Questions about Cushings - Charlotte has crossed the Bridge

Thank you Marianne. She perked up a little in the car on the way over, looking out the window and being more alert. After the injection of the dex and the cerenia she seemed very sleepy never even got up off the back seat until we made her get out of the car. I can't compare the immediate effects from last time to this time because last time she couldn't even walk when we took her in. But I do know that last time she slept for several hours then got up and started walking around and then went uphill from there. So I'm hoping she will get up and drink and maybe eat later tonight. I was so worried about over doing the meds that I almost didn't take her in today. But I didn't know what else to do.

I'll update in the morning. Thank you all for caring so much!

Laurie

Thanks so much for adding this update, Laurie. I hope you all get some rest tonight, and that the up-beat effect of the dex will wait until daylight to kick in :o. I'll surely be checking back in the morning.

Just wanted to post an update. The dex shot worked just like last time. If you visited my home right now you would never know there was anything wrong with Charlotte. She chased a cat out of the yard at full speed last night. She did keep us up most of the night walking all over the house and wanting to go in and out, but we expected that. She has been drinking plenty of water but still isnt interested in food. We got a little down her last night, she wanted the chicken casserole i made for dinner. Ill try some tasty treats this morning. Hopefully she will have a good day today.

Laurie

A question for those of you who have gone through the steroid usage with your pups... The vet wants to give Charlotte another dex shot tomorrow (actually Friday because I won't be available to take her tomorrow) and said maybe we should not do the pred anymore. He said he could give us the dex injections to give her at home. He feels that's what is working best for her I guess. I'm fine with that but we had her on a relatively low dose of pred (20 mg a day) and I remember he told me that to reduce inflammation of a tumor she would need more like 40-50mg a day. So maybe we just weren't giving her enough pred? Does it even matter which steroid she gets at this point? I'm just a little confused on what's best to do. She had a few really good days on the pred but was just slowly getting more lethargic. But the pred didn't cause her to be on such a high. She was relaxed, sleeping better and hardly tremoring at all.

Laurie

I'm back again to share some happy news. After being a bit "wired" all night from the dex injection yesterday, Charlotte has had a great day today! She even initiated play with her "brother" Lido this afternoon for the first time in many months! And we found a canned dog food she likes too! I'm heading back to the store after work to grab a few more cans. I don't know how long this will last but I'm enjoying it while it does!

Laurie

Yes!!!! Way to go Charlotte!!!

Yay!!! Such great news! :D

That's wonderful! What a bright way to start my day. :D

Charlotte ate almost normally last night and this morning! She ate a mix of canned and kibble and then came begging for some of my toast at breakfast like she used to do! Other than some minor tremoring she is acting almost normal. It's been 2 days since the dex and she had no tramadol at all yesterday.

My question is... Her vet wants to give her another dex shot tomorrow afternoon. I kind of feel like we should be giving them as needed rather than just scheduling them regularly. I sure don't want to let her get to a point of being bad again before giving her one but I think we will know when she is starting to slide backwards a little and then go get her one. Does that make sense? I will be talking to the vet today. I trust him but he doesn't see her daily like we do and I think he may want to give her more than I feel is needed. Thoughts?

Laurie

I wish I knew how to advise you about this, Laurie, but I really don't. The one thought that does occur to me is that, at least this time around, you might want to go ahead and get the injection in advance of the weekend. It is so wonderful to hear how Charlotte is rebounding, and it might be a good idea to give her the best shot for some continued relief over a period of several days, especially if you don't have access to your vet 24/7 throughout the weekend. Then on Monday, you could take stock of things and regroup if necessary. You had mentioned possibly getting trained on giving the dex injections at home, so maybe that's something you could pursue further next week. If you actually had the dex on hand, yourselves, then it might be easier to hold off on the injections until you see some slight changes -- knowing that you could give her the dex immediately if it looked as though she was needing it...

Marianne