14 year-old Shih Tzu With Recent Cushing's Diagnosis

Hi Julie-

It sounds like you're on a real roller coaster ride. I imagine it is very distressing for you. It is always so very hard for me when the pups are suffering and we cannot explain to them what they are going through and why and what we are trying to do to make their lives better or at least more comfortable. Having to take into consideration the amount of money that each procedure costs only adds to our burdens.

I am thinking of you and Hannah and hope you have seen some positive signs over the weekend.

-Susan

Hi Julie,

I hope Hannah's procedures will start to have some benefit that lasts longer and longer. I'm not sure how those procedures actually work, but it would make sense there would an accumulative effect as the treatments progress. I hope that is the case with Hannah and you are soon seeing more of your old girl's self coming out.

Have fun in school! I have to admire those who teach and work in the school systems - I would be in jail the first week! :p So, in my book, you are all very special people who take a whole bunch of crap from every corner with very little equitable compensation. In other words, heroes. ;)

Hugs,
Leslie and the gang

Hi Julie! How is Hannah doing? Hope she continues to get better.
How is school preparations going? Hope you get a fun class this year!

hugs,
Sharlene

Hi Julie,

Happy Labor Day!

I am a wee bit worried about you and Hannah. I hope things are okay and you have been busy getting ready for the school year.

Let us know when you have a chance.

Sending many hugs

Hi Guys,

Sorry I've been MIA lately. You're right, Addy, I have been busy getting ready for the school year. Last week was lots of meeting and preparation for the year, but there is never enough time to get things ready, so I usually work late most nights. I switched all of my files over to hanging files this summer too, so that was a pretty big project. I love how organized everything is though! I also de-cluttered in my room so it is more open and calm feeling, probably just for me, but I needed it! :D

I've been working a lot this weekend too. I like to be as prepared as I possibly can with routines, procedures, and activities to ensure things go as smoothly as possible. Yesterday I was running around getting things laminated and buying stuff for some of the team building games I'm going to have the kids play.

Thankfully, Hannah is holding steady for the most part. She is no longer having difficulty getting up from lying down, and she isn't doing so many strange things with her left back leg. She occasionally wants to trot outside, but the back left toes drag. For the most part, she walks pretty slowly, but she is still walking, so I am happy with that!

She had acupuncture and a laser treatment (at the same time because the vet who does acupuncture now has the laser) on Friday. We had to see a different vet from the one who has been doing the acupuncture most recently. We saw him last September for acupuncture when she first had problems and it went okay, but he doesn't quite have the same caring and patient personality Dr. Nicole has. Hannah did okay Friday, but really struggled with the needle insertion. He told me he doesn't remember ever having a dog who struggled so much. I wasn't sure what to do with that statement. Am I supposed to reprimand her or something? I just thought it was kind of strange. Obviously I don't like to watch my poor dog struggle anyway. At any rate we got through it fine. She was calm after he got the needles in.

We are going to get another acupuncture (and possibly laser) treatment next week with Dr. Nicole, and then we will see how she's doing. That will have been four treatments. I told them I cannot afford to keep this up indefinitely. He suggested one more treatment, then possibly some laser treatments for a few weeks (would only be $180 total) and then probably a laser every 3-4 weeks. At this point I think we are waiting to see if there is any more improvement, or just maintaining where we are. They charge about half the price for laser, which is wonderful. I can get 6 treatments for $180 and I was paying $150 for 3. A tech does it at this clinic, rather than a vet, but that's fine with me.

We all agree that Hannah doesn't seem to be in pain and that is everyone's first concern. Her back was not as tense Friday. He said he really could not evaluate her though because she just tried so hard to get back to me whenever he tried to do anything. So he mostly went by what I described at home. They still think there may be some neurological thing going on with the back left leg, but don't really know.

Peeing and pooping are going okay for now too, although Hannah has decided she will not poop in our yard or if we walk down our street. I don't know why. So for the last 2 weeks I've been driving her to a park about 6 blocks away to poop. She loves to smell a few trees and posts and then without fail, she poops. It never takes more than a minute. I'm pretty sure she has me trained on this one, but it is so difficult for her to go if she misses a day, that I would rather keep up with this than deal with the alternative. I'm thinking I might phase it down to every other day and see if the short walk here on our street at least keeps things moving.

I try to not think about the future because I know winter will be extremely difficult. She had a tough time on the icy snow last year and she is so much weaker and so unsteady on her back legs that I fear it will be a disaster. We may have to try to figure out another plan. Right now I am just glad she is doing okay because the next couple of weeks are really stressful and busy for me. If she can stay stable that will help me stay sane! :p

Again, sorry I haven't been around much. I haven't forgotten you, and I still try to check in at least once a day. I just don't have the capacity to be as diligent as I would like.

Thanks for checking in on us and thinking of us!

Julie & Hannah

Great to hear from you Julie and glad Hannah is hanging in there fairly well. I think (not that you asked) that I would mention to Dr. Nicole the struggle Hannah had with the other doc and how she kept trying to get back to you. Tell Dr. Nicole of the other doc's comment and ask her opinion on the whole scenario. I think at the very least Dr. Nicole should be aware of your experience.

I guess this is your last day off for a bit. What age kids do you teach?

-Susan

Hi Julie,

Happy to hear from you. Figured you were busy as this is a hectic time of the year. I'm glad that Hannah appears to be a bit improved. Enough to walk slowly at least and get up and down.
I hate the ice and snow thing in the winter. All that slipping and sliding is not good for us our precious pups.

Take care, check in when you have time!

hugs,
Sharlene

So glad to hear about any improvement for Hannah. I am not looking forward to the ice and snow either but maybe it will be like last year, a mild, no snow winter. Of course then allergies will be worse. I think we can't win.:):(

I was hoping you were busy and glad to hear you were. I worry about you and Hannah when I know you are both having a hard time.

Not to worry about things here. You just take care of yourself, your class and Hannah and Izzy. I think she did train you well to go to the park every day. Good job Hannah!!!!:D:D

Happy New School Year!!!!!

Hi Guys,

Thought I'd post an update on Hannah. First, I am happy to say her back is much better (we think she is pain free) and she is walking quite well and sometimes even trotting. I continue to be amazed at the wonders of acupuncture. She had four treatments (one per week) and we did laser immediately after the last two acupuncture treatments. The plan for now is a laser treatment this week (it will be almost two weeks since the last acupuncture) and then maybe just try laser treatments every 2-4 weeks to keep things under control. Another possibility is to do acupuncture every six to eight weeks.

Unfortunately, with this good news comes some bad news. First, Hannah's allergies are terrible. She had skin irritations all over-her chin, neck, groin, tail...and I knew she had to see the vet. My parents took her for me during the day on Friday. She got Clavamox and GentaVed (a spray steroid) that I need to use twice per day for two weeks. It does seem to be providing her some relief, thankfully. She has been wearing a cone for about 10 days, but I have to do something to control her urge to scratch and lick. The spray seems to have already reduced the redness significantly. I hope it isn't going to affect any Cushing's issues by being sprayed on her skin short-term.

The second part of the bad news is that she had blood work done again on Friday because last month her blood work showed low hemoglobin and hematocrit so the vet was worried about her possibly being anemic. I looked back at past blood work and saw that it was sometimes low, but then would be back up in the normal range. He had not noticed that until I told him, but said we needed to monitor it closely and do another test in 2 weeks to a month. It was worse again this time. Her hemoglobin, hematocrit, MCV, and MCH. At this point they are not horribly low, but lower than last time. The results came in the mail yesterday (since they mailed them Friday afternoon) but I have not yet talked to the vet about them. Basically he told me last month that there isn't much to treat anemia other than finding the underlying cause. She did have a stool sample checked last month and everything was clear-so no traces of blood. She also has high platelets and they have continued to get higher. Her Chloride was also a little high this time-I've never seen that one off before.

From my reading, it sounds like there could be something wrong in her bone marrow. I'm going to see what the vet says, of course, but I would not pursue any sort of bone marrow biopsy at this point. I just wish I knew what was going on. We've fixed one thing and now are onto another issue, which could be pretty serious. I'm very worried about it, especially because my vet seemed so concerned last month. So, I guess I'll see what he has to say when we talk.

She still seems happy and healthy at this point, and like Addy says, I try to make the most of every day because I have no idea how long she has, and I've assumed we were close to the end so many times for the past year. It was last Sept. 27th that we went to the ER vet with her first back issue. It was my anniversary so I remember it very well; it was not how I planned to spend it. It's now been almost a year and there have been many ups and downs.

Hannah got her face trimmed, nails trimmed, and sanitary area cleaned up today instead of getting a regular grooming, which was planned. Luckily, it went okay and I just held her while she did it. Her hair is not that long and I didn't want to risk putting her through grooming after just getting better. I was worried the grooming caused it in the first place.

I talked to the groomer last week about how to groom Hannah from this point forward. I explained the situation, which I'm sure is hard to completely understand over the phone), and she asked me if I had thought about letting Hannah go. Not as in not being groomed, but as in should I put her to sleep. I really like this woman, and she has done a great job with my dogs and always does little extras at no charge, but this bothered me. She really hesitated before saying it, and really meant well, but I didn't like it. I explained that she was nowhere near that point and that she had drastically improved, but that I just didn't want to put her through a strenuous grooming session and wondered if I could stay with her to help/if I should try the bath at home and have her do the cut/etc. She was receptive to any of these options, but it still bothered me that she asked. The plan is to go in a few weeks and I will bathe her the day before and then bring her in the next day and stay with her while she cuts her hair.

I apologize again for being so absent from the site. I have been working 12 hours most days since school started, and often work from home in the evening before I go to bed. I try to check in daily, but have not been able to post much. Lately with all the meds Hannah has been taking, the morning and evening routine have felt like part-time jobs. Luckily I don't have to get up in the middle of the night for any meds, but it is about a 30 minute process in the morning to feed her, give all the meds in the right order and at the right time, and get her outside and then back in her cone for the day. Of course I love her and will gladly do it, but I am definitely tired and wishing for more sleep. My class has been great so far, so I am incredibly grateful not to be feeling stressed out because of student behavior.

If anyone has any suggestions or thoughts about Hannah's blood work or any more info. about what this could mean, I would love to hear it. I will let you know what the vet says when I hear from him. Sorry for the very long post. I just wanted to share everything on my mind at once.

Julie & Hannah

I cant help with the blood work but hopefully someone else can. I am so happy Hannah is trotting and walking better. I know that sinking feeling from when Zoe was falling down and smashing her chin after her surgery. It is so hard to watch.

I am not advocating this but, the owner of our Pet Outpost has a little bichon poodle mix. He had such bad allergies, all the vets told her to put him down that there was nothing more they could do. She switched him to a commercial raw diet and after a few months his skin healed and his hair starting growing back. She has to rotate his protein every few months but he has done really well.

So you, Marie and I all have anniversaries coming up, almost the same week:D:D:D It is a small world.

Don't worry about the forum, we know you have your hands full. I know how much time it takes from my own experience with Zoe for feeding and potty breaks and medicine before work. Did I tell you my boss has just started to figure out I never changed my hours back?;););) With it starting to get light out so much later, I will probably switch back at the end of the month.

I know how hard things are right know, sweetie. All we can do is take it one day at a time and be happy for each extra day we have.

I love the thought that we were both in the car yesterday cuddling with our two pups:D:D:D:D When I read that, I still cant wipe the smile off my face.

Warm, fuzzy thoughts for you, Julie. Kisses to Izzy and Hannah.

With all the commotion and to do in the news lately, I want to make sure I thank you for being a teacher. Many years ago, my hubby was a principal in Harlem. He had so many interesting and moving stories to tell. So, I have such respect for our teachers and am always thankful for anyone in the profession.:):):)

love ya