Confused and Overwhelmed-Diagnosed Anal Sac Carcinoma (Woody has passed)

Tracy, that is so scary! If your vet can't monitor Woody's BP, I would certainly change. Now that Woody is calm and resting, you should get some too.

Glad, glad, glad he is home where he belongs! Syncope means "fainting" in case you didn't already know that. ;) I spent almost 2 years fainting at the drop of a hat; had numerous tests and the final conclusion was that my skeletal system outgrew my cardiovascular system - I had grown nearly 9" between the 7th and 8th grades. I would stand up and faint; bend over and faint; exercise and faint; get excited and faint - I passed out while on the back of a runaway horse and my brother held me in the saddle while a friend got the horse under control - each of them on their own horses. We were told it looked like a skit in a western show! :p I also passed out while my mom was fussing at me one day - scared her to pieces...but didn't stop her from fussing at me when she deemed I deserved it. :D And I did quite often! :p

I hope you find a way to have his BP checked. Let us know how things are going.
Hugs,
Leslie and the gang

Tracy:
I am hoping this morning finds you and Woody well rested and ready to tackle today. I tossed and turned all nite thinking of you both, and knowing that this could be my Tipper also. I contacted a very respected Vet when Tipper fist got Cushings. She told me the single most important factor is checking their blood pressure. I take her every Wednesday and have it done. It is about 20 miles, but worth the peace of mind to me. I know you are not sure about the Cushings with Woody, but you may have to think of finding a place where you can have this checked frequently. I keep a record of Tipper's and when she had the eye problem, we were able to look at the flow chart and see that she had a high blood pressure right before the exam that showed this. Hers was from being scared of the storms we were having. I hope this never happens again, and I pray you are not dealing with a pheo. Blessings
Patti

Afternoon everyone. Woody slept well right next to me the whole night which is unusual as he usually goes to his own bed half way during the night. Every time he moved or stretched I was straight up light on checking on him, about the zillionth time I checked on him he looked at me as if to say I'm fine already go to sleep mad woman.lol when he got up this morning he was still a little wobbly but it soon disappeared, he is sleeping a lot today but has eaten and had a potter around the garden. I will look next wk for a vet that can check his BP and I'm also thinking if getting an ECG done on him see if his heart is any worse, he,s not had one since being diagnosed with the murmour 3 years ago and then it was a grade 4 and he has been on meds since, it wouldn't hurt to check this would it. I'm exhausted today so may have a little nap whilst Woody is asleep

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Trish

Jeepers, just read about the police helicopter crashing into a pub full of people in Glasgow. Sounds just awful, hope no fatalities.

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There is 6 deaths and 32 people injured some serious. My thoughts are with the families of all involved. It's been on the news all day I'm only 40 mins from Glasgow

Tracy:
I saw this about the pub on CNN yesterday, such a shame for the families of these people. I did not know Woody was on heart meds. Tipper has to have another ECG January 15 and a check to make sure the tumor is not growing. I don't think I can handle bad news on two major things in one day so I am trying to stay positive and pray on it. Please know I am thinking of you and Woody and praying for you both. I know how hard it is to go thru this, but you did wonderful yesterday. Blessings
Patti

Terrible, terrible about the catastrophe at the Pub. Those poor people and their families. Out for a good time on a Friday evening and then this. :(

Even if there is just a place locally that has the equipment to check the BP and give you the results. Then you could fill in our own vet, or maybe they can find a place for you and make arrangments for you to take Woody to them to get the BP checked. It just seems that there should be some way to work it all out. I know you don't Want to change vets as they are good with Woody, so maybe something can be worked out. :) Your vet does know now how important this is to get done, so maybe if you ask him to find a place he would do so and know where might have the equipment. (another place for Woody to win over, he'll soon have his own fan club, if he doesn't already) :)

hugs,
Sharlene and Molly Muffin

Glad to hear at least Woody had a good evening. Try to get some rest.

Hi Tracy

Hope Woody's day has gone well, and yours too and your catching up on sleep.

What meds are Woody on? Wondering if any of them could have caused it?

Pheo's can have different symptoms in dogs and they can be episodic. With Flynn his symptoms weren't like that though. His BP remained consistently high >200 and he did not appear to have the sudden rushes of catecholamines that are common. He most likely did, but the symptoms were just not that obvious. The trouble with diagnosing a pheo is that the tests they commonly use in humans like 24hr urine collection for catecholamines are difficult to do in dogs, obviously catching ALL their urine over that time period is difficult unless they are catheterised. I actually discussed this with the IMS when I was in Auckland and he said apart from the trouble getting the urine the tests have no accurate reference range in dogs as research has not been done in that area and it is a big leap to just apply the human reference range to them. The one thing that really pointed to pheo in Flynn before his surgery and histolological confirmation was the ultrasound. It showed the tumour arose in the medulla of the adrenal gland ie the inside layer in contrast to the cortical layer which is more common in tumours that give the cushings type symptoms. Although those symptoms like PU/PD can happen with pheo too, but again Flynn did not have those apart from hunger.

Re BP. I agree it is difficult to get true readings in our doggie friends. I have posted this before but my vets do not put much faith in a one off reading as they can fluctuate so much in a short period of time. Flynn has his checked monthly, he has to stay a few hours and they do 7 recordings one after the other, discard the highest and lowest and average the rest to get an accurate number as possible. They do this three times over the day to get a good picture of how his BP is at different times. Often the later ones are lower as he gets over his white coat syndrome :)


Hope this helps xxx

Thanks Trish I,ve looked over Woody,s notes again from the hospital and it mentions adrenal cortex so that would point towards the cushing symptoms if I,m reading it correctly. I also looked back to the IMS first report and Emma says on it that Woody presented with a stable heart murmour on the left side grade V/VI and the x ray confirmed the heart was enlarged, so I,m leaning towards his heart causing this "episode" as the IMS has stated a higher grade murmour than I thought, but this was only confirmed with her listening to it s o no concrete testing done. I think I will get him an ECG just to put my mind at rest and try and find a vet with BP machine like Sharlene suggested, as I don,t want to change vets completely as Woody is used to Craig and the staff there. Woody takes 10mg fortekor daily for the murmour and he has been on salazopyrin half a tablet twice daily for his colitis. My vet called me after his surgery today to check on Woody and see how he was during the night. He has talked me through what to watch for in the future and what to do if Woody has another "episode" but said what I did was correct, he has to be kept calm and not to get over excited so no toys for a few days as he goes nuts with his toys, I discussed his meds and we both decided to take him off the colitis meds for a few days.

Woody is looking and feeling more like himself and we both pretty much napped most of the day away, and tonight after his dinner I got the Woody back chat of give me more, so yeah at the moment all good long may it continue :)