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

[Trish]

Hi Tina

I was thinking of you before while I was outside playing with Flynn, I heard the first cicada of the year. It must have been this time last year and I think it was you telling the story of the 10 year cicadas that all come out the ground in a swarm... I have had nightmares over that!!

Hope you are doing well and Jasper's bladder infection never gathered any speed. Also hope things are a bit smoother with your Nan and your also getting a bit of time for yourself as well to recharge the batteries xxxx

[Trish]

I just had to go back through Jasper's thread and see what his last UPC was and my gosh is was 0.6.... I thought it was!!! Flynny's is 0.63 so they are doing the follow the leader again Tina... I love how they do that! Hope your nearly finished work for the week and we catch up again soon. Big hugs to you, Jasper and Shelby and a special one for your Nan too xx

[Trish]

Hi Tina, Jasper and Shelby!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!!!!

Hope things are ok at your house and Jasper is feeling well. Hope things are also OK with your Nana... you have had so much going on and I hope today brings you some relaxation xxxxxx

[molly muffin]

Merry Christmas Tina and Jasper and Shelby and family.

I hope this finds you and the gang doing well. I also hope things have continued to improve with your Gram.

hugs,
Sharlene and Molly Muffin

[addy]

Hi Tina,

I hope your Nana is ok and the pneumonia is better. Thinking of you and Jasper with love

[Tina]

Hi Everyone,
Well, I have so much catching up to do on Jasper, it's hard to know where to start.

But first I want to thank everyone for the Christmas greetings and all the good wishes for my Nana. I have been so busy with her and her situation, and work, that I don't know which end is up most of the time. She is not doing well and they have determined that she is no longer progressing with the therapy and rehab, and needs to go to long term care. Last week the staff from the assisted living facility where she has been living assessed her and determined that she can return there with the additional care of hospice. (Initially we were told that she would need to go to a long term care facility as her previous facility could not manage the level of care that she needs). So this is a big relief. She is scheduled to return there on 12/31. This has all been a massive time and energy drain, and I just feel maxed out all the time. (Hence my scarcity on the forum). Hopefully once she is settled back there, things will lighten up for me a bit.

Now back to Jasper. I am so thankful every day that he has not had a major crisis during this difficult time with my Nana. I think I left off on my last post with waiting for results of a urine culture after he had some accidents in the house. The culture from 12/4 was negative, but we went ahead and treated him for a full 2 weeks with Zeniquin. My vet said he could still have an infection as his urine is so dilute. So far the UTI if that's what it was, seems to be resolved. He did ok with the med this time, no problems with his appetite.

He had a chemistry profile drawn on 12/16 as a follow up from when he was so sick mid November. The ALT had dropped back to 73 (normal <100 IU/L), (Yay!) . It had been up to 1130 on 11/12, which was my vet's biggest concern and prompted the ultrasound.

Abnormalities from 12/16:

ALP 2278 (<95 IU/L) H
LDH 288 (<175 IU/L) H
Cholesterol 350 (125-260 mg/dL) H
Triglycerides 1114 (41-115 mg/dL) H

The ALP is a bit lower than the >2400 that it was last, but is still way higher than it had been running, and he has continued on the Denamarin. My vet said she is not super worried about it right now. Her big concern is the triglycerides, and said we have to get that down. I think it is the highest it has ever been now. She feels that the last couple of times he has been so sick has probably been related to pancreatitis, which can be triggered by triglycerides this high.

She said we need to change his diet to a low fat prescription diet. Of course I voiced my concern about taking him off the moderate protein restricted renal diet due to the proteinuria, and she said firmly that the priority now is to get the triglycerides down, especially due to the pancreatitis risk. I did some reading and found that triglycerides as high as Jasper's can cause a lot of scary things besides pancreatitis, including seizures. This is apparently not real common but can happen. Pancreatitis is by far the biggest concern. So I am in the process of transitioning him to Royal Canin Low Fat Gastrointestinal prescription formula. So far he is tolerating it, we are at about 50/50 ratio.

The vet is hopeful that the diet change will not impact his proteinuria much if at all since he is on the fish oil and Enalapril. Hopefully those two things are making the most impact there and the diet change will not cause a problem.

We did get another UPC on 12/23 after he finished the antibiotic for the UTI and before I started the food change. Unfortunately it had gone up a bit from last time.

His UPC's and dates:
10/22/12 1.27
1/14/13 3.57
5/6 1.49
8/31 0.6
12/23 1.63 (Flynn, DO NOT look at this!!!)

I voiced worry about the increase of course, since he has continued on the same treatment and now we are going to change his food. My vet said that protein levels can fluctuate throughout the day, and that she is more concerned with a trend than a specific number, however acknowledged of course that it had come up a bit. She said that a value over 2 is considered significant, so we will continue to monitor. She reiterated very firmly that the priority now is to get the triglycerides down so we must change his food to low fat. If that doesn't make a significant improvement then she will need to consider medication, but that is a last resort. So it is very good that we checked the UPC (at my request, by the way), or we would have blamed any increase on the food change.

So that is where we are at. So there are some concerns with his labs, but I am grateful that the ALT has come down to normal as it seems like this is what my vet is always most concerned with as far as liver values. I am worried about the UPC and will just have to pray that it doesn't continue to go up. One step forward, two steps back it always seems.

The plan going forward:

• Change to Royal Canin Low Fat GI prescription diet (in progress)
• Re-check the UPC in 2 months
• Re-check chemistry profile (triglycerides) in 2-3 months
• Continue on previous meds and treatment:
  Enalapril 5 mg 1/2 tab BID
  Welactin 1/2 spoonful mixed with food BID
  Dexamethasone 0.5 mg 1/4 tab every other day
  Denamarin 225/24 mg one tab daily
  Percorten injection 0.6 ml monthly

So I am hoping for a good period of some stability now. It is just never easy with my little boy.

I will be back a bit later, I have quite a few posts to make as I have been reading along on so many. Today I am taking as "me time", and nothing sounds better than getting caught up on everyone and their pups, especially since we are back in the deep freeze here. Thank you so much for checking in on me, Jasper and Shelby. I hope everyone had a peaceful Christmas.

Love and hugs,
Tina and Jasper xo

[doxiesrock912]

Tina, Royal Canin is a decent food. Daisy has been on their dachshund formula for most of her life.

[Budsters Mom]

It is great to hear from you Tina. I have missed you and have been hoping that Jasper is okay. I am sorry to hear about your Nana, but glad that she will be able to return to where she was living. Yes, caring for elderly family members can be exhausting at times.

Regarding our boy Jasper. You know him better than anyone including the docs. Go with your gut. It's always worrisome with a food change, particularly when you're dealing with so many variables. Take the cue from Jasper. You'll know what to do.

Again, thanks for the update. We worry.... Xxxxx

[Tina]

Hi Kathy! I have missed you all too. I don't like it when I don't have time to keep caught up on everyone. I have been reading all about Rosie, she is a little spitfire! I still need to go in and look at her new pics, as well as pics that others have posted recently. It sounds like you have been ill. Are you feeling any better yet?

Yes, elderly family can be exhausting, that's for sure! As far as Jasper, I have to switch his food to the low fat even though I am worried about the proteinuria. My vet made it very clear that it is essential that we need to get the triglycerides decreased. I forgot to mention in my last lengthy post that he is drinking more again also, but he was already doing that before we started the food change. And my vet is aware. So I hope that is not a sign of anything worsening with his kidneys. It is tough when there are so many issues.

Thanks for popping in! xo

[Trish]

Hi Tina.. and Hi Kathy too!

So lovely to read your post and to hear Jasper is doing pretty well!! Darn that UPC, but they do fluctuate quite a bit (as we know ) and least it is still below 2, once they do over that its a bit of a worry. We both still have room to play with our boys ace doses so we can keep that up our sleeves if we need it in the future.

Re diet, Flynny had the RC GI low fat for a while when we were worried about pancreatitis following his adrenalectomy. He was on the canned and the biscuits and I regret to say he did not like it and only ate it for a couple of weeks then went on strike so hopefully Jasper is a bet less fussy with his food than Flynn. It is so hard to know what to go for with diet... like with Flynn I want to manage:
Kidneys - moderate protein
IBD - novel protein, grain free
BP - low salt
Anti-cancer - just healthy!
Cholesterol - low fat

What do you do????? Jasper has a couple of his own to cater for.... I am just in the process of swapping him to Ziwipeak, which is healthy novel protein of lamb, grain free, no preservatives, comes in canned and biscuits... well flakey kinda things.. not real crunchy and has great reviews. Yesterday I visited the pet store and I want something with crunch for his teeth and found these sheep ear crunchy things that I thought might be OK considering sheep = lamb! Well loose poop this morning so the rest of that bag will be donated to a doggy friend of his. If I give him bone,s he gets constipated. Anyway will keep him on the ziwi for a while to see how he goes!

Pleased your Nana is going back to familiar surroundings... she will like that.

Right, my dinner bell rang (fresh corn cob in the microwave ) but here for a while yet xxxx