Hi everyone! We wanted to update everyone on our dawg's terminal illness situation. Many may know our dog
Dakota got sick a few weeks ago while we were on vacation. Now that we're in the calm eye of the storm (I have to be dramatic, come on) I can sit and share the situation. Dakota is my first dog, I never had one growing up, and I rescued him at 4 weeks old.
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| Gratuitous playful puppy pic - 2002 |
On our anniversary trip a few weeks ago in October, on the third day we got a call from Stay N Play Pet Ranch where we were boarding Tex and Dakota. The owner said that when they went to check in on the dogs that morning, D was displaying symptoms of a possible stroke. They were getting ready to take him to his own vet, but their onsite vet believed it to be
vestibular disease. Before they took him anywhere, they wanted to ask if he'd had any history of this. We were at the monorail station at Epcot in WDW and between the noises and my heart racing, I pretty much heard myself whimper "No, never. What do I need to do?" I could hear my own dismay, what the hell happened? She said they were taking him to D's primary vet, and they'd be in touch just as soon as they got there. I am fortunate enough to have retired parents in the area, and called them seeking help. Dad assured me they would call the owner's cell phone and meet her at the vet with D, get all the details for us. We expressed our gratitude and so we tried to wander around Epcot, hoping for the best, on edge to hear an update.
Later in the afternoon, D's vet said that it was definitely
vestibular disease, a system of nerves that runs from the brain to the inner-ear, effecting equillibrium. Symptoms usually can last 2 weeks. Sometimes it comes back, or never. And in some cases, the symptoms never go away. Nothing else appeared to be abnormal physically or in any of his internal tests except for one thing. The vet also reported that in running a full blood work panel, his liver enzymes were remarkably high, which concerned her more. She'd have to send off for a more extensive liver test, but she did not feel the two were related at this time, and that he was okay to leave. He was given dramamine, to help with the constant spinning, and back he went. The staff did a great job helping him eat and get around. He seemed more himself once he got some stability back with the dramamine. He was showing visible improvement by both the staff and my parents. So we tried to carry on with vacation, I'm sure you can figure out how that went for us.
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| 5 yrs old - 2007 |
D's vet called us the day we were traveling home, wanting to discuss the returned liver enzyme function test. She said that the test results show definite liver dysfunction. The cause could be simply something he ingested, and if we put him on meds and saw improvement, then we'd know it is something that could be corrected. The ultimate tell-all, however, would be to have an ultra-sound done. And that was what she recommended in this case. So we scheduled one as soon as they could get one brought in that Friday.
We arrived back home on Tuesday night, and were floored at the dramatic physical change in him since we'd dropped him off last Thursday. In a matter of 6 days. His head was completely crocked to the side, his eyes were glazed, he stumbled around, couldn't jump on the bed, started throwing up when he got excited, and the muscle along his back and on his head were remarkably gone, making his spine look more prominent. In addition, his stomach area was grossly distended. We believed two vets' diagnosis, and looked up everything about vestibular disease. Every single thing it said about him held true, but it just didn't feel right. He looked like a 16 year old dog, not a 9 year old dog.
Overnight, he got dramatically worse. He lost all strength in his legs, his eyes rolled completely in to the back of his head. It became clear that morning that he knew he was dying. We agreed I take him to the vet. But suddenly his state hit me and I was so freaked out, I called my parents to take me. D's vet definitely agreed that something is going on, and we X-Rayed his chest area. The images indicated that the liver was definitely enlarged and that we could not wait another day on an ultrasound. We had to figure out what was going on and treat it asap. She called a specialty vet at
Central TX Veterinary Specialty Hospital and said that she is transferring us directly over to their care now. We knew this couldn't be good as we drove over there with all of D's records and the XRay images on a disk. They took D back and we waited. We were called in to a room and the vet laid it out for us:
"Your dog has cancer. He has lymphoma in his liver, eyes and nervous system in brain. It probably started 4-6 weeks ago. He probably didn't even know he had it until it hit his vestibular system in his brain while he was at the boarding place. You have three options.
1. Chemo (No. That sounded like a miserable rest of his short existence.)
2. Steroids (This kills down the inflammation of the tumors, makes the dog feel really good, kills the smaller cancer cells, basically slows the process down until it no longer works.)
3. Put him to sleep now (No freakin way, if she thinks he has a chance with steroids.)"
So, I called the hubs and filled him in, and we opted to first try steroids treatment. They injected him with a high dose of steroids, and then we were to keep him on prednisone twice daily. The vet explained to us very carefully that we might see improvement for a few days, at best case 3 months. Hubs left work and we spent the rest of the day with him at home, deciding what we would do if he did not get better immediately. We both agreed that if he spent another day like how he was that day, we would let him go. Fortunately, that wasn't how the cards fell! The next morning, he was wagging his tail and ready to start the day. We could not believe it, but like she said, the clinical symptoms of the cancer had been temporarily aleveated. He resembled our dog in spirit and didn't think he was dying anymore. It worked! For now!
Here we are...
Day 18 of prednisone, and Dakota is still alive and kickin. He is the same dog in spirit we dropped off that day last month. He has lost quite a bit of weight, because the cancer is eating up all his food and storage, and his strength is not what it was. His vision is a little bit off. The biggest pain in the ass for all of us are the side effects from the prednisone. They make him thirsty and hungry all the time. He is constantly drinking water and needing to be let out. And instead of constantly begging to play ball, he just wants to eat. And when he pees, he pees for minutes. I am not kidding. I really don't know how one dog can ingest and bloat with so much water. The vet said that this was the reaction we wanted, the question now is for how long? She said it would be weeks or up to 3 months. Because this has spread so quickly... we honestly never expected him to still be here. But, here he is, and here we will continue to spoil and love him for as long as we can until he is not himself and we have reached the end of our borrowed time.
A special thanks to the remarkably kind care provided to Dakota by
Stay N Play Pet Ranch,
Banfield Pet Hospital Sunset Valley, and
Central Texas Veterinary Specialty Hospital. They could not have been more gentle-hearted or diligent in their treatment and care for Dakota. And thank you to my parents.
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| 2011 Tex (8 yrs) blonde doxie mix & Dakota (9 yrs) black lab mix |
