Good family pet news!
Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2008 11:08 am
Here's a feel good post for all of you that want a break from some of the other topics on here lately...
You may remember Champ, our 3 year old Labrador, from one of the various pet topics on this forum - as a reminder here's a picture of the boy:
I didn't post about this at the time because it was tough to even acknowledge it, and I couldn't bring myself to write about it, but a couple of months ago Champ was very sick.
We noticed him panting a lot more than usual, he wasn't as active, and with no change in his diet he had lost a noticeable amount of weight (not too surprising as he had not been as voracious of an eater, and occasionally could not keep his food down).
He ended up at the local animal ER one weekend, where he had to be hydrated with an IV and sedated so that he could rest. After numerous tests and vet visits it was discovered that his liver was only about a quarter of the size that it should be, and as a result was not able to process at the normal rate.
We were given a number of options, and after holding a family meeting we decided that we had to at least try to find out what was wrong/give him the best possible chance for a happy and healthy life, so he had exploratory surgery scheduled.
We were told that it was likely that there was a shunt, or shunts, blocking blood flow to his liver. If they were caused by something he'd been exposed to, ingested, etc. (most likely scenario) tying them off would only be a temporary measure as new ones would likely develop. If it was congenital (unlikely as that is usually only seen in older and smaller dogs) then there was a chance that after repair the liver may even be able to regenerate closer to normal size.
The surgeon also prepared us for the eventuality that if they discovered that his condition was such that a happy and healthy life would be impossible for him, that he would be put down while under anesthesia on the operating table.
Talk about a collective lump in our throats!
So...during the throes of Tropical Storm Fay we bundled him up and, with heavy hearts, hugged him and said our tearful good-byes.
Waiting for the call from the animal hospital made for a long, long afternoon, and the stormy weather seemed appropriate. When we finally heard from her she said that she was shocked to find that his liver shunt was indeed a congenital one - the first one she had ever seen in a Lab, or in any dog that big, or that young.
We had reason to be guardedly optimistic, but she cautioned us that he wasn't out of the woods yet - that the abnormal blood flow to his brain that he'd experienced his whole life had come to be regarded as somewhat normal by his system, and there may be adverse reactions to the changes. Specifically we were told that seizures and blindness were possible side effects that he might incur.
He came home a few days later, on a restricted diet and activity schedule, and he seemed to get better and stronger every day. The three weeks that he wasn't allowed to run and jump at will seemed like an eternity to me, so it must have seemed like that times seven for him!
This week he was due to have his bile acid levels checked. The night before he was to go in he had an episode where he couldn't walk, and shook uncontrollably for several minutes. After what seemed to be hours, but in fact was only a few minutes, he got up a little unsteadily, then walked, then ran around the yard and jumped, just like nothing was wrong. But he didn't keep his food down that night.
He got dropped off at the vet Tuesday morning so that they could administer the bile acid tests. Tuesday evening he seemed to be OK, but Leslie and I were both thinking the worst - that he was back to where he had been before the surgery - that episode, that we called a seizure, was too hard to minimize in our minds.
Yesterday afternoon we finally got a chance to talk to the surgeon after she had reviewed the bile acid test results. She told us that they were 100% normal, and that if she didn't know better, she'd have never suspected that he would have ever been as sick as he had been (except for the funky "hair-do" he has while the fur that was shaved off for surgery grows back!)
When we related the seizure and him not keeping his food down she said he probably just had a "bug" and that if it didn't repeat it was nothing to worry about.
Yesterday he was back to his old self! I can't tell you how releived we all are that he is once again a certifiably healthy dog - and to know that he's not experiencing the constant level of discomfort that he was before.
And I will tell you that he is definitely enjoying a LOT of loving attention these days!
You may remember Champ, our 3 year old Labrador, from one of the various pet topics on this forum - as a reminder here's a picture of the boy:
I didn't post about this at the time because it was tough to even acknowledge it, and I couldn't bring myself to write about it, but a couple of months ago Champ was very sick.
We noticed him panting a lot more than usual, he wasn't as active, and with no change in his diet he had lost a noticeable amount of weight (not too surprising as he had not been as voracious of an eater, and occasionally could not keep his food down).
He ended up at the local animal ER one weekend, where he had to be hydrated with an IV and sedated so that he could rest. After numerous tests and vet visits it was discovered that his liver was only about a quarter of the size that it should be, and as a result was not able to process at the normal rate.
We were given a number of options, and after holding a family meeting we decided that we had to at least try to find out what was wrong/give him the best possible chance for a happy and healthy life, so he had exploratory surgery scheduled.
We were told that it was likely that there was a shunt, or shunts, blocking blood flow to his liver. If they were caused by something he'd been exposed to, ingested, etc. (most likely scenario) tying them off would only be a temporary measure as new ones would likely develop. If it was congenital (unlikely as that is usually only seen in older and smaller dogs) then there was a chance that after repair the liver may even be able to regenerate closer to normal size.
The surgeon also prepared us for the eventuality that if they discovered that his condition was such that a happy and healthy life would be impossible for him, that he would be put down while under anesthesia on the operating table.
Talk about a collective lump in our throats!
So...during the throes of Tropical Storm Fay we bundled him up and, with heavy hearts, hugged him and said our tearful good-byes.
Waiting for the call from the animal hospital made for a long, long afternoon, and the stormy weather seemed appropriate. When we finally heard from her she said that she was shocked to find that his liver shunt was indeed a congenital one - the first one she had ever seen in a Lab, or in any dog that big, or that young.
We had reason to be guardedly optimistic, but she cautioned us that he wasn't out of the woods yet - that the abnormal blood flow to his brain that he'd experienced his whole life had come to be regarded as somewhat normal by his system, and there may be adverse reactions to the changes. Specifically we were told that seizures and blindness were possible side effects that he might incur.
He came home a few days later, on a restricted diet and activity schedule, and he seemed to get better and stronger every day. The three weeks that he wasn't allowed to run and jump at will seemed like an eternity to me, so it must have seemed like that times seven for him!
This week he was due to have his bile acid levels checked. The night before he was to go in he had an episode where he couldn't walk, and shook uncontrollably for several minutes. After what seemed to be hours, but in fact was only a few minutes, he got up a little unsteadily, then walked, then ran around the yard and jumped, just like nothing was wrong. But he didn't keep his food down that night.
He got dropped off at the vet Tuesday morning so that they could administer the bile acid tests. Tuesday evening he seemed to be OK, but Leslie and I were both thinking the worst - that he was back to where he had been before the surgery - that episode, that we called a seizure, was too hard to minimize in our minds.
Yesterday afternoon we finally got a chance to talk to the surgeon after she had reviewed the bile acid test results. She told us that they were 100% normal, and that if she didn't know better, she'd have never suspected that he would have ever been as sick as he had been (except for the funky "hair-do" he has while the fur that was shaved off for surgery grows back!)
When we related the seizure and him not keeping his food down she said he probably just had a "bug" and that if it didn't repeat it was nothing to worry about.
Yesterday he was back to his old self! I can't tell you how releived we all are that he is once again a certifiably healthy dog - and to know that he's not experiencing the constant level of discomfort that he was before.
And I will tell you that he is definitely enjoying a LOT of loving attention these days!
