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

Hi Tina
So pleased to hear Jasper has turned the corner, YAY!

Not good news about your grandmother though, hard on you when work has been so wickedly busy for you as well. There are just not enough hours in the day sometimes.

Your foot sounds super painful, last week on a warm day I wore summer shoes for the first time and I could hardly walk the rest of the week too!! I just put it down to the different shoes, but wonder if it is similar to yours, it still slightly sore but can walk easy enough now. That injection sounds really painful Judi :eek::eek: but sounds like it did the trick! Hope your foot has eased up even more Tina. :) xx

Hi Tina,
I am so relieved to hear that Jasper is finally doing better.:) What a trooper he is.

I am sorry to hear about your grandmother and what's up with your foot? That has to hurt!:eek: How are you managing to work? I know it's hard with so much going on, but please take care of yourself. Xxxx

Glad to see your Jasper is doing better, keep up the good work. Blessings
Patti

Thinking of you and Jasper, Tina.

Hi Tina

Doing my weekend catchup with everyone, hope your still not hobbling about and Jasper and Shelby are doing good. Has work quietened down? Hope your Grandmother is in good form this week too so you also can have a relaxed and stress free weekend! xxxx

Hi Everyone,
I had to go to page 4 to find our thread, guess I'm way overdue for an update!

First and foremost, I want to get Jasper's last few sets of labwork posted. Mainly for my own records at this point, since most are from a while back. And a lot has happened in the meantime. I think where I left off was with the chem profile on 8/3/13. I will list just the abnormals.

Chem Profile 8/3/13
Serum Creatinine L 8 (10-28) mg/dL
ALP H 1719 (<95) IU/L
LD H 304 (<175) IU/L
Cholesterol H 322 (125-260) mg/dL
Triglycerides H 263 (41-115) mg/dL


The sodium and potassium were WNL, (this was the third set of electrolytes drawn, 10 days apart per the protocol), so the decision was made that he didn't need the Percorten, so it was discontinued. (Big mistake we later discovered, but it looked correct at the time).

On 8/12 I brought him to the vet for a general check and to have some lumps checked and it was discovered the big molars on each side of his mouth on the top had slab fractures. We are monitoring this, but she has said that they need to come out sooner rather than later. He had the Addison's crisis in the meantime, so this is on the back burner. Hopefully there will not be any complications with the teeth before we are ready to deal with them.

On 8/14 he was back at the vet urgently due to suddenly having accidents in the house. He was started on antibiotics for a UTI. The urine culture came back positive, so antibiotics were continued. About 10 days or so on the antibiotics his appetite decreased and by 8/28 he was refusing to eat his kibble, so back to the vet we went. She felt it was nausea related to the antibiotics, and sent him home on Cerenia x 4 days. He had a previously scheduled appt for 8/31 to get a repeat urine culture. She decided to get a repeat UPC at that time, since the urine looked good in the office and he and just finished a round of antibiotics. (For reference, there are detailed posts about these 4 vet visits posted on 8/31 and 9/1)

The follow up urine culture was negative. That brings us to the UPC results from 8/31/13

Protein, Random Urine 15.6 mg/dL (no reference range given)
Creatinine, Random Urine 26 (no reference range given)
Protein/Creat, Urine 0.60 (<0.5)
:D :) :D :) :D :) :D :)

My vet was very happy with this result and so was I, it was better than both of us expected. Not quite in the normal range but we will take it! My vet said she was pleased that the treatment was working, she indicated that it doesn't always. That was scary to hear.

So we had a few days of joyfulness over the UPC results, then the crash on the night of 9/6, and hospitalization 9/7-9/8 with an Addison's crisis. :eek: :( His electrolytes were way off, the sodium was critically low and potassium a bit high. In hindsight both my vet and I think that when the appetite and eating problems started at the end of August while he was being treated for the UTI, that he was starting to have problems then, but we thought it was the antibiotics.

I found an article by Dr Peterson about prolonged Percorten response, and I think this is what happened with Jasper. Even though all his electrolytes stayed normal for 30 days after his last injection was due and all the Percorten was expected to be way out of his system, apparently in 2-5% of dogs, a prolonged response to the medication can happen where it can actually be 90 days or more before the Percorten is out of their system. I feel sure that this is what happened with Jasper, and my vet seems like she is in agreement after I talked to her about it. You know, I remember feeling nervous in my gut about stopping the Percorten back then even though his electrolytes indicated that it was ok. Who would have thought? Another example where Jasper has followed his own path, and has ignored the textbooks. You would think I would be getting used to this pattern, but I keep telling him enough already with being a trailblazer!

Well, I need to get Jasper and Shelby fed and get a few more things done around here, so I will post the labs while he was hospitalized and going forward in another post. Again, this is mostly for my records, and so I can have everything in one place. The longer I have neglected to post all this stuff, the harder it has become to get it all together. But comments are always welcome and appreciated!

I hope everyone is having a good weekend with their pups and - for those of us in North America - are making the most of our extra hour of the weekend! :)

Hugs,
Tina and Jasper

Love the new picture of Jasper. :)

Good idea keeping everything on one place. I do the same with Molly's lab results.

Good to hear from you!

hugs,
Sharlene and Molly Muffin

Crikey Jasper is in the 2-5% of dogs, typical!! Trust our dogs to defy the odds eh Tina!!

That UPC is just amazing, it just defies belief to get such a good result then the crash a week later. Interesting how much the ALP alters too when other things are happening in their little bodies. How are his teeth, hope those molars are not giving him too much grief as I can imagine you are not keen for him to have an anaesthetic right now.

I have to wonder if the UTI and stopping the Percoten at same time were enough to set off the Addisons, wondering what would have happened if he did not have the UTI to upset the apple cart. Does staying on the Percoten long term have any possible side effects? So is the plan to keep him on the Percoten for like forever??

I am so pleased to hear he is doing good now though, cute little man in his new avatar pic!! xx

Hoping everything works out for you and Jasper. Blessings
Patti

Of course our pups are always in the 2-5%;);) That is how they make sure we have to pay attention:):)

LOVE THE UPC:D:D:D:D:D:D:D