Doggydad
Well-known member
Hi Everyone! What a great looking forum to assist in the care and wellbeing of these precious creatures. As well as some good comaraderie along the way.
My name is Jim. I live on the West coast of Florida with my lovely wife of 37 years, Linda, along with our two cavvies, Charley (6 yr. old Blen.) and Megan (4 yr. old Ruby). Also with Snickers (12 yr. old Schitzu) and three rescued mix breeds; Mocha (Pekinese/Schitzu mix), Abbey & Hobie (Heinze 57), two parrots, Taco (Greenwing Macaw) & Katie (Double Yellow-Head Amazon) and the cat, Hampton.
Unfortunately, what lead me to this site was my research over the weekend for any assistance and / or additional information to help with the problems we're having with our little boy Charley.
Since the end of June, we've been fighting Immune-Mediated Thrombocytopenia with him. We have simply been beside ourselves with the treatment required to neutralize his immune system which of course includes the use of steriods then eventually Chemo which to us is akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Then this past Thursday he took a turn to the worse. He couldn't walk after he got up and his big beautiful brown eyes indicated pain. (If only they could talk!!) We had to rush him into the Animal ER. X-rays from the 24-hr. ER showed something new, a consolidated left lung lobe. She (the 24-hr. ER Vet) said it was probably either Pnuemonia or a lesion of some sort. Pnuemonia made perfect sense to us since we've been knocking back his immune system with steriods the past two months trying to get his blood platelet counts back up. We couldn't wait for the next morning to get our regular Vet's diagnosis and recommendations.
Then, it just got worse. Diagnosis; left lung lobe twisted (I'd never heard of such a thing except for maybe a horse's stomach!) and consolidated (a mass of some sort). Two issues with proceding with surgery; 1- his already low platlet count only gave him a 50/50 chance of coming off the table. 2- if the mass was cancer, and if it was rooted at the base of the lung, there was no point in waking him up due to the short, painful few months he'd have after that.
Needless to say, my wife and I spent the last few moments laying on the floor with him before he was prepped for surgery, bawling our eyes out trying to be positive but all the while thinking we'd never see life in those beautiful brown eyes again.
The Vet permitted us to be with him during surgery. It took 1-1/2 hours and all went very well. I couldn't believe seeing the lung twisted as it was. The lesion caught on the X-ray was at the best place it could have been instead of the worse. It was at the very tip of the lung so the Vet was able to excise it completely. By eye he could not find any other areas effected. The section of lung removed was sent for biopsy which will take a week or so before we'll know what it was.
In the meantime I'm happy to say that for now, our Charley boy seems to be doing fine and recovering nicely. We were able to bring him home yesterday (Sunday) to be with his family. So far his platelet counts are holding steady for the past two days since surgery. We are hoping and praying that we don't have to re-subject our guy to those dreaded steriods. Now it's a wait & see process to ascertain whether or not this problem had anything to do with the Thrombocytopenia or if it's a separate and unrelated problem altogether.
Sorry for the "novel", I know this is supposed to be a "introduce yourself" forum but once I get going on my Charley I can't seem to keep it short.
We love all of our pets dearly and treat them all like children but our cavvies have taken a special place in our hearts.
As soon as I can figure out how, I'll post some pics of our "kids".
Thanks again for providing this special place and allowing us to be a part of it.
Doggydad.
My name is Jim. I live on the West coast of Florida with my lovely wife of 37 years, Linda, along with our two cavvies, Charley (6 yr. old Blen.) and Megan (4 yr. old Ruby). Also with Snickers (12 yr. old Schitzu) and three rescued mix breeds; Mocha (Pekinese/Schitzu mix), Abbey & Hobie (Heinze 57), two parrots, Taco (Greenwing Macaw) & Katie (Double Yellow-Head Amazon) and the cat, Hampton.
Unfortunately, what lead me to this site was my research over the weekend for any assistance and / or additional information to help with the problems we're having with our little boy Charley.
Since the end of June, we've been fighting Immune-Mediated Thrombocytopenia with him. We have simply been beside ourselves with the treatment required to neutralize his immune system which of course includes the use of steriods then eventually Chemo which to us is akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Then this past Thursday he took a turn to the worse. He couldn't walk after he got up and his big beautiful brown eyes indicated pain. (If only they could talk!!) We had to rush him into the Animal ER. X-rays from the 24-hr. ER showed something new, a consolidated left lung lobe. She (the 24-hr. ER Vet) said it was probably either Pnuemonia or a lesion of some sort. Pnuemonia made perfect sense to us since we've been knocking back his immune system with steriods the past two months trying to get his blood platelet counts back up. We couldn't wait for the next morning to get our regular Vet's diagnosis and recommendations.
Then, it just got worse. Diagnosis; left lung lobe twisted (I'd never heard of such a thing except for maybe a horse's stomach!) and consolidated (a mass of some sort). Two issues with proceding with surgery; 1- his already low platlet count only gave him a 50/50 chance of coming off the table. 2- if the mass was cancer, and if it was rooted at the base of the lung, there was no point in waking him up due to the short, painful few months he'd have after that.
Needless to say, my wife and I spent the last few moments laying on the floor with him before he was prepped for surgery, bawling our eyes out trying to be positive but all the while thinking we'd never see life in those beautiful brown eyes again.
The Vet permitted us to be with him during surgery. It took 1-1/2 hours and all went very well. I couldn't believe seeing the lung twisted as it was. The lesion caught on the X-ray was at the best place it could have been instead of the worse. It was at the very tip of the lung so the Vet was able to excise it completely. By eye he could not find any other areas effected. The section of lung removed was sent for biopsy which will take a week or so before we'll know what it was.
In the meantime I'm happy to say that for now, our Charley boy seems to be doing fine and recovering nicely. We were able to bring him home yesterday (Sunday) to be with his family. So far his platelet counts are holding steady for the past two days since surgery. We are hoping and praying that we don't have to re-subject our guy to those dreaded steriods. Now it's a wait & see process to ascertain whether or not this problem had anything to do with the Thrombocytopenia or if it's a separate and unrelated problem altogether.
Sorry for the "novel", I know this is supposed to be a "introduce yourself" forum but once I get going on my Charley I can't seem to keep it short.
We love all of our pets dearly and treat them all like children but our cavvies have taken a special place in our hearts.
As soon as I can figure out how, I'll post some pics of our "kids".
Thanks again for providing this special place and allowing us to be a part of it.
Doggydad.