| Ellie May | 12-18-2011 01:31 PM |
Thank you all very much for the concern.
Ellie is doing well. She is walking, eating, drinking, peeing (in the house, but we'll take it ;) , growling if her brother gets close to her, and trying to climb. So she is now banished to the playpen (which is a good thing). It was impossible to try and assess anything about her neuro state last night because she was just so drugged from her buprenorphine. It looked very much like she wasn't going to come out of it and/or she was going to continue to be too painful to manage at home. So I was just going to have her admitted somewhere today. But she woke up doing much better.
A neurologist will be involved to some extent this week. There were options laid out and that really isn't important to get into. To clear up any confusion though, the major thinking behind me saying that a neuro would be almost useless (poorly worded) is that THIS WEEKEND it would be an emergency consult and Ellie's vet feels that an emergency consult is not warranted UNLESS we were going to go to surgery should IVDD be diagnosed. They would think about doing surgery for this right away whereas most everything else is just supportive care until a neuro can fit the pup in. At this time there is risk (that we understand and are wiilling to accept), but for what we as a family have in mind, it is not wrong to wait as long as she is confined.
We have discussed pain control (and discussed it again today because we want to make sure that we are doing what is right for her). In this case and at this time, Ellie's vet does NOT want her to be hospitalized just to control pain when we have a reasonable handle on it at home. She does not think it would be in her best interest. Taking the whole picture into consideration, including an exam, medical history, and behavioral issues, plus the fact that she is just much more comfortable with her people around, she feels Ellie should stay home. She said this is where Ellie is happy and it is not unfair to her to continue with the current plan.
As for injectable vs oral pain meds, I agree that it is easier to avoid the mouth. However, that isn't always possible, nor is it always the right thing to do. The drugs that Ellie has historically done well on for spinal pain are oral drugs. There are four or five other health issues to consider here also, which while maybe taking a back seat, they are still an extremely important consideration. Pain meds are already a a risk for her, so we do need to be very careful. If we could go daily and have something injected, have her admitted with an IV of something, etc., ok, but right now that doesn't seem to be in her best interest. We have been able to get her pills in without incident.
Anyway, thank you all very much. I'm very optimistic that she will come out of this right now. | 