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

Hi Tina
How's things going with you and Jasper and Shelby? Hope all is good with you guys! I have been a bit under the weather too, not enough to get off work though :mad: just tired, head cold and vaguely dizzy, yesterday I blew my nose and immediately had vertigo and nausea think it might be benign positional vertigo... had it a few months back and I don't like it! Been doing exercises to fix it. :D Anyway having a bit of a catchup here this morning to check out what's been happening. See you soon xxxxxxx

Hi Tina,:)
How are you? Any more headaches?:o

Are Jasper and Shelby behaving themselves? How is Jasper been doing without the Percoten? What did his labs show?

Thinking of you.;) xxxxx

Hi Everyone,

I am sorry to say that I have had a tough past couple of weeks with Jasper. I had him in to the vet on 8/12 for a check up on some new lumps that he had developed over the past few months. Finally his other issues seemed to be somewhat stable so we could address the lumps. He has had 4 or 5 lipomas over the years and the vet felt these 2 new ones were also lipomas. She did not do a fine needle aspirate this time, guess she was confident by how they felt. She did a general physical and thought his tummy felt good and overall was doing pretty good. She checked his teeth and discovered that the big molars on the top on each side of his mouth had slab fractures. :eek: :( She felt they had been there for a while and did not seem painful or to be causing problems right now. She said he would need a dental within the next 4-6 months and the teeth would need to be removed then unless they caused him problems sooner. I felt immediate fear at the prospect of anesthesia, but was able to put it on the back burner as she said they did not need immediate attention.

So the next day, 8/13, he suddenly had 4 accidents in the house. :eek: No warning or letting me know he needed to go out, and in fact would sneak into another room to go. He has never done this before. Back to the vet on 8/14. Urine was very dilute as usual, sent off for a culture. Vet felt it was a UTI and started zeniquin while we wait for culture results. Culture came back on 8/16 and did grow bacteria that was susceptible to zeniquin so meds were continued for a 14 day course and then repeat urine culture 4-5 days after meds are finished. He was showing improvement and seemed to be feeling better after a couple of days on the zeniquin. No further accidents. (I was on vacation that week thankfully, my Mom arrived the afternoon of 8/13. Yes , after he had the 4 accidents!)

He did well while my Mom was here and enjoyed being spoiled by Grandma. She left on 8/18. On 8/20 I noticed Jasper seemed less interested in his food than usual, walking away and hesitating at times. This had not happened for several months, he had been eating well and doing fine on his diet, fish oil and meds. By 8/26 he would not finish his food and I started mixing a little rice in it to get him to eat. I called the vet and she said he may be nauseated from the zeniquin, which would be finished after the 8/27 dose so she said to monitor and see if his appetite didn't improve after the zeniquin was done. That night (8/26) I could barely get him to eat the kibble with hamburger and rice mixed in, the same the next morning, so I brought him urgently to the vet 8/28 am.

She prescribed Cerenia for nausea once daily for the next 4 days. She checked his teeth real good again and did not feel that the not eating is related to his fractured teeth. The little monkey chomped down 3 or 4 very hard crunchy treats that she gave him with no problems. We already had a tech appt scheduled for Saturday 8/31 to get the follow up urine culture. She said if he wasn't eating better by then, to change the appt to be with her rather than the tech, which I have done.

The Cerenia doesn't really seem to be helping. By 8/29 AM Jasper completely refused to eat any kibble so I have been feeding him straight hamburger and rice since that time. He is eating this for now, but I can see the writing on the wall going into a holiday weekend with no vet for Sunday and Monday. I am very limited to what I can try to feed him since he is on a prescription kidney diet, not to mention the risk for pancreatitis.

Of course now he seems to be constipated, no poop at all on 8/28, pretty good sized and normal consistency x 1 on 8/29, and now no poop again on 8/30. I'm sure this is related to all the rice. I wish he would poop before we go to the vet. I am afraid she will want to do an enema and he got raging colitis with blood the only other time he had one done. :(

Overall he just seems subdued and low energy, no interest in anything, kind of depressed, along with not wanting to eat. He is resting and sleeping good and doesn't seem to be in pain or restless, at least for now. So our vet appt is at 10:30 this morning. I really don't know what she will do, and feel that she really doesn't know what is causing his inappetance either. He has so many issues. In my mind I wonder is it related to his Addison's and maybe not enough cortisol, is he getting ready to break with colitis, is it kidney related, could his electrolytes be out of whack since we stopped the Percorten, (they were ok on the last check on 8/3)? I will ask her all these things. I noticed his water intake has decreased significantly also since the appetite problems started, and especially over the past 4-5 days.

Oh, I don't want to forget to mention that I discovered a lump on the right side of his neck under the jaw on the evening of 8/27. It most definitely did not feel like a fatty tumor, more firm and fixed. This is the other reason I took him in urgently on 8/28. Of course I had to fight the panic feelings. With his teeth in the shape they are in, I immediately feared a bad infection and pictured emergency surgery being needed going into the holiday. Well she said it is an enlarged lymph node, may be related to his teeth but said a lot of things can cause it, she did not seem too worried. All his other nodes are small. I will ask about that again this morning.

So gosh, he is having a lot of issues again it seems, poor little guy. I have been dreading writing this post, every day I kept thinking things would level out and now it seems like a lot is going on suddenly. He really had been doing pretty well for a few months.

On his chem panel from 8/3, his electrolytes, creatinine, phosphorus, serum protein and serum albumin were all in the normal range. His BUN was actually a little low at 8 (10-28 mg/dL). His ALP, LDH, cholesterol and triglycerides were all still elevated (as they have been), and a little up from last time. The vet said they were small elevations so she was not concerned. His ALP is always going to be high since he is on Dex.

I am going to ask her about rechecking his electrolytes just to be sure they are not out of whack, as that will cause decreased appetite. I don't really know what else to ask, or what to think.

I feel like I jinxed everything because about a week and a half ago or so I was holding him and telling him that a long weekend was coming and what a nice weekend we were going to have. It was last Labor Day weekend where he ended up in the hospital with the Addison's crisis, and then hospitalized again a few days later. Near the beginning of our long journey. That has been on my mind, it was so scary. I told him what a long way we have come and that I was so proud of him. And now all this is happening. So I guess I am understandably fearful with all that is going on now, and going into the long weekend with no vet for 2 days.

Sorry this is so long. Thanks for reading, and as always, any comments or suggestions are welcome. I am always so grateful for everyone's feedback.

Hugs,
Tina and Jasper

Hi, I am so sorry to hear you are having so many problems with Jasper.

It sure seems that when we get something under control, something else comes up.

Glad to hear though you can get into the vet today, and with any luck at all be able to address and fix some of these problems. I know it's so frustrating when they won't eat and that only adds to the anxiety we have with all the other things going on.

Please post how you make out today, and I'll be thinking about you and hoping you can resolve some of these issues.

Hi TIna,

I hope this is a lingering effect from the antibiotic and Jasper is feeling more like his old self very soon. You and Jasper both have been such strong fighters and that has carried you through much to this day....I know you will both continue to fight now. Keep in touch and let us know how he is doing.

Hugs,
Leslie and the gang

Oh Tina, why do these things come up right before a long weekend. So frustrating to not be able to have a vet handy. So you have a Vet ER you could go to if needed? I know that would be tricky, but assume you have copies of all his lab results too if needed.

I do hope this is just a tummy upset and nothing particularly serious. Neither Jasper nor you, need any more to cope with.

Hang in there, hope it is a good, calm, weekend.
hugs,
Sharlene and Molly muffin

So sorry to read about what Jasper is going through Tina. I can only imagine how worried you feel about having a few issues to deal with.
I hate when those panic feelings set in and it's so hard to keep them tamed!! Good news is you will be at the vet today and I'm sure the vet will be able to put your mind at ease on many of the issues that are so worrisome. Maybe there are some high fiber treats you can get to get Jasper unplugged. Hoping that when you leave the vet that you will feel better about everything and have some answers to Jasper's problems.
Sending positive thoughts your way!! ;)
Barbara

I hope it is just the anitbiotics throwing him off and you get some answers today. Pumpkin can work both ways maybe your vet will suggest that too.

Any change in routine seems to throw them off, Zoe even for a day.
Hopefully, the antibiotics are done, he will feel better, get back to his normal routing and improve once he poos:):)


Big hugs, tina, I know how worried you must be.

Hope you are back from the vet soon with a positive update.

Aww what you up to Jasper!! Such a worry aren't they Tina, I too think it might be antibiotics getting out of his system. Flynn had some after his swab issues and was good right until the end when he suddenly went off food and was very subdued. I thought something terrible was happening but vet said it quite common with antibiotics and I was happy when he came right and back to food in a couple of days. He also had cerenia, so this is what I am going with for Jasper too!!

But other thoughts could be UTI flaring back as they are notoriously hard to get rid of, if it has not been successfully treated they can get systemic symptoms like nausea so perhaps check his urine again with another culture perhaps? I would not check UPC as in Flynn's case if there are other things going on then that can be skewed. But electrolytes are going to give you a good idea of how he is doing generally, especially with Jaspers addisons history to make sure all on track. A full blood count would be helpful too, looking to see if white cells etc are raised which could indicate infection, like from his teeth.

Pumpkin might help in the poop department? Is he up to walking, as a good walk might help get him going too. I guess his water intake going down is probably not helping there either. Mix some extra water in with his food if you can get it into him. A trick my vet told me about when Flynn had nausea with his antibiotics and off his food was to mix a raw egg and milk together (if those ingredients are OK for Jasper). Flynn showed no interest in anything else but he sure lapped his eggy milk up!!! So you can get some fluids and vitamins into him that way. Vet said that treatment was an oldie but a goodie!

I so hope he checks out ok today Tina, I will be checking in to see how he is doing, big hugs for you and a snuggle for Jasper too xxxxxxxx

Sending hugs and prayers for you and Jasper, take care