Been kind of down here, :( struggling with Luna's health and so I am finally gonna write about whats goin on. To start, Luna has had chronic diarrhea since she was a pup. We got her at 7 weeks old. But she gained weight, and ate good. Then at about 1years old, she got super picky about eating. We tried to figure out what was going on for the past 6 months, putting her on different antibiotics and such, switching brands of food etc. She is suppose to eat like 2 1/2 cups of dog food a day. Often times I could only get her to eat 1 1/2 for the whole day. She just kept getting pickier and pickier but acted totally fine and happy. Since she was about 1 year, she has weighed 45 lbs. She realistically should weigh at least 50-55 which is why we tried to figure out what was with the diarrhea but cuold never come to a conclusion. Well I got home from spring break in March and she lost alot of weight and there was blood in her stool. She was 38-39 lbs and was acting tired, but not lethargic. She wouldnt eat very much at all, 1/2 cup a day if that. We started doing test after test trying to figure out what could be going on. We put her on a special prescription diet (z/d diet). She would eat the canned food ok, but it was still very difficult to get her to eat. I tried adding peanut butter, bbq sauce, anything to make it taste "better". That first week we got back, we did blood work and found her hematocrit and hemoglobin were very low and that she was extremely lacking in the albumin department. She was super anemic and malnourished cuz we couldnt get her to eat a good amt. So she got a B12 shot and antibiotics. Our vet had a huge list of things that could be happening and narrowed it down eventually to Lupis, leukemia, severe allergy or a rare disease called lymphangectasia. Her first initial thought was Addisons diease but the other diseases we were facing were much more severe so that got put on the back buner. The next week her platelets crapped out and the vet told me that I needed to face the inevitable that I was most likely going to lose Luna cuz if her platelets got much lower she would bleed out. That on top of my crazy school workload has really made me down lately, cuz Luna is my baby! Well, we put her on a new diet... 1/2 cup farina, 1 1/2 cups of cottage cheese, 1 tbs veggie oil, 3 tbs sugar and 2 tbs brewers yeast with one boiled egg. BOY! Did she start eating good. We also put her on prednisone. Prednisone is bad long term for dogs and causes complications and shortens thier lifespan, but its a short term wonderdrug. We were willing to do whatever we needed to do to help her. A few days later, her platelets had doubled. YAY! We were seeing small improvements. We did a titer and found that it was not Lupis. A buffy coat smear showed that it is most likely not leukemia (although for 2 weeks we thought thats what it was). She began to gain weight like crazy. Last week she was back to her 45 lbs and starting to feel much better and much happier. Then a new symptom. Shivering. Emergency trip to the vet we go and I miss class for it. We thought it was her potassium being low causing the shivering and they did an electrolyte panel checking her potassium and sodium. Abnormal potassium levels can cause heart arrthymias so it was important to check this. The electrolyte panel comes back... Prednisone makes ya really hungry, thirsty and pee alot. You pee out potassium so her potassium should be low and her sodium high due to the pred. well, her labs were perfect, which made the vet think its Addisons (the first thing she initially thought). She kept thinkin its addisons, while the pathologist she has been working with on Lunas case thought leukemia or lymphangectasia. Well this past monday we put her on Florinef, a drug that manages lifelong Addisons. 4 days later her stool is improving despite the fact that her poor intestines hate life. Rather than being watery, its got some kind of consistency which again makes Dr. Carol think its Addisons. So we have been on a roller coaster of "shes gonna make it, no shes not, shes gonna make it, no shes not". Well Tuesday, she begins to do the shivering thing again (which is a sign of addisons, but at this point, could it be somethign else?) But this time its her whole body, so I call Dr. Carol and ask her what she thinks, do i bring her in or let it pass? She wants me to bring her in for another complete blood count. well, her hematocrit and hemoglobin are improving YAY! She also has reticulocytes which means her body is TRYING to make Red blood cells. But her platelets went down the hole again :( lower then the first time. So Wednesday, she goes in for a blood transfusion. Ya gotta think we are crazy at this point to be doing this for a dog. But Luna is not even 2 yet...and if it truely is Addisons, if we get her past this stupid part, she will be a healthy dog once again. So, blood transfusion goes well. Her gums are pinker, rather than pale paper white. Now we got a new problem. Over the past few days she has been breathing more rapid each day. Prednisone can cause that. Its a side effect. Well by yesterday when we took her to do the blood transfusion, Dr. Carol wanted to do an xray of her tummy cuz her tummy was distended. Sure she has been eating 3 times a day, a healthy amount, and shes got a big belly. She went from 39 lbs to 48 lbs in 2 weeks. On the xray, they were looking for a constricted bowel or intestinal problem that we would finally be seeing cuz she was eating. If this was the case, surgery would be required. Well, good news, but uncomfortable news for luna. No surgery required is the good news. Bad news, She has ascites, this means "fluid in the abdomen" The reason her tummy is so full is that fluid from her blood vessels has leaked out into her peritoneal cavity. Albumin, one of the largest proteins in our bodies, helps maintain an osmotic fluid balance in our vessels. If you lose albumin, your fluid starts to shift out of the vessels and this is what has happened to Luna. Albumin also is a sign of how nourished one is. So if you are malnourished, like Luna was, byebye albumin. This fluid buildup is mashing up on her diaphragm and making her take shallow breaths so she is breathing much faster. And she is quite uncomfortable now :(
well, just got back from the vet. We did a paracentesis, which means Dr. Carol drew fluid out of Luna's abdomen. She pulled 265 ml's total. This should help her feel a lil more comfortable. Because she got a whole blood transfusion yesterday, her blood should have albumin in it now which will pull that fluid back into the vessels. But that is gonna take 3-4 days or so. So, we went ahead and did a paracentesis to help her feel a lil better. This may sound awful and like we are prolonging something and just making her uncomfy and unhappy. But she is still a happy, love on me, cuddle with me, do tricks for a treat happy dog. We just have to fix these other problems (which means she may be uncomfy for a short while) before she gets better. We really are trying to do what we can for her. Right now, we still have options and we are taking them, as we did yesterday with the blood transfusion and today with the paracentesis. Our vet feels good about her prognosis so that is hopeful. If it truely is Addison's as they all believe it is, then all this will be well worth it since she can live a normal life with Addison's... Here are a few pics of our baby girl. Look at her lil paws where they shaved to do the blood transfusion. Please pray for our pup!
