Janine has been showing some exercise intolerance which I took to be pain. My vet appreciated some irregularities in her heartbeat so thought it might be heart enlargement. She got lower back/hip/knee and chest xrays and it is both. Her right hip is bad, some arthritis, and her heart is slightly enlarged. She had also gained weight. Her lower spine looked pretty good, he didn't really go up to where IVDD problems normally show up, though.
Result: take her off prednisone and sub in cyclosporine (maybe later off azathioprine, too, normally they would not be taken together but she is on a very low dose of the latter and will be on a low dose of cyclosporine. The pred could be getting her heart and causing weight gain, he thought her liver might be slightly enlarged, too.
Tramadol for pain as she can't take NSAIDs. I gave her half of one just now as she had a hard time at the vet's though she was not sedated for the Xrays.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Annual Checkup
Janine had her annual checkup and bloodwork and all is well. She is tolerating her meds well, platelets are good, RBC is good, liver is good. No surprises.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Time for an update
Yes, Janine is still here! In fact, her Christmas 2008 wish of chasing rabbits has more than come true..she has caught rabbits!
Janine is still on a maintenance dose of both Pred (5mg eod) and Azathioprine (1/4 tab eod) and doing fantastically well. She looks good and feels good and is her old self. Hard to imagine two years ago she was at death's door.
we do know lymphoma is a possibility in the future and I do now and then check her glands and her gums, but basically she is now a normal, healthy corgi.
Janine is still on a maintenance dose of both Pred (5mg eod) and Azathioprine (1/4 tab eod) and doing fantastically well. She looks good and feels good and is her old self. Hard to imagine two years ago she was at death's door.
we do know lymphoma is a possibility in the future and I do now and then check her glands and her gums, but basically she is now a normal, healthy corgi.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Reducing the Azathioprine
So my vet suggested reducing Aza to 1/4 tablet eod (every other day.) I started doing that on Tuesday and am a little uneasy about it, watching Janine for a relapse. Poor Janine- I'm always looking at her gums and examining her eyes and belly for bruising or bleeds. But she seems to feel fine. She looks good, has good energy, and isn't too bitchy.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
October update
I had Janine's bloodwork done earlier than planned as I expect to be out of town next weekend and was worried about leaving her if she wasn't 100%. Well, she IS 100%! Everything looked good. She's doing very well on the lower dose of pred and her coat feels better, she isn't so thirsty, and her numbers are still staying in the normal range. Even her RBC is normal now.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Good news for Janine
Janine is still doing well so its time to reduce her pred to 5 mg eod. All her numbers except RBC/HCT were good (and her red blood count has never been normal.) She feels good and her teeth looked much better than in the spring and no longer look like they need cleaning. (Lots of marrow bones this summer or maybe it was those rabbit bones!)
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Vet visit 5/14/2009
There's good news, then there is bad news.
The good news is that after a week on 10 mg per day of Pred, Janine's ALT is lower, platelets are still normal, and RBC and HCT are coming up, closer to normal than before.
The bad news is that Dr. K. checked out her back, and thinks she has a slow response (proprioceptive defect) in her left rear leg and pain around L2-3. Likely a disk. We did not do any X-rays as she is a very poor surgical candidate right now, anyway. She's already on Pred and can't take any NSAIDS because of her liver, already on SAM-e. So he gave me Tramadol and Robaxin to make her feel better.
He said that although steroids are used to reduce swelling, they also have negative effects on all the other tissues, and even something as simple as her muscle loss could have precipitated the back issue. Hopefully if that's the case she could improve once her muscle builds back up.
My gut feeling is not to try to restrict her activities. She already isn't jumping (her choice) and since her life expectancy is already probably limited, I can't see making her spend it in a crate. I'd rather let her run and be a corgi and if her back goes, it goes, we'll deal with paralysis if we have to. (Probably a better bet than risking her life on surgery but I suppose if her ALT is normal and RBC is back to normal at some point, I might reconsider that.)
The good news is that after a week on 10 mg per day of Pred, Janine's ALT is lower, platelets are still normal, and RBC and HCT are coming up, closer to normal than before.
The bad news is that Dr. K. checked out her back, and thinks she has a slow response (proprioceptive defect) in her left rear leg and pain around L2-3. Likely a disk. We did not do any X-rays as she is a very poor surgical candidate right now, anyway. She's already on Pred and can't take any NSAIDS because of her liver, already on SAM-e. So he gave me Tramadol and Robaxin to make her feel better.
He said that although steroids are used to reduce swelling, they also have negative effects on all the other tissues, and even something as simple as her muscle loss could have precipitated the back issue. Hopefully if that's the case she could improve once her muscle builds back up.
My gut feeling is not to try to restrict her activities. She already isn't jumping (her choice) and since her life expectancy is already probably limited, I can't see making her spend it in a crate. I'd rather let her run and be a corgi and if her back goes, it goes, we'll deal with paralysis if we have to. (Probably a better bet than risking her life on surgery but I suppose if her ALT is normal and RBC is back to normal at some point, I might reconsider that.)
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