Quote:
Originally Posted by Scoobstersmom  (My dog has a diagnosis of CAH, has not had steroids and his liver numbers have dropped almost back into the normal range over a year's time.) ... It seems your dog has exactly the same diagnosis as mine. Kidney disease, hepatitis, pancreatitis. We're not sure about the gall bladder. Nothing has ever shown on a scan, but adding ursodial saved his life. I am sending lots of positive thoughts and prayers for your baby!
Diana and Scooby |
My vet loves the word "aggressive" and wants to "aggressively" treat this CAH now. He was even initially stressed that I refused to start the steroids today, even though he keeps making it sound like the steroids have a better-than-average chance of destroying her kidneys (doesn't sound like a win to me!). He agreed to wait until tomorrow, after I insisted that we need to know where her kidney values are first, to make that steroid decision. Can you tell me exactly what drugs/protocol was used for your Scooby? I tried going through the forums but can't seem to figure everything out.
Bumble is back on the ursodiol as of tonight, which seemed to be helping her gallbladder issues, anyway. She had been on Denamarin (SAM-E and milk thistle, I believe?) for a month or so, and will probably be going back on that tomorrow or the next day.
My problem with getting her in to see the specialist is the holidays. The specialist works at the emergency vet, but only sees patients by appointments on Monday through Thursday. Unfortunately, she's out ALL next week and not back in the office until the 30th. I just called them again to make sure I understood that correctly.
I am currently leaning towards refusing the steroid treatments until I can get an appointment with the specialist, and praying that I won't lose my little girl in the meantime, by being overly cautious and afraid to make a decision. It just seems like kidney support is okay (fluids), antibiotics are great, ursodiol is fine, and Denamarin is probably fine. She doesn't feel great, though, and in fact just threw up everything she ate and drank tonight.
My husband is afraid that waiting over a week to start treatment when she's already sick and has been so sick for a week is a really bad idea (I tend to think that, too, but I am SO afraid the steroids will kill her).
If her kidneys are compromised, and her heart MAY be, it seems like steroids are a bad idea. My fear is that this is something that's doing real and immediate damage to her liver, and that if I don't control it with steroids now, maybe she won't make it through this.
Thank you so much for all the information and support. I can't tell you all how much it means to me!
Now for the "Silly Bumble story of the day": My husband thinks the most unusual thing about Bumble is that we never heard her bark, not ONCE, until she was probably a year old and there was a space shuttle launch which shook the windows. She barked, once, at the rattling windows in the middle of the night. After that, she didn't bark again until she was around 3 years old. At that time, my dad came to visit and we had to put a mattress in the living room for him to sleep on. In the middle of the night, Bumble wandered through the house and found a strange item (mattress) taking up the entire living room floor, with a strange man on it. I guess she forgot he was visiting. As she got onto the mattress to check things out, he reached out to pet her, startled her, and she bounced off the mattress and began barking loudly. After that, she has never shut up.
Okay, that's not entirely accurate. She barks when we come home, barks for food and snacks and medicine treats (she is hypothyroid and gets meds twice a day), and has been known to bark at the cat when she gets in a weird spot where Bumble thinks the kitty shouldn't be. However, overall, she's still a VERY quiet yorkie! My dad of course thinks it's GREAT that he "taught" her how to bark, and frequently threatens to come teach her new tricks!
Thanks again for the prayers, and for letting me run all these ideas past you! Best wishes to all of you and your little furbabies!
Dana and Bumble