The last few days have been incredibly stressful. My husband Matt, Bosco, and I traveled to Asheville, NC from Knoxville, Tn. It’s about a 2.5 hour drive. Everything was fine. The night before we went on a walk. Bosco looked great. He was a little stiff in the morning but that’s kind of normal.
When we got to Asheville and got him out of the car he couldn’t walk. The vet saw him early and without doing an MRI he suspected that either a tumor was pushing against his spine or that the cancer had metastasized to his spine. At that point Bosco looked lethargic, couldn’t urinate, wag his tail, or flip his feet up. The vet offered to euthanize or let us take him home on meds and see how things went. Of course he did not feel that giving him the vaccine was a good idea. We agreed.
We took him home and saw our primary vet so she could show us how to express his bladder. Man it’s hard, physically, to do. We tried at home and couldn’t do it so we ran him back to the vets before they closed and he peed by himself!!! The next day he wagged his tail and we noticed a few other signs of improvement. He was very alert but the meds made him drink a ton of water. He threw up 3 times and had diarrhea. He didn’t want to eat much too.
Then on Saterday, we took him to see his holistic vet. She did acupuncture and some excercises. At the end of the session he flipped his feet instead of letting them hang when we lift him! That was significant progress. Also he has started to kick his feet when we carry him and can bare weight on his back legs with support for balance.
The holistic vet feels that the timing was suspicious. He had an x-ray on Monday where they put him on his back and with the car ride she felt like that could have aggravated his back. So we are doing PT excercise and I’m going to call ourPC vet and the vet involved in the study on Monday.
Matt and I are exhausted. It’s been a ruff few days but things are better than what they were. At least we don’t have to euthanize today, which is what I thought we might be doing. We wount be selfish, but three vets have now told us it is not time and we are so relived.
We are so grateful for the support of all the vets that have helped us. The one involved in the study, we have only met once in person but he was so kind and empathetic. In fact, I thought he might cry in our consultation. Also our holistic vet has been amazing. She is even watching Bosco for a half day next week because we don’t have anyone else that can help us.
And….Matt just told me that Bosco’s feet are twitching while he dreams!!!! This is the first time we have see that!
King of the mountain on his new orthopedic bed with back support. Something our holistic vet suggested.
wow, I am so sorry you had such a stressful week. Backs are funny things. If he had a touch of arthritis like most older dogs do I agree (and I am not a vet) that it could have aggregated his back.
Are you going to try the vaccine again or just see how things go?
Glad you have seen improvements
Keep kicking butt Bosco
hugs
Michelle & Angel Sassy
Yes he has arthritis. And wow backs can be a touchy. I say that as someone who has a herniated disk. My poor boy is going through so much. I’m going to call about the vaccine on Monday and see what they think. I just don’t know what we will do.
Wow! You have a LOT going on. Hang in there, and Bosco, you do the same. Good to hear he’s doing better.
The next 2 1/2 drive to Asheville may call for an exercise break along the way.
I don’t know that we will go but yes he needs more breaks. That ammount of time was no problem a few weeks ago.
Right off the bat as I was reading the dirstnpart of your post, I was thinking the long drive really took a roll on this new tripawd. That, combined with however he was…er….”handled ” putting him on the xray table, manipulating him I to position, etc.
And then as I scrolled down to the part where the Vet suggested euthanasia with basically no diagnostic, no real testing, etc, my heart dropped to the floor !!! WOW! I didn’t see that coming at all!! I know I’m crossing the line and I apologize, but, that just seemed soooooo extreme to draw such a severe conclusion that had such dire consequences!!
Anyway, it sounds like you are in the right track with your Holistic Vet and her line of thinking about what’s going on.
Try and get some good rest and regain your balance. You’ve had a crazy week end. Bosco has to be exhausted, and probably sore from all the manipulating, arthritis, looooong car ride, etc. He`s twotching his paws, he’s very comfy, he looks happy and content on his bed amd he is improving!!!! Good rest, good meds, good massage and maube some food acupuncture….plus a scoop of ice cream once a day and he’ll be fine
Lots of extra hugs
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too
Sally, I wish I had been thinking straight at the time. The car ride and the x-ray issues are so obvious, but we went to Hilton Head which was about a six hour drive and he was fine. We stopped about every two hours so we didn’t think the drive was too much. He might of been in a weird position, but he looked ok. Also I had tons of blankets on the seat so he wasn’t on a buckle or anything.
The vet who is involved in the study did offer to do more tests. He was great. I felt we were in good hands. We didn’t want to put Bosco through more. He looked really bad at the time. He wasn’t acting himself at all. And it was the first time this vet met Bosco.
Bosco was diagnosed last May and the holistic vet alerted us to the seriousness of situation. She has known him for about two years and he looked so much better when she saw him.
I am so glad we didn’t euthanize. I really don’t want to have to make that decision. For the moment, he is happy and he looks pretty comfortable most of the time. He does have arthritis issues but we are managing that as much as possible.
We are trying to give him as many hoppy days as we can. And believe me, he has had his fair share of steak over the last few days!