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

Thanks everyone for all your thoughts, comments and feedback on the heart murmur. Tracy and Iris thanks so much for all of the detailed information about your experiences, and the encouragement, I sure need it. Tracy his murmur is on the left side.

By the middle of last week I had settled down enough to call the vet with some additional questions, I had my list in hand. I too felt very concerned by the fact that it was a grade 3 when it was discovered, and felt worried that maybe something had been missed back in May. Well, I'll never know for sure if something was missed, but my vet did explain that not all dogs start with a very low-grade murmur with gradual progression in severity. She said that it can show up as a more sudden bigger leakage. So I guess that's what happened with Jasper. She said that it will continue to progress and get worse, but there is no way to know if it will be a fast or slow progression. So I just have to hope and pray for a slow progression.

His chest X-ray showed mild enlargement of his heart. We were hoping there wouldn't be any enlargement yet, but there is. Ironically, the treatment is an ace inhibitor, enalapril. He is already taking enalapril for his kidneys and PLN, so he wasn't started on anything else at this point. I voiced my concern that this all happened while he has been taking the medication that is used to treat it, and wondered if things would be worse if he hadn't been taking it. My vet said that the enalapril doesn't act preventatively, so that is not likely. But in my mind I wonder about that, how would it be this bad already when he was already getting the medication?

So the plan is to re-check a chest X-ray in 2 months to see if there is further heart enlargement. She said she is not expecting it to enlarge more by then. If it does, then another medication would be added, Vetmedin. The only problem there is that it can be hard on the kidneys, so that will be a concern. We will re-check labwork in 2 months too. I have done some research and plan to ask my vet about her thoughts on getting an echocardiogram for him before that time.

We got bad news on the UPC also, it has gone up a bit more again and is now 2.14. It was 1.81 in March. So it is slowly increasing.

His previous UPC's and dates:

10/22/12 1.27
01/14/13 3.57
05/06/13 1.49
08/31/13 0.6
12/23/13 1.63
03/20/14 1.81
08/02/14 2.14

So now we are over the 2.0 mark. She said it is a small increase and this is what she expects. Well, it isn't what I expect! There is no change in treatment at this time, we are continuing everything the same.

So that is where we are at. Tracy, I am with you, I feel like I want to wrap him in bubble wrap. And I don't want him running around at all. Not like he really feels up to that most of the time, but on a rare occasion he gets pretty rowdy with Shelby. He has been really subdued and low energy for a long time now, and maybe this has been part of the reason for it. But I will say since about Sunday, he has seemed to be feeling better and more energy, for whatever reason. I'm not complaining, I'll take it!

I admit I have been feeling quite discouraged and down in the dumps over all of this. I'm very disappointed with the UPC, and scared about his kidney status, and now of course the heart murmur issue. Lots of big things to worry about.

But I will end for now with my one good thing for today (actually two good things):

• Jasper has seemed more perky and like he's feeling better for the last few days, for that I am so grateful. He is also eating pretty well now. *whisper*
  
• My air conditioner broke last Thursday morning and thank God it was something that could be fixed by the end of the day on Friday. (Yes, I had to miss a few hours of work!). So we didn't end up without air-conditioning all weekend, or even longer. :eek: Even though it wasn't super hot like normal, I don't know what I would've done with Jasper, he wouldn't have been able to tolerate the heat for an extended period of time.

Thanks again for all the feedback, any additional comments are welcome!

Hugs,
Tina and Jasper xo

We were talking about finding one good thing on other threads today. You found two!! Yay!!!! We'll take it!!!

I know you are worried Tina.:o You do an awesome job keeping up with it all. Jasper is forever grateful. For that, I am sure.

Big hugs,

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tina

[*]Jasper has seemed more perky and like he's feeling better for the last few days, for that I am so grateful. He is also eating pretty well now. *whisper

---

Oh Tina, you are such a sweetie for taking the time to write to me when you've got so much on your plate yourself. I'm afraid I don't have any great words of wisdom to offer (especially cuz right now I'm only half awake during a middle-of-the-night potty break with Luna :o). But you've absolutely got tons of healing thoughts flowing your way! Hang in there, sweet Jasper!

Marianne

Hi Tina

Sorry you have been having a bad time of late, so we now add heart murmur to the mix. I tell ya, these boys of ours love to copy each other eh!! Flynny had his diagnosed just before his last liver resection in November. His is low grade and no progression this year, so Jasper can jolly well do the same!! I guess I pushed the murmur thing aside when we were dealing with his other problems. I must look into it further, but then like Jasper he is on the treatment already too and had been on it for some time when the IMS first heard the murmur in November.

The UPC is only slightly up, but like you I do not like it going over 2. I just checked Flynn's results over the last couple of years, it has gone over 2 and then come back down 4 times now. So I hope Jasper's does the same. But I do know and understand the worry when that happens, this is why I am pretty careful about not even getting it tested when he is off colour for any reason as that is a sure fire way of getting a higher result. I seem to remember that Jasper had been unwell a bit prior to that latest test so I have lots of hope that now he is feeling perkier that it will show some improvement on the next testing Tina!!

Will be looking out for you for a catchup this weekend, I have a few things on including popping into work for a bit to get everything sorted before my leave starts next Thursday!

My happy thing for today is seeing you pop in for an update :D, always love to see you posting so hope the last couple of days of the week speed by and go well for you guys! xxx

Oh Tina, I am so sorry you have all this worry. I hope your wrist is holding up now that you returned to work.

When Zoe had so many things going on, her GP advised to pick my battles that I could not win them all. Well, in this case maybe we cannot win the battles but we can control them for Jasper.

I totally agree with Trish that if Jasper is off his UPC can be higher. Let's not worry too much about that yet.

I know it is hard, but just enjoy your boy now and wipe it all from your mind for a bit each day. I know, easier said than done. :o

So glad the air is back on, not that you would need it if you lived here, we have had such a cool summer, yesterday the high was 68:rolleyes:

Tina

I'm glad that you have been able to speak with the vet re Jaspers murmour, I hope it has made your mind stop racing well a little bit anyway. It is hard to take in it took me a while before I adjusted to it and realised that he would be fine.

I'm no use on the UPC I'm afraid but sending positives thoughts to you all :D

Well phooey on the heart mummer coming on like that. I know it is a worry.
Hopefully his UPC will come back down from over 2. like Flynn's did. It is just so darn hard trying to manage each little thing and not have one upset the other.

Thinking of you and Jasper and Shelby!
hugs
Sharlene and molly muffin

Hi Tina,
Couldn't wait to catch up on your posts. I've been absent from the board for awhile but certainly have had Jasper in my thoughts and I've been wondering how he has been.
Sorry to read the news about the heart murmur and I'm going to take the positive side and hope it stays stable and that Jasper will have no effects from it.
Glad your a/c got fixed quickly! I'm so addicted to having cool air..especially at night but also Trixie just can't take the heat so a/c is a must.
The best news was to read that Jasper has been perky and having a better appetite! That's what matters the most right now!!
Hope everything will be okay with Jasper and that Shelby is doing fine too. Hoping Jasper continues to show his perky side! :D

Barbara

Hi Tina

How is Jasper doing, his fans want to know :D:D Hope your wrist is all healed up and feeling better too! xxxx

His fans do want to know, your fans as well;););):):):):)

I hope September is going well so far, I know it is not your favourite month, but this year we are going to break the mould and Jasper will fly through (much like Flynny when November hits :p:rolleyes:) Hope the long weekend went well and you had some fun in between taking care of your Nan!! xxxxx

Hello Tina..... is there an echo in here?? You can't hide out all of September you know!!! Love to hear how Jasper is doing! xxxxxxxx

YOOOOOOOOO Tina!

Getting pretty worried here. I hope all is well. Please update when you can. We miss you.

Hugs to you and but scratches for Jasper and Shelby.:p

Hi Tina, how are you and Jasper and Shelby doing?

What food is it that you are feeding Jasper again for the protein loss kidney disease? Molly has now been diagnosed with that too and I think they are looking at the royal canine. I'm waiting on a call back this week from the IMS to compare with what the vet came up with.

hugs
Sharlene and molly muffin

Dear Friends,

Thank you all so much for checking on me and Jasper. I apologize so much for not getting an update posted on him. I have been out of my mind busy between work and family issues, I feel like I can't manage my own life. LOL Trish, yes there has been an echo in here!

Just briefly, I will let you know that Jasper seems to be doing pretty well at the moment, and I am beyond thankful for that! Yes everyone, I was holding my breath, but we made it through September. Yay!

We had a follow up vet appointment on Saturday 10/4, for a chest x-ray, exam and lab work. I will post about that later but it was mostly pretty good.

I have been reading and following along on most everyone when I can, I just haven't had time to post. Sharlene, I have been following along very carefully with everything you've been posting on Molly. I have posted a response about the food on your and Molly's thread.

I will check in again as soon as I can, hopefully tomorrow after work.

Hugs from me and Jasper xo

Good to hear from you! I wish there was something we could do to ease your load but I can pray and will. Looking forward to hearing about the tests on Jasper and very glad to hear he is doing well!

Hang in there!
Hugs,
Leslie and the gang

Hi Tina

Hope all going well for you guys and all settling down on the family front too. Too many balls in the air sometimes but always awesome to hear from you! xxxx

Thanks Tina for letting me know about the food. I just got home from being away, so will look through this more thoroughly.
I do hope the chest xray went okay and everything is going well with Jasper.

hugs
Sharlene and molly muffin

Hi Tina!!!

Just checking in to see the latest news.... Hmmmmm there is none :D:D:D how is the little guy doing??? Hopefully he is trucking along just fine!! Miss you xxxxx

Whoo hoo, saw you online Tina for a moment, so had to say high. Hoping Jasper is continuing to do well. You sound still frazzled with work and life and family, must remember to slow down gf! Take care of yourself too.

Isn't that a hoot that we all want to watch the All Blacks game and cheer them on. Trish has really managed to get us all on the same page when it comes to rugby eh. hahahaha

On the food thing, I'm not switching yet, but will go to RC moderate protein when the time comes. I don't want to introduce too many things at once. The Omega 3 is already doing a number on her gastro system. (the trilostane seems to be fine though, which is what I expected based on the dose we started her at)

Take care! Hugs

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

Hi Tina,
So glad Jasper has been doing well and overall good test results for him too!! Great work on those schnauzer triglycerides!! They are waaay down!!! Yay Jasper!!
Like you I havent been on here so much lately, but so glad to check in and see good news with you and your duo!!
Hope all continues to go well!! Happy Thanksgiving! :D

Barbara

Hmmmm now according the "the plan" check UPC and CXR due beginning of December, which is now... so be looking for the next update when you get time. My work always gets busy prior to Christmas so I bet yours does too, seems like everyone likes to get things sorted before the end of the year!! Hope all still going good with Jasper and Shelby, wow that little Miss nearly 3, how did that happen!! Hopefully see you over the weekend sometime xxxx

Hi Everyone,

Thanks so much for checking in on us! Yes Trish you are correct, had an appointment for Jasper at the vet Saturday 12/6 for a follow-up chest x-ray. I ended up not bringing in the urine for UPC however, because he had a couple of accidents in the house over Thanksgiving weekend, while I was home. :( This is unusual, and usually is a sign that he might have a UTI. So I ran him in on Tuesday after work for a sterile urine sample for culture.

Got the results at his appointment Saturday and it was negative. Very thankful for that, I was worrying about that all week since the last UTI that he had took months to get rid of. The antibiotics wreaked havoc on his stomach, and he went off his food. Very stressful trying to get him to eat and get him back on his food after all of that, and it took forever for him to get back on track.

Not sure why he had the accidents in the house like that, he has been fine since, and seems to feel okay. The vet did say that it is possible that he could have a mild infection starting up but it just didn't show up on the culture since his urine is always so dilute. But I guess this can be more likely to happen if the infection is in the kidneys rather than the bladder. And since he seems to be feeling okay, she doesn't feel his kidneys are involved. I plan to run a urine sample in tomorrow morning before work to run the UPC. She did say the office UA showed a lot of protein, so I am worrying about that of course. :o

The chest x-ray showed that his heart has enlarged a little bit since the last x-ray at the beginning of October. :( She said she needs to do all the specific measurements from the x-ray and is going to call me today with the exact results of that, but just on visual examination of the films, it did look like it was a little bit larger. Unhappy about that of course, but I'm going to wait to hear from her today to see what the measurements show to see if we need to do any adjustment in his treatment. She mentioned possibly needing to add the Vetmedin, but I'm really hopeful that we don't have to do that yet, as it can be hard on the kidneys. She said the murmur sounded the same as before, and his pulses in his extremities were all good, lungs looked and sounded good. So I'll see what the report is when she calls. Trying not to worry but not being too successful with that.

I've had a couple of my own medical issues going on also that have resulted in several doctors appointments. With work as busy as it is, it's really tough to fit those in, so feeling a little stressed about that also.

So I hope to have more information from my vet by the end of the day today, I'll post an update when I have that. Thinking of everyone so much. I wish I had more time to be on the forum, I am reading when I can. Miss you guys.

Hugs,
Tina and Jasper xo

I don't like the sound of YOU having medical issues to take care. Don't like that at all!:o:eek:

No UTI. So that's good! we'll take it!:p I am glad that Jasper seems to be feeling okay. There are so many worries!

Please update us regarding your appointments and Jasper's when you have more information. We miss you too Tina. xxxxoooo

Hey Tina, thanks so much for the update and we are very anxious to learn what additional info you heard from the vet yesterday. With as much as you have going on, we are very grateful on the occasions when you grab the chance to check in with us. So we'll be watching for your next visit and surely hoping that, in the meantime, things will go as well as they possibly can around your house!

Marianne

Good to hear from you and hope the report from the vet is positive. Let us know when you can. And I certainly hope you are feeling better!

Thanks girls. It's been a little bit of a tough week here in Jasper land. Apparently the Little Man didn't think that Mom has enough to worry about, so on Tuesday 12/9 while I was at work, he decided to pull some of the stuffing out of a little hole that he found in one of the dog beds, and eat it. Hard to say how much he actually ate, it looked to be maybe about a handful. So due to this "dietary indiscretion", I have been on "detailed" poop patrol all week. :eek: And of course, by that night he was acting pretty mopey, and didn't want to eat. I struggled to get him to eat all week. For a couple of days I was worried he wouldn't eat any of his food at all, but I finally did get him to eat something with each meal. Last night and today that seems to be getting better, so maybe things are getting back on track. He is continuing to expel the stuffing, even this afternoon. I wonder how many days it's going to take to get out of his system. :rolleyes:

My vet had left a voicemail message for me late on Monday about the heart measurements from Jasper's x-rays that were done last weekend. I had some questions and wasn't able to talk to her until Wednesday. She explained that what they measure is a vertebral heart score. It is based on a measurement of the length and width of his heart and then calculations are done compared to the size of his vertebrae to check for enlargement. (I later looked this up online to get some more specific information about it). She said that 11 is the upper end of the normal range for Jasper and right now based on the most current x-ray his score is 12. :( Two months ago it was 11.5 and on the original x-ray four months ago when the murmur was first detected, it was at 12. (Yes, it was a little bit smaller two months ago than on the original films).

So she basically said that while it is up a little bit from the last x-ray, it is back to where it was on the original films. So she feels that she wants to hold off on starting any additional medication for him at this time. She feels it is a mild increase from last time, although she was hopeful there would be no increase as soon as this, and said we will be tracking any pattern or progression. We're going to get another x-ray in three months and if it shows an increase again at that point then it sounds like she will be strongly considering adding the Vetmedin at that time.

I brought a urine sample in on 12/9 for UPC, and got those results on Wednesday also. Unfortunately it has crept up a little bit again. :( It is currently 2.48. Four months ago it was 2.14. She said it consistently has been going up by about the same amount for the past year or so. Very unhappy with this, of course. :( But it is still better than the 3.57 starting value when we first started to treat him. We are continuing with the same treatment.

His previous UPC's and dates: (Normal is less than 0.5)

10/22/12 1.27
01/14/13 3.57
05/06/13 1.49
08/31/13 0.6
12/23/13 1.63
03/20/14 1.81
08/02/14 2.14
12/09/14 2.48 :mad:

So I'm feeling a little bit discouraged on both of these fronts. It's always a blow to hear not so good news, but I also realize it could be much worse. I am trying to pick myself up and start adjusting again. I guess that's why I waited a few days to post the update. I needed to regroup just a little bit. And then of course we had to add the "dietary indiscretion" into the mix just for good measure. He has never done anything like that, other than tearing up toys when he was much much younger. I have no idea what got into him. Thankfully so far, "everything seems to be coming out alright". LOL!

So here's the plan, a lot of it is unchanged.

• Continue Royal Canin Low Fat GI prescription diet
• Re-check the UPC in 4 months
• Re-check chemistry profile (triglycerides) in 3 months
• Re-check chest x-ray in 3 months
• 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 2 weeks

So that's where we are at. I guess I just have to hope for the best and that neither of these issues progress quickly. Of course I wish they wouldn't progress at all, but it doesn't sound like that is very likely or realistic. I told our vet that I have kind of had my head in the sand for the last couple of months since he's been feeling so good. Not that it is effective, but I guess that's been my coping skill as of late.

As far as my issues, I think I've just been burning the candle at both ends too much, along with working a wicked ridiculous amount of hours. Add in all the stress with the pooch, financial stress, holidays, and ongoing issues with my Nana, and it's been getting the best of me. I definitely need to take better care of myself, I just am not sure how to make that happen on a consistent basis. :o :rolleyes: I'm sure you all can relate.

Hugs,

Tina and Jasper xo

Big hugs Tina. You definitely have your hands full.:o I was hoping that my visit to Jasper Land would be a little more positive, but happy that he's still trucking along. You go Jasper!:p xxxxoooo

Hi Tina and Jasper and Shelby!
Hugs to all 3 of you.
You have to take care of you, because you're important. :) :) I know the overwhelmed feelings though, they can sure drag you down.

Drat that UPC. grrrrrrrr I'm hoping that it doesn't progress too much either, too quickly.

What is up with that heart enlargement. Man, too many things and meds to keep track of. The whole thing is overwhelming to the brain.

Lets hope that he just continues on with no major problems for a long time to come.

It is very good to hear from you.

hugs

Jasper ate a dog bed :eek::eek::eek::eek: Bad dog Jasper LOL!! Naughty pup, obviously he not liking his food Tina!!!! Oh but seriously that must have given you a fright, pleased it seems to be coming out the other end OK!

Sorry to see that darn UPC up a tad, but it is not too much, why is she not wanting to increase the enalopril? I am about to have this same discussion with our IMS tomorrow if his has gone up again too, one article said to keep adding meds to get it back down close as possible to normal. http://files.dvm360.com/alfresco_ima...cle-819277.pdf

I know those heart measurements worry, but it is only a fraction over normal and has gone up and down a little so hopefully next time it will be back down into the normal range :)

But other than nibbling beds it sounds like he is doing just fine, that is the main thing as far as I am concerned, but think I would be pushing to perhaps increase his ace. xxxxx