It's been a while

I am mentally exhausted. This is quite a roller coaster ride we are on.

Patch got his staples out last Thursday and all went well. He was acting pretty good until Sunday, then started to get lethargic. We had an appointment this morning to check his heart after 5 days without the sotolal and all sounded good, that was the good news. When the vet checked his gums they still were not pinking up and looking pale. We drew a tube of blood and the PCV has dropped back to 26%. This had us concerned so they did a quick ultrasound look at his belly and there is blood in his abdomen. Not a good sign, most likely caused from the liver but not 100% sure. He felt that there was more blood than at the original ultrasound so he sent off a CBC to check everything and I will get that call in the morning. Hopefully he has an iron deficiency and that is the cause of the lethargy, if so then maybe a shot of iron will help perk him up some.

He did get a shot of Vitamin K1 and B6 today and tonight while dreading the worst on the way home from work I was greeted with a wagging stump of a tail at the door. He went out and barked a little and romped in the snow. Maybe the vitamins helped. Dinner was roasted chicken so he was thrilled to eat that with us then to just cuddle on the bed with the kids for a while. After they went to bed I took Patch around the block and he loved the walk. I will do that every night as long as he is strong enough for it. I have Friday off this week and might take him to the beach one more time. Starting in March dogs are not allowed on the beach again until November.

Out for a walk

Today is a good day. Patch and I went for a couple of short walks this afternoon. Only about a block but it's a start to see how he does tonight.

Last night he was in doggie heaven. Dori, Jon and Nancy were over to play cards and Dori spoiled him rotten. She brought a bag of soft treats and pretty much fed him all night. He was loving it big time. She gave him dog food, treats and some chicken. I don't think he refused much.

This morning he didn't eat as well but did eat some and again this afternoon he ate a little bit. We'll see what dinner brings tonight. I poached a few chicken breasts for him but need to start mixing in his food again so he gets the rest of the nutrition from that. I have more canned food as well and Michele had good luck with that so we'll try that again.

He looks like he feels stronger, he is coming up the stairs again to the deck and keep jumping on the couch. I'm getting soft on that one, he's not supposed to be up there. We head back to work tomorrow so hopefully he doesn't get depressed alone during the day.

A Monster

I've created a monster. Patch only wants good food now. Chicken, steak, potroast, hot dogs, and the like. He turns his nose up at dog food now. At least he is eating. Today he barked at the mailman for the first time in a while that I know about and this was after walking up the deck stairs. He must be getting some of that energy back. Yea!

Friday 1/20/06

This morning Patch got up without needing any coaxing and asked to go out. He ate a few pieces of chicken and hot dog and took just two meds, Pepcid and Sotalol, we dropped the Metoclopramide last night and maybe that was knocking him down. He came to the door when the kids and I left and even barked a few times at me saying don't go. I think he feels better today, we'll see what tonight brings.

Thursday Night

Wow, Patch seems to feel better tonight! Ate some chicken for dinner and then some of his dog food. Went out a bunch of times and wanted to walk around and sniff things. Just yesterday he showed no interest outside other than wandering. I go back to work tomorrow hopefully he will adjust to a quiet day home with Taz and the birds.

Thursday

I have the day off today due to my co-worker being sick. That works out ok for me as I can stay home with Patch. I took him in to the vet today to have his hematocrit checked again since he is still just sleeping around. It has gone up! Now 33% instead of the 29% it's been since Saturday. He won't eat today and that has me concerned. I am waiting for a call from the vet and will ask him about foods.

We did go for a short walk down the street this afternoon, only 3 houses and back but he loved it. I will try to do that several times a day if possible. It is making Taz pretty jealous but she will make it I will take her plenty later.

Last night I played tug with him for a couple of minutes. I think that he was surprised that he won as much as he did since I usually don't give in too easy. It was fun.

Tuesday Afternoon

Well, I got that dreaded call from the vet yesterday afternoon. It is Hemangiosarcoma of both the spleen that was removed and evident in the liver biopsies that were sent in for the pathology work up. We are pretty upset, seems that there was that 1% chance of hope before and that was taken away.

Michele and I are not going to do the chemo as Patch didn't tolerate the surgery very well and the recovery is slow we don't want to put him through that as well. I really hope that he bounces back from the surgery and we do have a few good months left...time will tell.

Starting to get back to normal

This morning Patch seems better, he won't eat but his attitude is better. I guess dog food is not very appealing since he did eat a hotdog. He is licking a lot so I guess the scars are healing and itching. He is wearing the e-collar whenever I am not in the room to help keep the tongue under control. His heart rate seems to be back to normal so maybe we have turned that corner.

Our two pups

Something we never see, them laying together on the dog bed. I think Taz is showing some sympathy for Patch's feelings.

Saturday checkup

Well, all didn't go as planned. We went in for a hematocrit count and that was up to 29 form 27 yesterday so we are moving in the right direction with that, but his heart rate was still 240+ and Dr. Freedman was not comfortable with that at all.

Our 10:30 appointment lasted almost 3 hours... She got a new ECG run and over 5-7 minutes he only showed about 15 seconds of normal rhythm. She sent the strip to CardioPet and after about an hour Dr. Culvert called back and told her that it was about 97% atrial tachycardia and 2% PVC the other 1% was normal. So he prescribed 20mg of Sotalol (I have to cut the pills into quarters) and hopefully that will help his heart rate get back to normal so he will start to feel better.

He did eat most of a can this afternoon so that was good news and his heart rate is down. The vet loaned me a stethoscope to help count the beats and my feeble attempt this afternoon was about 150. He will get another dose around 8:00 tonight, if it's under 200 beats/minute then only 20mg if over 200 bpm then another double dose of 40mg. He is sleeping quite a bit this afternoon but when he is up he look like he feels better, still on a low dose pain killer though. He feels well enough right now to lick to the point that he needs to wear his e-collar, kind of a bummer.

We'll see what tonight brings...

Friday the 13th

One step forward two steps backwards. Last night was exhausting. I didn't sleep very well. I picked Patch up at 5:30 on the way home from work and he was just given a dose of morphine so he was a little groggy. I was given more pain meds for the night and after a few instructions we headed home.

Patch was interested in some food, of course we were eating steak and chicken so that was way better than dog food so we gave him some...About 4 pieces of each over the evening. Taz felt jilted so we gave her a few as well. Then he just laid on the dog bed most of the evening. We did talk to the vet around 9:30, Michele thought that there was a puffy area at the incision and maybe it was blood inside pooling. I took photos and e-mailed them to the vet and he was not too concerned.

One thing that was hard last night was having the kids say goodnight to Patch, they usually don't do that but I feel that it is important for them to say goodbye to him when they are leaving him from now on.

We gave Patch meds at 9:30 and 11:30 and at 1:15 Michele woke me up to let me know Patch was licking so I had to dig out the e-collar and put that on him for the night. I tossed and turned most of the night so I'm pretty tired today.

This morning there was a small area of blood on the dog bed, it looks like his incision leaked a little over night but that could have been from his licking. I took him back to the vet's office before work and Jon said he was having ventricular arrythmia and heart rate of close to 240...Not great news. They did an EKG and he showed only 2 or 3 beats over the 30-45 second test. No treatment for now. Tim said that about 50% of the splenectomy patients have this and as long as it's not from heart disease it is fairly normal.

Brought him home tonight

Tonight will be a big test for Patch. I took him home from the vet tonight to see if the home atmosphere will be better to his recovery. He is still on pain meds so pretty lethargic but did manage to eat some steak and chicken we grilled for dinner. I will try some dog food later tonight and see if he will eat that. I will take him back to the vet's tomorrow for the day and hopefully that will be the end until the staples come out of his belly. Let's hope for a good quiet night.

Thursday morning

I stopped to check on Patch at 8:00 this morning on the way to work. He met me in an exam room but was back on some morphine at 7:30. He was leaning on the wall and in the 10 minutes I was there we managed to slide down the wall. Dr. Spelke stopped in to say hi and mentioned that the nose bleed might have been from reflux after the surgery, no brusing or leaking at the incision so that was a good sign.

10pm phone call

The vet called us at about 10:00 and wanted to let us know that Patch's nose had been bleeding at some point prior to that visit. Not a good sign but not sure of a cause. Right after talking to the vet Tim called and we asked him his thoughts about the nose bleed. He felt that maybe he bumped his nose on the kennel since there are other places that bleeding would occur first. Site of the incision being the big one and that was not mentioned. If the kids get moving quick enough this morning I will try to stop by before work and see him. Michele will be checking in with them mid morning as well. I'm starting to question our decision right now but once he is home I will feel better about it I am sure.

Visit

I went to visit Patch on my way home from work tonight. He was heavily sedated and on morphine for pain. I spoke with the doctor who did the surgery and one of the nurses and it sounds like we made the right choice in removing the spleen. She was able to biopsy one of the spots on the liver so we will have those results next week along with the pathology on the spleen.

He looked so peacful laying on the floor wrapped in towels and blankets. I sat and stroked his head for a bout a half an hour waiting for the vet to finish up with some other patients. I hope he realized I was there but they did give him alot of drugs to keep him quiet and still.

This picture is the only time I can remember in all the time we have had the dogs that they were lying on the same dog bed together without us putting them there. Taz feels something is quite wrong and is not herself tonight without him around. Hopefully he can come home tomorrow or Friday.

Not great news

I heard from the vet this afternoon and the news was so-so. He strongly feels that it is hemangiosarcoma of the spleen due to the fact that there were 3 spots on the liver as well. The spots on the liver cannot be removed due to the location unfortunately. It puts us in a gray area, if there were lots of spots then we would have most likely stopped there, and if there were none then we would have more hope, we got some which I think is worse. Something has started to grow on the liver so we are that much further along than if there was nothing. We will get the definitive answer from the pathology next week.

Chemo is an option but Michele and I are thinking that it's not worth the chance of Patch not tolerating the treatment and Tim feels that if there are spots already it might be too late for chemo anyway. We'll see what the pathology report says.

I hope to stop and see him tonight on my way home, even if he is still sedated I might help to just see him and talk to the doctor.

Big day

It's surgery day and I cannot think of much else and work is going very slow. I dropped patch at the vet about 8:00 this morning and crossed my fingers for the best.

I just got a call from the vet, hoping that it was over but they started late and he wanted to let me know. He also told me that they found 3 spots on his liver, one was cavitated on the surface, which if I understand correctly means that it has bled in the past. I asked him to remove as much of the areas on the liver as he could, he wasn't sure if he would be able to remove them due to their position.

Got the info today

Well, there is a mass about the size of a grapefruit on Patch's spleen and two small nodules on his liver. We decided to do the spleenectomy tomorrow. I will drop him off at 8:00 tomorrow morning and the surgery is around 10:00. If all goes well we will get a call around lunch time with the results. I hope that I can stop by and see him on my way home from work, but forgot to ask if that would be ok. If the surgery goes well he will be able to come home on Thursday and Michele has that day off so that will help.

Taz finally ate tonight after putting a half can of food over her regular food, I guess it's sympathy for Patch not feeling well. She is definitely leaving him alone more that usual. We will see what happens with him gone for a day or two and how she reacts.

I really wanted to take Patch for a walk tonight but don't figure that is a good idea, want him as strong as possible for the surgery tomorrow.

Taz

This is Taz, she is 12 this month and seems a little down in the dumps lately. Maybe the two dogs communicate on some different level that we cannot understand. She is not eating her food very well either. On the flip side maybe they have some type of virus and that is all. Depending on what we find this afternoon with Patch we will investigate her attitude.

Taz is a very food motivated dog. She will do anything to get food. Climb on the table, into the dishwasher, out of the kids hands...look out. She once got a bowl of taco meat, 7 shells, and vegis off the table. The next day was NOT pretty, she was sick for a good week. Funny thing was that she didn't bother to stop trying to steal food while feeling so sick, just thick in the head at times.

Tuesday, the big day

Today is the day for the ultrasound. This morning Patch seemed pretty good. Still tired but ate a can of food and wanted to go out. The next time I see him today he will be at the vet's office getting his ultrasound. Michele will pick him up and take him and hopefully she can talk her way into being in the ultrasound room, she will be coming from work and wearing her scrubs from the lab so maybe that will help.

Monday evening

Well it started out as a good evening. Got home from work and Patch was waiting at the door for us, Michele and the kids got home at the same time I did. He went out and when he came back inside he was hungry and ate almost a 10 ounce can of food. So, almost 2 cans today plus half of that PB&J from lunch.

He's my friend and I hope that we get some good news tomorrow at the ultrasound. One of Michele's co-workers has a Border Collie that had similar symptoms, went in for surgery and they found a hemotoma on his spleen, removed it and he is doing great, no signs of cancer and his attitude is much better. I have hope.

Lunchtime Monday

I went home for lunch today and to check on Patch. He met me at the door, first time in 3 or 4 days :) I put him out and he did his thing and came back inside. He was very hungry! Patch ate a whole can of food and then half of my PB&J and then wanted to go back out.

I put him out and checked on Taz since she is separated from him right now so they don't rough house too much. Patch started to bark outside, first time in many days. I went out and he was tangled around the big tree at the back of the yard, he hasn't ventured out that way for a few days as well. As I went to get him he was wagging his tail and after unwrapping him from the tree he ran back to the house.

I took him back inside and had to leave him to go back to work, I wish I didn't have to go. He was laying in front of the door and I had to ask him to move for me which he got up and did willingly. Today is a good day so far!

Monday Morning

I hated to go to work today and leave Patch. He wouldn't eat this morning. Things seemed pretty good last night :( On a good note this morning he did go out twice and even did everything he needed to do. Stool was small but seemed normal and didn't look bloody. He did want to just lay down in the snow and watch the world go by as he has done for so long. I felt pretty bad having him come back inside. No treats, no appetite this morning. I seperated him from Taz today so she would leave him alone, don't know if that was a good idea or not. Put a few treats in his food bowl and I will try to go home for lunch and check on him. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Patch

I gave up on this blog about 6 months ago since I was doing it for me. Well now I am doing it for Patch.

Patch Blue Merle Australian Shepherd Male born April 1993. Initially diagnosed with cancer of the spleen yesterday 1/7/06. The x-ray showed a large spleen and not much else. He has been lethargic for about a week that I found out is due to him being anemic. The vet thinks he is bleeding into his abdomen, not a lot, but enough. He has not eaten much for a week but with Parvo as a puppy we don't take eating issues too seriously. Hindsight is 20/20. Who knows how long this has been going on. His eating has been up and down, not eating for a day or so every few months for years.

Last night I wasn't sure he would make it thought the night, I had to drag his dog bed from the living room to the bedroom because he didn't have the strength to walk down the hall. In the past he would have run to bed for his treat. He did eat a small bit of canned food that Michele hand fed him last night and he finished the can this morning. Not much food but better than nothing.

I hope that he will be ok until Tuesday he goes in for an ultrasound and we will see if the diagnosis is more accurate. Right now there is still a very small percentage of hope. Then we need to figure what to do next...Remove the spleen, nothing, chemo, euthanasia. None are easy or fun choices.