreda Posted September 3, 2015 Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 Hope the surgery goes well, and that he'll be feeling a LOT better! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chene Posted September 3, 2015 Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 I haven't had internet for a while and won't for a while yet, but I just wanted to check it and wish you guys luck. I'm so glad it didn't turn out to be a kidney thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D'Elle Posted September 3, 2015 Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 Sending you a lot of good mojo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingfisher7151 Posted September 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2015 He's home! Stoned out of his mind and happy as hell. "Keep him calm"....Have you met this dog? Â Surgery was pretty easy, other than a slow heart beat early on. He has more antibiotics and pain meds, and soft food for 4-5 days. He feels great so far, but we'll see when the drugs wear off a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Coyote Posted September 4, 2015 Report Share Posted September 4, 2015 I missed it What was surgery for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingfisher7151 Posted September 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2015 The surgery was just to removed an abscesses tooth. It was the pre-surgery blood work that sent us down this kidney disease road. But he was at a higher risk given his prior problems and his poor kidney function. Â They sure pumped him full of fluid, I'm pretty sure he's been seeing yellow ever since. But they said it was to be expected, so we're not worried. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aschlemm Posted September 5, 2015 Report Share Posted September 5, 2015 How is he today? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GentleLake Posted September 5, 2015 Report Share Posted September 5, 2015 The surgery was just to removed an abscesses tooth. It was the pre-surgery blood work that sent us down this kidney disease road. Â Well, I wouldn't normally say an abscessed tooth is a good thing, but it may just have saved his life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingfisher7151 Posted September 8, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2015 Hi all, I'm sorry I didn't respond, we were all out camping at the lake for the long weekend. Â Needless to say, Trooper had a great time and is feeling fantastic! He didn't get any water time, but he was just happy to be camping. Â His mouth is healing just fine, he goes in for a check up tomorrow afternoon. He's just as happy and goofy as ever. But the doxy likely won't take any effect until 3 or 4 weeks after he started it, so I can't attribute his good spirits to that. But Im sure it feels great to get rid of a nasty tooth! Â Also, he currently has gone 3 days without prednisone!!! We've been in the process of weaning him very slowly, and after a week of 2.5 mg a day, we forgot to bring the pred camping. But he's doing great! We're SO hopeful that this is the end of this drug. Even since lowering his dose I'm seeing some changes physically. His muscle tone is getting better, his pasterns are straightening up, and he's been having to pee less. Fingers crossed!! Â And GentleLake, thank you for such a great outlook. Sometimes you have to see tragedy before you find the light again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingfisher7151 Posted September 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 9, 2015 Looks like we're not ready to go off the pred yet. He had a post-op appt today and was running a fever of 102.9. The vet said to keep an eye on his temp, and at about 7 this evening he started to give not-feeling-well signs. Sunken eyes, low ears, no appetite, and overall demeanor. Nothing bad yet, but it'll get worse if we don't give him a pill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RemsMom Posted September 9, 2015 Report Share Posted September 9, 2015 I'm glad Trooper made it through surgery well and had a great weekend. Sorry you had a setback. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcv-border Posted September 9, 2015 Report Share Posted September 9, 2015 But the doxy likely won't take any effect until 3 or 4 weeks after he started it, so I can't attribute his good spirits to that. But Im sure it feels great to get rid of a nasty tooth! Â I am glad Trooper is feeling so much better and was able to enjoy camping. Â I would expect the doxy to take effect within 3-4 days - at least you should begin to observe improvement. Before Lyme became such a well-known scourge, I had a dog with Lyme. She was so bad that she could barely walk and cried at night when she tried to move due to joint pain. (I know what it feels like since I had the same symptom when I had Lyme.) This was about 18-20 years ago, and we were informed that she was only the 5th dog in the county to have Lyme. Just our luck. Anyway, she was diagnosed the day before we were to take a 3 day weekend away. The vet offered to keep her (even though they didn't normally board) because they wanted to make sure she was medicated and to track her symptoms. (remember Lyme was a pretty novel disease at that time so the vets didn't know what to expect.) When we returned to pick her up, she was wiggling and jumping and just generally acting like a puppy. (Before we left, she could barely walk and was interested in eating.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingfisher7151 Posted September 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2015 I'm not sure we're winning the battle. Â He's had a GREAT 2 weeks, but the last 3 days have been bad. I just found him laying in front of the water bowl with his head over the water, clearly exceptionally thirsty but too nauseated to bring himself to drink. I used the syringe to get a decent bit of water in him. He has to stay hydrated with his poor functioning kidneys. I somewhat wonder if his bad days cause nausea, but the subsequent (self induced) dehydration is what makes it worse. He had a really high fever the other night, not quite as high now. I haven't taken his temperature, he can't stand it and it makes him more miserable. But I (unfortunately) have plenty of experience feeling his belly and knowing his temp. He was solidly in the 104 range, which is very typical of his bad spells. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue R Posted September 22, 2015 Report Share Posted September 22, 2015 I am so sorry to hear this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliepoudrier Posted September 22, 2015 Report Share Posted September 22, 2015 I can't remember--is he on any anti-nausea meds? Â J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcv-border Posted September 22, 2015 Report Share Posted September 22, 2015 Oh man. Very sorry to hear he is feeling nasty again. Sending healing mojo your way! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GentleLake Posted September 22, 2015 Report Share Posted September 22, 2015 I'm so sorry to hear he's still having a rough time. Â Does the vet think this is normal for tick borne disease treatment? I don't remember Tilly having any problems while on treatment. She just started acting better a couple days after we started her on doxy with no relapses. Â Of course, each dog's different and Trooper's got a complicated history, but I still wonder. Â Hope he's feeling better soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Coyote Posted September 22, 2015 Report Share Posted September 22, 2015 Oh, shoot. That poor dog. And poor you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingfisher7151 Posted September 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2015 He's not currently on any anti-nausea meds, he hadn't needed them until this point. Â He's worse now than he was earlier. He's very weak, and is uncoordinated in his back end. He looks like he could be 14. This was never brought up in a tick-borne discussion, and I doubt it's part of it. We have no idea, once again. He hasn't had his kidney levels rechecked, but I fear I wouldn't like the results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CSW Posted September 22, 2015 Report Share Posted September 22, 2015 SubQ for adding more fluids can be very helpful. Maybe ask your vet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfreda Posted September 22, 2015 Report Share Posted September 22, 2015 Really really sorry to hear this! Poor guy. How frustrating! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingfisher7151 Posted September 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2015 SubQ is definitely on the radar. His kidneys weren't bad enough to merit it last we checked, but if they're continuing to deteriorate I'll be adding it to his regime. Â We want as much time with him as possible. But that time has to be for him too, not just our selfish needs. We'll do whatever we can to keep him comfortable until he tells us otherwise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Coyote Posted September 23, 2015 Report Share Posted September 23, 2015 Ah, gees. I follow this closely as my Tommy had polyarthrits and was so sick. But she never got that bad. I'm still afraid it could come back on her. Â Believe me,you and Trooper are in my thoughts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Root Beer Posted September 23, 2015 Report Share Posted September 23, 2015 Prayers for you and Trooper . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingfisher7151 Posted September 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 25, 2015 This has been a REALLY rough one for Trooper. Worse than usual. Â He ate a couple bites this morning for the first time in 5 days. Otherwise we've been force feeding him liquefied wet food through a syringe. The poor thing still won't come in the kitchen and spent almost all his time hiding from us. He lost quite a bit of weight and was starting to struggle to walk. We got him antinausea meds which have done essentially nothing, and we upped his pred. I think what finally started to help was starting him on some tramadol last night, he's finally moving better this morning and showing interest in some toys. He clearly gets severe joint pain during these bouts, so I think the tram ado really helped. He would "eat" dinner at night and would usually throw it back up in the morning. I think these cycles are exasperated by his self induced starvation. But with any luck, we've started to turn the corner. Â I HATE seeing him like this. I'd be euthanizing him in a heartbeat if this were his constant reality. Every time he has a spell I find myself wondering "is this it?". But then he turns around into his normal happy self. Â I have some B12 on order for one of our horses, I'm thinking I'm going to try giving him a couple injections. I know it's unlikely its IGS, but it won't do any damage to give him a couple weeks on it. He'll pee it out if he doesn't need it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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