Jasper (12 yr old Mini Schnauzer) is now at peace

Thanks Leslie! I am hoping that my work load today will allow me to be able to come home at lunch to check on him. That is my plan. Unfortunately I have a meeting at 1, so that makes it a little difficult, but I am going to try, just so I can eyeball him during the day. I hope he does ok, as I really want to get the level checked to see where we are at. I am suspecting it will still be quite low, but that is just a hunch. Thank you for the ongoing support.

Hugs to you and your gang,

Tina and Jasper

So far so good, Jasper seems to be doing ok with the prednisone on hold. It has been about 48 hrs since his last dose and he seems to be tolerating it at this point. We are heading in to the vet shortly, I will drop him off for the baseline cortisol test and any other labs that she feels are necessary. Hopefully we will have the results later today.

Hugs,

Tina and Jasper

HI Tina! Great news. Fingers crossed. Let us know what you find out. KIm

My fingers crossed too Tina

Great news! So glad he seems to be holding steady without the pred! :) That's a good sign to me. ;) Let us know what you learn today.

Hugs,
Leslie and the gang

that is great news! now fingers crossed for today's results

Great that Jasper is doing okay without the pred. How did today go?

hugs,
Sharlene (sorry I've been missing in action for a few days) but reading, just no time to get online and respond to anything *sigh*

Thanks Everyone! No results yet, I imagine my vet will call with them some time today. She went ahead and gave him his prednisone dose yesterday, 2.5 mg, and I have given it this morning also. We will decide how to proceed with the taper after we see what the baseline cortisol level is. I will check in once I have the results.

Hugs to you and your pups,

Tina and Jasper

My vet called this morning with Jasper's baseline cortisol result, it hasn't budged, it is < 0.4 ug/dl (ref range 2-6). :eek: :( She called the lab first thing and had them run electrolytes from the blood that was drawn yesterday when she saw that the level was still so low. She called with those results this afternoon. The sodium was in the normal range and the potassium was at the highest end of normal. She said the potassium was creeping up, which was a concern, and confirmed that he needed another injection of the Percorten. She felt it would be best if I could bring him in tonight, so I did. I ran him in after work and he got the injection. He will also continue on the prednisone 2.5 mg daily for now.

She said she feels it is likely that he is going to stay permanently addisonian since his cortisol hasn't recovered at all in the 4 weeks since it was last checked. We will continue to monitor, apparently if it doesn't show some recovery within 4 months, then he will be considered to have Addisons disease. She was reassuring and said this would not be a horrible thing and that it is treatable. We talked about that a bit and went over what needs to be done in the next few weeks as far as labwork.

I have spent the last couple of hours bawling. I know I did everything exactly as I was supposed to with the Lysodren, and I couldn't have monitored him more closely for the warning signs. He didn't show any during the loading phase when he bottomed out the first time, or during the maintenance dosing. This is apparently when he got toxic and the damage was done. I just don't understand how this could have happened when I was so incredibly careful. I feel like I poisoned him. I am trying to not be so upset because I am so thankful that he is feeling better now, and he looks so much better. But I keep going back to the feeling that I did this to him and that it could be irreversible.

I am sure that part of the reason that I am not handling this well is because I am so tired. I realized that I haven't had a full night of uninterrupted sleep since some time in May when this all started. I am up 2-3 times a night to let him out, which I absolutely don't mind, but it is taking a toll. I am hoping that the drinking and urinating will somehow normalize somewhat, but I am not sure I understand why it is still so excessive since his cortisol is almost at 0. I will do anything to keep him comfortable, so I need to figure out a way to adjust to this.

Thanks so much for listening, I know you all understand.

Tina

((hugs))

There are a couple of people with Addisonian dogs on the K9 diabetes forum and they swear it is easier to regulate an Addison dog than a Cushing dog.

You need some rest. Jasper can certainly take some prednisone for a few more months and just be a dog!

hang in there, this is not the end of the world. Judi