caayenne
Member
To give everyone an update, Charlie is doing about the same...still just lays there, still not moving much. He ate his food today with slightly more interest, actually licking up some of it himself. He will sometimes drink from the bowl if you hold it up to his mouth. He has not gotten up on his own yet, but he has kind of half-sat up a couple of times when Chris came near him. (He just adores the man...he's got great taste!). We're hoping that these might be signs of improvement, but it's just really hard to tell. Charlie is still nothing like the bouncy, hyper, happy boy he usually is. It's really, really hard to see him like this.
We talked to Charlie's internal specialist today. He did think that Charlie sounds a bit improved, but he was definitely hoping for a more apparent change in movement and behavior. The lepto test hasn't come back yet, but he thinks we should know in the next couple of days. The urine cultures came back negative for bacterial infection, though, so if it's not lepto, then it's probably an autoimmune problem. The doctor mentioned immune-mediated polyarthritis several times on the phone, so I think that's his thinking. This was already on my own list of possibilities, so I wasn't that surprised.
If this is the case, Charlie would have to be put on high-dose Prednisone to see if his disease could go into clinical remission....if so, they would wean him off the steroids with the hopes that he would stay well. The problem with all of this is that if we are dealing with autoimmune disease, the doctor said that with Charlie being so young, he would very likely have several periods of regression throughout his life. He would have to go back on the high-dose steroids every time he showed symptoms. The doctor described it as a steroid rollercoaster, with many potential side effects. He said that Charlie would have less energy, and would very likely become overweight and develop diabetes.
This is all very hard to swallow. Charlie is only a year old. He's a high-energy, fun-loving dog. He loves to chase squirrels, chase his ball, chase the kids, and take LOOOONG walks. He's like the Energizer Bunny of Cavaliers! It's really hard to picture him as a more placid dog, and it's painful to think of him as a sickly dog his whole life. I'm trying to do a lot of reading about autoimmune disorders to get a good picture of what Charlie's life would be like, but it's difficult, because most of what's available to read is clinical studies and journal articles. We don't yet know what is best for Charlie if this is what we're dealing with....so we're still hoping for the lepto test to come back positive.
If anyone here knows anything about autoimmune disorders, or has had a pet with a similar disease, we would of course love to gain any knowledge we can on the subject...it's really hard not knowing what to do for the pet you love. Thank you all for your continued support and prayers...Chris and I both gain strength from hearing your kind words.
-Andrea
We talked to Charlie's internal specialist today. He did think that Charlie sounds a bit improved, but he was definitely hoping for a more apparent change in movement and behavior. The lepto test hasn't come back yet, but he thinks we should know in the next couple of days. The urine cultures came back negative for bacterial infection, though, so if it's not lepto, then it's probably an autoimmune problem. The doctor mentioned immune-mediated polyarthritis several times on the phone, so I think that's his thinking. This was already on my own list of possibilities, so I wasn't that surprised.
If this is the case, Charlie would have to be put on high-dose Prednisone to see if his disease could go into clinical remission....if so, they would wean him off the steroids with the hopes that he would stay well. The problem with all of this is that if we are dealing with autoimmune disease, the doctor said that with Charlie being so young, he would very likely have several periods of regression throughout his life. He would have to go back on the high-dose steroids every time he showed symptoms. The doctor described it as a steroid rollercoaster, with many potential side effects. He said that Charlie would have less energy, and would very likely become overweight and develop diabetes.
This is all very hard to swallow. Charlie is only a year old. He's a high-energy, fun-loving dog. He loves to chase squirrels, chase his ball, chase the kids, and take LOOOONG walks. He's like the Energizer Bunny of Cavaliers! It's really hard to picture him as a more placid dog, and it's painful to think of him as a sickly dog his whole life. I'm trying to do a lot of reading about autoimmune disorders to get a good picture of what Charlie's life would be like, but it's difficult, because most of what's available to read is clinical studies and journal articles. We don't yet know what is best for Charlie if this is what we're dealing with....so we're still hoping for the lepto test to come back positive.
If anyone here knows anything about autoimmune disorders, or has had a pet with a similar disease, we would of course love to gain any knowledge we can on the subject...it's really hard not knowing what to do for the pet you love. Thank you all for your continued support and prayers...Chris and I both gain strength from hearing your kind words.
-Andrea
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I can't even imagine how I would feel if something like that would happen to any of our cavaliers... I even panick when they just got the flu or something stupid..
