Sophie, the Chinese Pug has crossed The Bridge

I can't believe Soph doesn't have a thread here! :o So I'll do a brief into -

Sophie has lived with us since Sept of 2012, when she was attacked by something - dog or coyote - and sustained some damage. Sophie had started acting bizarrely at times, running off and acting absolutely terrified of everything. She acted as if she didn't recognize her family or familiar places. She might be gone a few hours or gone for weeks. It was during one of these feral episodes that she was attacked.

During the exam Doc told me something was wrong with her brain and that she was blind in one eye, which may have resulted from a previous injury a year or so before. During this attack, Sophie had sustained damage to the vertebrae in her neck and the connecting nerve that runs down the front leg, and numerous puncture wounds. Doc said it looked like she had been picked up, shaken and thrown. When I first saw her, she was one solid sausage, no body definition at all due to swelling, her ear sticking straight out from her head and she wasn't able to move on her own. She recovered and has done well until recently, tho she still has the feral episode - but she is safe her in our fence and I am almost always home.

The last couple of weeks I noticed she will get up and move oddly. At first I thought it was the lingering effects of a more severe seizure but finally realized she is moving like she did after this attach and it happens after she has been asleep. She gets up stiff with her head pulled down and to the left while the right leg, that had the nerve damage, circles wide to the side. She has a very sad look on her face while this is going on. She will usually come wherever I am then sit until it passes. It seems to loosen a bit as she moves and calms.

So she goes to see Doc Mon. morning when Trinket goes in. I'll report on Soph when I know more, too.

Sophie is the nurse and comic relief in our house and it is hard to see her hurt.

Oh poor Sophie. What a set back for her when she has done so well and recovering from the previous attack and episodes. Poor dear.

Let us know how she is doing.

Oh, poor sweet Sophie :( Do let us know how the vet visit goes.

Hugs, Lori

Yeah, what happened? Why doesn't Sophie have a thread of her own? I won't tell her if you don't.;)

Please keep us posted.

Poor Sophie. I hope she will be fine!

Thank you for sharing Sophie's story. How did she get on at the vets this morning?

Doc thinks there may be something neurological going on, perhaps related to the focal seizures she has that is causing some of the things she is doing, like air licking and air chewing - but she does not do the air snapping/fly biting so often seen with brain tumors. It is still a wait and see approach with this. If things worsen, we will probably go see Dr. Nafe in LR.

The nerve that was damaged is more than likely experiencing inflammation more as Sophie ages - the initial injury was in Sept 2012.

AND she tested positive with a mild case of Ehrlichia - hopefully the tail end of the infection, not the beginning. I keep Preventix collars on them and they don't get ticks so we are thinking she had to have gotten this a while ago before she came here.

Soph came home with Doxycycline for the Ehrilichia and prednisone for the inflammation.

She is also heart worm negative and all her labs were great, thankfully.

We have our yard treated for ticks, our dogs wear collars and still our Icy got Anaplasmosis two years ago. Fortunately she showed signs of it immediately and we got her in the same day she contracted it the vet thought. We saw a dog who had not been treated as quickly and that dog ws stumbling and his head was circling. It had only been a few days, the owner said.

Ticks are terrible and our county is said to be the Tick Capital. Lucky us!

Hope all goes well with your little one. She has had enough trauma, and so have you. The meds worked very quickly and well for us. I know it was a different tick borne disease, but I hope for the same great results.

Gail

Pleased to hear that the labs were good, and I hope the meds work quickly.

It doesn't seem to matter how much preventative you use, the ticks still attack! I sprayed Henry before a 20 minute walk through the woods a few weeks ago, then pulled 10 ticks off him when we got back to the car :eek: I hate them - he reacted to a bite last year and got a lump the size of a tennis ball so he was on antibiotics for a month. Fortunately he tested negative for Lyme as it's rampant here.

Poor Sophie, I hope the meds get her fixed right up and she's feeling much better quickly.

I hate ticks! They are not much of a problem here because everything is dead due to the drought. We do have a year round flea problem though. It never gets cold enough to kill anything off. :o

Hopefully the meds will work quickly for Sophie.
That's great she had good blood work results!
I hate ticks too. I found one crawling on my jacket yesterday morning.

Crossing fingers and hoping that Sophie gets better on the meds. Poor little dear doesn't need any other issues.

You've done such a good job on addressing her fears. What a good mum you are

Hugs

Soph is doing better - the inflammation in that nerve is no longer causing her to wake up all twisted. I hope it holds and she doesn't have to go thru that again. That has to be quite painful. She still has a few days left on the antibiotics.

Yay. That is so good to hear. Hope that continues. Inflammation can cause so many problems and so much pain. Poor dear. I am sure she feels better not waking up so sore.

Just checking in on Sophie too and very pleased to hear that she's feeling better. Keeping everything crossed that she continues to do well once the ABs are finished.

Soph is doing really well! I hope I remember to get new labs to check the ABs work next week.

Well, it's been a looooong time since I posted anything about Soph. And this morning what I have to report is odd.

I've noticed the last couple of weeks or so that she has really been licking her feet....of course I thought allergies so I started trying some OTC the last 2 weeks and nothing has helped. Last nite I noticed her toes look swollen on 3 feet, from the licking I figured. So I decided last nite to make her an appt today to talk about Cytopoint injections for her, too. (Fox takes them) Weeellll, as my luck would have it all h___ broke loose with her feet this morning!

Our morning routine went as usual - out to potty, breakfast, back out to make sure all was done that needs doing, then in. Soph went to her crate as usual and started licking her feet again. I started my day then went to the bedroom for some reason I IMMEDIATELY forgot when I saw the blood all over Sohpie's back left foot!! :eek: I looked closer and saw that two nails were completely gone with a third hanging! :eek::eek::eek: I looked at the other feet and all the nails had filled with blood but were still attached tho 2 were laying to the side. So I call frantic and they work her in between surgeries this morning. Doc is not sure but thinks this is a fungus. I am to soak her feet twice a day in a bleach solution, then spray on some Clotimazole. And she is to take the fungicide Terbinafine (Lamisil) once a day UNLESS she stops eating then I am to stop this drug. SO apparently my sweet Soph has athletes foot! :) I'm trying to make light because this has scared the crap outta me. We go back next Monday for a followup unless she gets worse. So now it's time for a bleach soak. yay...this is gonna be loads of fun! :D

Hmmmmnn, my Puggle Cooper is always licking and chewing on his feet. It drives me insane~ I think I may have to take a close look to see. This could be the answer to why he does it.

Thanks, Leslie!

Oh no! Poor Sophie - and poor you! Glad you've got an answer for it, though. Hopefully it clears up soon.

Eeeeek Leslie. Poor Sophie. Hopefully this will clear up quickly now she is on medication. If I remember correctly those anti fungal meds can be hard on the stomach right?

yeah...that and liver enzymes are why Doc said to stop them if she stopped eating. I am giving the pill to her with food so hopefully that will help.

Pray sweet Sophie will heal soon.
Sonja and Apollo

I'm glad to say Soph slept better last nite and is better this morning. I gave her 1/4 of her pain med and I know that helped but she has been licking her feet even on the nites she's had to take a full dose plus her muscle relaxer. This morning she is more energetic, following me everywhere instead of laying around licking her feet, and her toes don't look quite as swollen, tho I admit that part may be wishful seeing on my part. ;)

After her morning soak yesterday there were quite a few bloody paw prints on the white towel I put her on coming out of the bleach water and there were several clots on the towel I used to dry her feet. After the evening soak there was still blood and still clots but not as many as in the morning. This morning there were no bloody prints and only one clot. So I hope this means we are on the right track and this approach is working.

I did so much reading about canine nail disorders yesterday I almost made myself sick. It was shocking to learn how many things can go wrong, terribly terribly wrong when the nails start to change! Learn from me - if your baby starts licking their feet take them in immediately! Don't assume it's allergies and try to treat at home like I did. Feet licking can mean so many things....all the way to some pretty nasty cancers. So don't take chances and go as soon as you see any changes in the nails, the beds, pads, or how your baby is treating their feet.

So far I have learned a couple of things. Did you know that the new splash-less bleaches are not the same as regular bleach? It is concentrated pretty heavily. That was all they had in the store last time I needed bleach so that is what I had to use. But I noticed the water was VERY slimy at a 1:20 mix so I called the Clorox company. The gal I spoke to said the splash-less is much more concentrated plus contains soaps and other chemicals to make it thick. It is best used for laundry only and only as directed. For cleaning and other purposes she recommended sticking with regular bleach. So the first soak Soph had yesterday was a highly concentrated soak. Maybe that really grabbed hold of the fungus?

In case you didn't already know, dogs and bleach water do not mix well. Sophie is very good at standing in the water once she's in but getting in she does the air paddling thing which splashes the water in the sink as she goes in. Then coming out she flings her legs to the four winds sending water flying. So by the time we are done everything around the sink is at least splashed and anything I am wearing is quite wet. So if you ever have to do this make sure to wear something you do not care for at all and remove anything around the soak area you don't want decorated with bleach spots. :D

Life is never dull at your house Leslie. Thats a definite. It might not be the kind of excitement that you'd prefer, but at least you aren't bored! hahahaha

I think it sounds like good news on the Sophie front and hopefully this bleach soak will help along with the meds. Gads I can just see bleach flying everywhere and everything in range becoming polka dotted.

Sophie isn't licking near as much but she does still lick her feet. They are looking a bit better in some ways as in less swollen, but worse in others such as new raw skin showing up above the large pads on her back feet. At times she is walking rather gingerly but not actually limping. It is more evident as she comes up the ramp with those poor toes having to bend so deeply. She is once again sleeping more when she isn't clinging to me.....a sign that worries me no end but I am hoping it is the build up of this fungicide she is on as I know they make you feel just terrible. :( BUT she has not lost her appetite; she eats well, begs for bites when I eat, anticipates her treats eagerly, plays with Bud and me almost anytime we ask her to, and wants to go outside with me as usual (but I don't allow her out much right now because I worry what may be in the dirt that may be making this worse plus I want to keep the open sores as free of dust and dirt as possible.). Other than becoming rather clingy her demeanor and behavior is about the same so I take that as a good sign. We see Doc again Monday morning and I will let you know what he thinks.

Hoping Doc gives her a good report that she is healing and coming along fine on Monday.

I'd think feet would be one of the hardest areas to treat and try to keep clean.
I don't envy you that job!

We are back from the vet. Doc agreed that in some ways her feet were better but in others not at all. Several of the nails where they meet the flesh of the toe have growths coming out. I thought tumors (of course :rolleyes: ) but Doc was able to get most of them out this morning. He thinks that when she was quicked in Aug it triggered an over-growth of the nail-bed and her licking has caused the fungus. There IS a fungus in the nail/nail-bed. Doc put some of the things he got off her nails and beds under a microscope and you can see the fungus growing at the root and base of a hair follicle. He got several pieces of stuff and is gonna look more in depth or send off I guess....I didn't ask what he was collecting for. But we see him again next week to see how she is doing AND to trim her nails again.

From last Mon. to today her nails had grown to the point of being too long. This is what started this whole mess - her nails grow at an unbelievable rate and the quicks grow right along with the hard part of the nail....ie the quick is just as long as the nail so you can't trim without bleeding. She had started to walk too far back on her hocks even tho she had her nails trimmed every 3-4 weeks so I had her quicked hoping to regain control. Now we have a real mess. :(

Sophie doesn't act as if she feels bad and I'm very glad for that. Now that the fungicide she was taking is over she is perking back up so it looks like it was that med making her feel bad. She doesn't have to take any more of that right now but is on an antibiotic and we continue the soaks and anti-fungal spray for the next week. The spray in particular seems to have helped with the spots above the large pads that had started looking so bad. They mixed it up in a regular bottle for me this time so I can use cotton if I want since the spray and I don't always mesh. :D

Her feet must stink to her. I wash no less than 6 blankets every day for her. Once she has walked on the clean blanket then left it, she won't lay down on it again until it's washed. She will walk up, sniff at the blanket, then turn away and lay on the floor until I get a clean one down. Last nite I replaced the blankets in her crate in the bedroom 3 times - that's 6 blankets just last nite to wash today plus the ones that will be snubbed thru the day. I don't smell a thing on her feet or legs and neither did Doc so who knows? LOL

Dogs do have a better sense of smell than us humans, so Sophie knows whats what I guess. Nope, not that one, been there done that, wait for the clean one. Can just imagine what goes through her mind. Or maybe it's a simple "ewwwww"

Dang, fungus can be hard to get rid of, even in people. I hope next week there is some better progress. At least the antibiotics should prevent infection from setting in.

Hopefully your vet can speak to a doggie dermatalogist to get some ideas on what might help to get rid of it faster and to deal with that quick issues on her nails.

Though I'm sorry you and Sophie are having to deal with the feet issues on top of the rest, thank you for the warning. Another thing to keep in mind for our babies... will be checking feet and watching their activities/responses for changes. Just in case.

WOW it has been a WHILE since I updated about Soapy Soap! Goodness!

Well, she is still with me and still the clown of the house in spite of her issues. Soph now has cancer and is covered in growths...some tumors some lipomas. One tumor was on a toe of her front right foot. It grew so large it ruptured the toe so we had no choice but to try to remove the tumor. After some back and forth with labs to make sure she could handle it, they took the tumor off and saved the toe. She was put under very light sedation to do this because of an undetermined respiratory condition she has developed (all her testing just says she congested without any real indication of why.) She wouldn't survive the traditional anesthesia. :( The surgery was successful and she flew right thru it with no problems at all. Until she got home. That was on a Friday and by Friday night I knew something was very wrong. She acted like some elderly folk do after a surgery...they just never come back and she was not coming back. She was lethargic, very nauseated, no appetite, weak...and I kept telling myself at first she was having a harder time than thought getting over the sedation even tho it was light. But by Sat morning I knew it was more. I called her vet and told him how she was acting. She was not in distress oddly enough...just basically not here. He and I both felt that loading her up to go to an ER would be more stressful than needed at that point so we agreed to let her be and see if she could recoup. By Monday she wasn't any better so we went back to the vet, me thinking she would not be coming home.

Doc gave her a steroid injection, B12 injection, subQ fluids, Cerenia injection, and told me to call him in the morning to let him know how she was. By morning she was a teeny bit better but still would not eat and was still nauseous and vomiting often. Tuesday evening she threw up 8 oz of mucous in one go!! So Wed. we went back, me knowing she wouldn't come home this time. Doc said before we took that irreversible step he wanted to check her surgery report and he found that her pre-labs were something like 2 points from diagnostic for Addison's so he suggested trying Fludrocortisone to see if it would help. He repeated all the shots she had had Mon with the exception of the fluids which I can do at home and sent us home with Fludrocortisone and Lonox (to dry up the mucous) for 5 days. It worked!! In 24 hours she was much more like her old self. Still a bit off but much, much better. She was eating a bit and not throwing up constantly. So Sophie has been diagnosed with Addison's on top of everything else. Her labs are not really indicative of this disease but the treatment is helping her a great deal so we are going to keep on with it. The goal is her comfort at this point.

So that is what's up with my Soapy Soap. She may not be here much longer but she is here today and oh so loved.

Holy cow, Leslie, what a rough and bumpy road you and sweet Sophie have been on, you both are such troopers!!! You're such an awesome and loving Mom!!!

Gosh, it sounds as if sweet Sophie (and mom!) have been through the mill lately! But all fingers crossed that this new treatment path will grant you both some more quality time together. Lori’s right — you *are* such a wonderful mom, Leslie, and you’ve eased Sophie through so many challenges. You surely deserve some peaceful, loving time spent with your little girl now. Please do keep us updated!

Marianne

Wow! I would've been a wreck! I get so panicky when I feel something is wrong with them. Your vet sounds amazing, Leslie.

Joan, we have been exceptionally blessed with the vets in our lives. Sooooooo many folk end up with vets who either don't care or are so arrogant they cannot learn or listen. When Squirt was first diagnosed we got a vet not long out of school and she was stupendous! A Boxer of all things attacked her at work one day and severely damaged her hands. Last I heard she was not able to return to medicine. Then when we moved back to ARK we ended up with Doc B and he has been a life saver...literally. He's just an old country vet who is curious and has a mind like quick-silver and we all love him dearly.

Very blessed, Leslie.

We had an episode yesterday afternoon that terrified this mom.

I had just come in from work and had said hi to Bud, was hugging Tilly to say hi to her when I heard a weird strangled cry from behind me. I turned to see Sophie on the floor, head drawn back against her neck, legs stiff with ankles front and back crossed, and tongue hanging out, gray. By the time I dropped to my knees by her she had gone limp as a dishrag and lost control of her bladder but not bowels. In a few seconds she was coming out of it. I gave her a little over 1mg of pred just in case it was related to the Addison's. By 10 minutes after the event she was basically her old self again. She ate well, had normal bowel movement after eating supper, and rested well last nite tho she was up longer and drank/peed more probably due to the extra pred (Fludrocortisone contains pred). No further episodes.

Our weather is bad...freezing rain and sleet so I called Doc B and related what I saw right after it happened. They told me to keep her calm if it happened again and made an appointment for this morning....that was cancelled due to the weather sadly. They told me the same this morning when they called to reschedule for Thurs morn...keep her calm.

I am worried about a couple of things....1) that the Addison's is a misdiagnosis (hard to diagnose often) as her labs weren't quite diagnositic but almost and an ACTH was not done before starting treatment due to her condition at the time and 2) that she has now developed a seizure disorder worse than the focal seizures she used to have. She hasn't had one of those in quite some time. Doc had to come in this morning for an ER surgery drop off and was supposed to call me before he left for home but the second round of ice came in much sooner than thought so I am sure he was anxious to get on the road back home.

She has done very well on treatment until this but IF, God forbid, she has another one I think I am going to stop the Fludrocortisone and use pred only until she sees him Thurs morning. Without being able to check her electrolytes we can't know if the Fludrocortisone is too much causing increased sodium, which has a host of issues, or not. So to be on the safe side I hope the pred alone will be enough for a few days. She has had no edema, weight gain, or weakness which is common in Fludro overdose. If the aldosterone did get too low without the Fludrocortisone there is nothing that can be done from home for that...only IV and hospitalization which I have already decided not to put her thru if she does crash. Plus I simply cannot afford a hospital stay. :(

So I am sitting her watching her obsessively and praying she continues to do well. To me this looked more like a seizure and I do not want to ever see that again!

Oh Leslie! How scary!! And right in the middle of an ice storm — OMG :-((((

I have to agree that it sounds like a seizure to me, too. It’s real similar to what I saw with Peg. And like Sophie, I think Peg was having focal seizures for quite some time before her first grand mal. I just didn’t recognize the focals for what they were.

I’ll keep checking in all the time, so let us know if anything changes or if you need anything researched.

Healing hugs flying your way!

OMGoodness, Leslie, that sure was scary!!! Sending calm and soothing hugs to you both. And as Marianne said, I'll keep checking in often, we're here for you both.

Love and hugs, Lori

Jeez! How awful, Leslie...I hope everything stays calm until you can get to the vet.

Love, Joan

Thanks so much for the support. To say I'm nervous would be an understatement for sure. :o But thankfully Soph has been her usual self since that episode. I was concerned about clusters like Tasha had at the end. :(

Thursday can't come fast enough.