Sophie, the Chinese Pug has crossed The Bridge

[Harley PoMMom]

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!!!

[labblab]

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

[Joan2517]

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

[Squirt's Mom]

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.

[Joan2517]

Very blessed, Leslie.

[Squirt's Mom]

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!

[labblab]

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!

[Harley PoMMom]

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

[Joan2517]

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

Love, Joan

[Squirt's Mom]

Thanks so much for the support. To say I'm nervous would be an understatement for sure. 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.