Hi Tina, Glad Jasper is doing well. Hope things have settled a bit for you. Take care of yourself too.
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Hi Tina, Glad Jasper is doing well. Hope things have settled a bit for you. Take care of yourself too.
Hi Tina
Hope all going good with the little man Jasper.
Just thought I would let you know the IMS had a good listen to Flynn's heart and his murmur has not progressed any in the year since he first heard it so that was good news. I also asked him about the proteinuria and he is tending to think it is due to his IBD, but he also said Flynn is rewriting the text books in that regard with how well he is doing for so long. So long may it continue for both of them :D thanks for popping into his thread appreciate the support! xxx
OK, Tina, we've seen you popping in elsewhere so WE KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE!! :cool:
And we want an update on you and our boy and Shelby, too. ;)
Hoping all is well and that you are just busy...
Love ya,
Marianne
I see your light on Tina.;) How about that update?
I how all is well with you and the pups. xxxooo
Hi Everyone,
Thank you all for checking in on me and my little guy! I am happy to report that he has been hanging in there and doing pretty well overall. As I mentioned a while back, we had a vet appointment at the beginning of October for lab work and a follow up chest x-ray from when he was diagnosed with a heart murmur in August. He also had an exam. In preparation for the 10/4 appt I discovered that he was really supposed to have a repeat chem profile over 3 months prior to that, it was supposed to be in June sometime. He was sick at the beginning of May and had in house labs done at that time, which didn't include triglycerides. So I stupidly forgot to have a chem profile in June. :eek: I was so irritated with myself when I discovered that. I discussed it with the vet, and of course she said it was ok and she actually said that hopefully the triglycerides would be even better now, LOL. I don't know what happened, I'm usually so on top of things, I don't know how I missed that. :( Thankfully it didn't end up being detrimental for my boy.
The follow-up chest x-ray basically showed that his heart was not any bigger than two months ago, which is great news! :D She listened to his heart also and said the murmur sounded the same. So I'm very very grateful for that, and very relieved. She seemed very pleased also. I guess since he was just diagnosed, there's really no way to know how it's going to go or how fast it could deteriorate. So I'm very hopeful that maybe his will just stay stable for a while like Flynn and others have. She recommended that we repeat the chest x-ray in six months, but I asked her if we could recheck it again in two months, that I would feel better with that, and she agreed.
The abnormal labs are as follows:
ALT 222 IU/L (<100) H :mad:
ALP 3700 IU/L (<95) H :eek: :mad:
Cholesterol 449 mg/dL (125-260) H
Triglycerides 177 mg/dL (41-115) H
His BUN, creatinine, phosphorus, sodium and potassium were all right in the middle of the normal range. Yay! She was very happy with the triglycerides. Even though it is still high, it has come down so much from last time and especially from last December. In March it was 423, and last December when he was having all the problems it was way up to 1114. :eek: :mad: He was started on the prescription low-fat diet at that time. So it obviously seems to be helping. She felt it was good news with the labs overall, and felt that the reason he has been feeling so good is because we have gotten the triglycerides down so much. She was a little concerned with the ALT, but not too concerned with the ALP. Both of them are up since last time. (In March ALT was 148 and ALP was 2291). We will keep an eye on the ALT. And she reiterated again that the super high ALP does not indicate impaired liver function or damage, and in his case it's due to steroid hepatopathy. Even so, I wish it didn't continue to increase so much. That is quite an increase since last time, and I'd have to check back but it might even be the highest it's ever been for him or very well close to it. I think he may have had a value in the 4000's one time before.
I'm not sure if I've mentioned this in a post before, but we've been struggling with some sort of skin infection on Jasper's back for about the last five or six months. He gets these small kind of circular scaly type of patches. (Not ringworm, it's been checked). It started off just in between his shoulder blades, a couple spots here and there. They would heal and go away, and then intermittently crop back up again. For the past couple of months, he has quite a few more patches and they extend down his whole back now. They don't seem to bother him at all, not red, itchy or painful. Of course my concern was that it was some raging skin infection and he would need to be on an oral antibiotic, which I totally don't want to do since he has been eating so well. And we all remember how his stomach got so messed up the last few times he has been on an antibiotic. I ordered Trizchlor shampoo and spray from Amazon, and have been using that on him and it really has been helping. The vet checked his skin on three occasions and did not feel that an oral antibiotic was necessary thank God. She said to continue to use the shampoo every two weeks, so that's what I'm doing. It looks pretty good right now but it sure doesn't take much for it to flare up.
I also asked her if we could check Jasper's blood pressure while we were in, because I knew it had been quite a while since it had been checked. As it turns out he hadn't had it checked since January 2013. :rolleyes: The tech did three readings. The first was 190, the second and third were both 160. My vet was satisfied with the 160, she said she wasn't concerned with the 190. Jasper has not had a problem with high blood pressure, so I guess that's why. And in January 2013 it was 150. But I think I'm going to have to have it checked every so often at least a couple of times a year, since PLN can cause elevated blood pressure.
So the plan going forward:
- Continue Royal Canin Low Fat GI prescription diet
- Re-check the UPC in 2 months (beginning of Dec)
- Re-check chemistry profile (triglycerides) in 3-4 months
- Re-check chest x-ray in 2 months (beginning of Dec)
- Continue on previous meds and treatment:
Enalapril 5 mg 1/2 tab BID
Welactin 1/2 spoonful mixed with food BID
Dexamethasone 0.5 mg 1/4 tab every other day
Denamarin 225/24 mg one tab daily
Percorten injection 0.5 ml monthly
Trizchlor shampoo every 2weeks
So that's the very belated update on my little man. Very pleased overall with how he is doing and hope it continues. I feel like we finally have the Addison's under control and at some level of stability. I've learned a lot on when to give him extra Dex for stressful situations, etc. I feel a little concerned with his liver values being so elevated. It doesn't seem like the Denamarin is helping very much with the numbers, but I still continue to give it because I feel like overall it is good for his liver. And of course still a bit concerned regarding the heart murmur and proteinurea, but I'm hoping for the best at the beginning of December when we check the chest x-ray and UPC again.
Shelby seems to be doing really well, just her usual naughty, bossy little diva self! She continues to have some pretty significant behavior problems out in the yard (read mini Cujo at the fence with the neighbor dogs), and with people that come to the house. We are constantly working on those things. She will be three at the end of December, I can hardly believe it!
I continue to be ridiculously busy at work, I don't really know if there's an end in sight for that, I just try to deal with it as best as I can. Unfortunately, it has meant some long days for Jasper and Shelby. I've had some family issues going on also that have been a bit taxing. Some health issues with my Mom, which seem to be settling down right now thankfully. And some ongoing issues with my Nana at her assisted living. She is showing some additional cognitive decline again, and has been dealing them fits there from time to time.
Two weeks ago I had to replace my furnace and air conditioner. :eek: :eek: :( Very expensive and very stressful, and time-consuming getting contractors out here for estimates. But it's done now so hopefully no further problems in that area! Never a dull moment around here it seems. So yes Marianne, just super busy and feeling a bit overwhelmed a lot of the time! Thanks again for checking on us everyone. I do try to read and keep caught up on everybody, I just haven't had a lot of time to post.
Well, this got terribly long. :o But I needed to get everything noted here for Jasper's record. Thanks all for reading. :)
Hugs,
Tina and Jasper xo
Ohhhh I love details like this Tina!! Overall it sounds really good! Great you have got the trigylcerides down. The food really does seem to be doing the trick!! Pleased everything else is stable too. Those steroids really do a number on the liver tests, Flynnys was in 4500ish after being on Prednisone, I was like you though and did not seeing those numbers but my vets said same as yours that no real damage was being done. His did come down after stopping the drug, but unfortunately you cannot do that for Jasper.
Great news on the heart murmer, glad you are getting it checked again sooner rather than later too!! Love your plan, you really are so on top of things with that complicated little pup!! He is so lucky he has you and it is plain to see you are doing your utmost to keep him in tip top condition!! I do love the Jasper updates :) especially when they are good ones like this!
Sorry I missed you tonight but sure will see you again soon, hope all the family are behaving too xxxxx
Tina :) So glad you found time to do an update. It seems like you've been running around like crazy lately and that doesn't count work which is nonstop.
Well, that doesn't sound too bad about Jasper. You know the things you are keeping an eye on and some of those like the trig are better, so that is good.
Did they do a skin scraping and send out to a lab to find out exactly what it is that is causing the skin problems? I wonder if it could be related to the steroid use for his adrenal gland, or could it be yeast?
Remember to take care of yourself too!
hugs
Sharlene and molly muffin
Pretty good report overall, yeah!!! Dot to what Molly said...take care of yourself too.
It was so good to hear from you Tina. I am glad that our boy Jasper is hanging in there. :p No wonder you hadn't updated. You are one very busy girl. I have both of my folks with me. There isn't much time to get what I need done because I'm too exhausted taking care of everything else. I imagine you have a similar situation. Please try to take care of yourself too, so you'll be stronger for what lies ahead.
Only thing lying ahead of our boy Jasper is loads of hugs and fun with his Mom and no new troubles!!! Hope your week is going well Tina xxxx