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Originally Posted by rainbow
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Hi rainbow (and everyone)! Sorry it's been so long for the update. Nanook has been doing really well. He did have a seizure (10 weeks seizure free this time) while we were on Holidays. It was an odd one. All of his seizures have occurred between 6-8 am and 6-8 pm and normally while, or just after drinking, weird huh? This one happened at 1am while he was playing with a Kong wobbler. I had just looked at him and went into the bathroom to wash up when I heard hubby calling to Nookie. There was really no usual pre-ictal phase (he normally gets a blank look, does a lot of lip smacking, foaming etc for at least 2-3 minutes). He went right in to the ictal phase of the grand mal and it was over before I even got his Valium out. He normally is very disoriented after, for at least 30 minutes. This time, hubby wiped the drool from his mouth, then he jumped up and started playing again
We're praying that it was either caused by the stress of traveling, epilepsy or a bit of brain damage (scar tissue from previous seizures) and not a relapse of the Meningoencephalitis. We are not going to our regular vet clinic anymore. We saw them again the night before we left on holidays, and as usual, had the crap scared out of us for no reason. The only vet at that clinic that knows what she's doing is our regular vet, who we rarely get to see anymore. Seems we're always stuck with some idiot that has their own ideas/opinions of what's going on with our monster and then they scare us and recommend horrible treatments (like biopsies that aren't needed and tons of meds). The vet we saw told us he had Hemolytic Anemia and caused us to leave on holidays almost a full day late. She actually made me feel horrible and said we shouldn't be going anywhere with such a sick dog, that we needed to stay here and get him help and testing. She also wanted me to raise his prednisone back up. I told her we almost lost him due to internal bleeding from the pred/azathioprine and that it had damaged his front joints so badly he could barely walk. She then told me he was on pred for Hemolytic Anemia. I told her he was not, that he was never diagnosed, but she argued with me, then got defensive and told me to do what I wanted, but if it were her dog and she lost him because she wouldn't listen and follow instructions, she wouldn't be able to live with herself... I was so mad that I got up, took Nookies leash from her and said I would call our regular vet when I could and left. He was doing great that visit. Tons of energy, happy, huge appetite etc. His blood test did show slight anemia, but you would never know by looking at him. And it took them 8 tries and over an hour to run the test. She said the machine just didn't want to cooperate.
I went home and talked with hubby. I was in tears again thinking we were going to lose him even after all the fighting. The worst part was thinking the meds we had allowed them to put him on was the most like culprit for the Hemolytic Anemia. Hubby and I decided we were not going to follow the vets instructions. I decided to email Dr. Marsden. To my surprise, he emailed me back fairly fast and asked if I had a copy of Nookies blood test from the clinic, and I did (I always get copies for his home file). Hubby scanned and emailed it to Dr. Marsden. He then called me and asked if the other vet had even bothered to take his temperature. I told him no, she hadn't really examined him at all. She had completed the blood test, consulted with the old vet (the same one who said Nookie had Myositis and wanted to put him under, which may have killed him in the condition he was in, and do muscle biopsies) and together they had decided it was Hemolytic Anemia. Dr. Marsden asked if it was a young vet, I told him middle aged but the vet she had consulted with had been around many, many years. Dr. Marsden just sighed and said it was ludicrous that they told us Nookie had Hemolytic Anemia. He said they would have had to take his temperature, that he would have a fever, be extremely lethargic and normally jaundiced, which he was none of the above and, in fact, he was extremely perky and playful. Dr. Marsden was heading to California on holidays and asked me to continue to email him with updates, to have a couple of follow up blood tests in the states, NOT to increase the pred and email him the results and for Shaun and I to go, have fun and not worry because he thought Nookie was just fine to travel. So we did just that, after wasting almost a full day stressing and thinking the worst was happening
Shaun and I have decided that we will no longer see the regular vet clinic. I don't know what's going to happen if Nookie has a relapse of the Meningo. What I do know is that all the meds to treat it almost killed him, and made him a zombie pup. Dr. Marsden, in the first visit we had with him, made me teary when he said his hope was to "introduce us" to our puppy, and he has done just what he said. Nanook slept about 80% of the time prior to Dr. Marsden. Now we wish he would get tired out and just take a nap once in awhile, lol. He has tons of energy and just wants to play all the time! I think his teeth may have also been messed up from the meds because he seems to still be teething at almost 11 months old. He acts like a young puppy. Maybe because he missed that whole phase of his life
Dr. Marsden said we will deal with whatever comes up in a natural way and he seems to think our monster will live a full and happy life. I sure hope (and
) he is right. But if we do lose him, at least we will have had some very, VERY happy days with our little boy!
I am still so impressed that Dr. Marsden took time while away on vacation to keep in contact, adjust doses of the remedies he's on, check blood test results and just make sure our boy was ok. We have now placed our complete trust and faith in Dr. Marsden (and God, of course!!) as Nookie is a completely different puppy! No more prednisone, Azathioprine etc. We will not make our baby suffer like that again.
Sorry for such a long post, but I got started ranting about the other clinic and just couldn't seem to stop lol. It just blows my mind how you can see 5 different people and get 5 different answers/egos. People have to be SO careful with their furkids. One thing we have learned through all of this is that if something doesn't seem right, it probably isn't. Get 2nd opinions, and third. Keep going until you are comfortable with what's happening. Just because someone has a degree and a piece of paper saying they have graduated does NOT make them competent.
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!