Poop – The Ongoing Adventures of Sheba

Buster Health Update

quick update on Buster. Not much of one because there’s been no change in the elimination problems. We’re finishing up round 2 of metronidazole and his poop is slightly more form than “cow pie”. Also still having incontinence issues and leaving pee pee puddles intermittently. Dr Moore wants to scope the urethra and get a bigger sample of the prostate (last one was too small) but we have to get the poop under control first. Clay has helped a bit, but still no normal poop.

He and Nikko are both still DEPRESSED.

Our Princess Has Moved On

Sheba a crossed to the other side today. She had been doing ok, starting to eat again (mostly baby food and deli meat), but something just wasn’t right. She had bee having increasing difficulty getting around the house and outside to potty. Last night she needed help every time she wanted to get adjusted in bed. We didn’t sleep much and she was constantly panting. This morning she got up OK for her car ride (highlight of the day), but by the time I got home around 3 and went to take her out to potty she was knuckling on the remaining rear leg and was unable to bear any weight on it at all. I called the vet’s office to let the neurologist know we had symptoms. He said we could bring her in or wait til the morning. Sheba was adamant about getting into the car so we took her over to the vet’s office. On exam Sheba had very little reflex in the remaining rear leg and cried out when he barely tapped her with the mallet. Neuro said her symptoms were consistent with spinal cord infiltration. Just yesterday we learned UofTexas identified the fungus as Rasamsonia spp. which looks and acts like Aspergillus and Penicillium but grows a lot faster. With all this overwhelming information, we made the decision to end her suffering. She fell asleep peacefully in our arms around 5pm. A big thank you to everyone who has offered support and encouragement for the last few months, we really appreciate it!

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Just pick a fungus and be done already!

Tripawd Day 18

I am soo frustrated with the world of pathology! We started the terbinafine on Saturday and had some problems – panting, racing heart, agitation, etc. so we stopped the med went to ER, they said sorry, we think you should wait to talk to your internist on Monday. Fine. I’m perfectly capable of making important medical decisions! Doc left a message while we were gone that she wanted to talk about the terbinafine and some results that had come in. Ok, so I called her back.

First, the juicy stuff…PATHOLOGY! Its NOT Aspergillus spp after all, after further testing its looking like Penicillium spp. But the lab doesn’t feel confident continuing so they’re sending it out to Texas for species identification and drug susceptibility. Well holy $%#@ people, just pick a fungus and be done with it!! At this rate I could have snagged a sample and done the identification and susceptibility testing at school as a summer project…might still be a good idea for fall.

The great thing about our new fungus, terbinafine probably isn’t necessary, so its ok that we discontinued it. And, even better, Sheba is pooping normal again!

cruisin’ the back yard, huntin’ fo FLIES!

Maaaa! I told you not to take my picture!

Tripawd Day 13

My brain has been fried from lack of sleep and migraines, but I think I’m almost caught up on sleep! Now that the firework are (mostly) over. Her last fentanyl patch came off Sunday, we’re doing ok on 150mg Tramadol every 8 hours. Poop is still very loose (think chocolate sauce for ice cream, minus the ice cream), and she’s not on the antibiotic anymore so we’re decreasing the Gabapentin with a plan to take he off by Friday. The crying has finally stopped, after consulting with our vet a few times she decided the confinement period is over. Sheeb is now allowed to roam about the house, cushion hopping, though we’re still keeping a close eye on her and helping her when she goes potty. She has a hard time keeping balanced when she squats. Probably the pain meds plus sedatives.

Stitches came off yesterday, but she started licking and chewing the incision so the cone’s not going anywhere! Abdominal ultrasound was clear, but we did find out the sentinel node biopsy that they took when they thought it was cancer turned out to have Aspergillus spp. in it, so this is no longer an isolated osteomyelitis, but systemic disease. Because she is a female German Shepherd and therefore more prone to more severe incarnations of the infection, her prognosis is very guarded and will depend on how she responds to treatment. Once it spreads to the spine and she shows signs of paralysis or paresis she will need to be put down.

WTF!? We were supposed to have a consult with a new internist, apparently her staff forgot to tell her that so she was very unprepared. Didn’t even have Sheba’s records from across the office. She showed us how to check her lymph nodes, symptoms to look for and agreed to add terbinafine, and antifungal that is commonly used in conjunction with azole antifungals when there is systemic disease. She’s supposed to give me a call with the microbe ID and susceptibility results (shouldn’t be back yet) when it does finally come in. At least its not infectious to the other dogs, but we’re looking at 2-3 years not that we know there’s lymph node involvement. That microbe ID will give a better clue as to the growth speed of the fungus and give us an idea of how long it’ll take to spread globally.

Sheba was getting kinda depressed, but her brother-from-another-mother, Monsta Man Zia came up for a visit and snap her right out of it! You just can’t say no to the energy of an Australian Shepherd!

Tripawd Day 6

I do believe we’ve recovered from the fireworks! Once again, San Jose PD has totally let me down when it comes to preventative community policing. Good to know they’ll show up if theres a body involved, maybe I should have lobbed a bottle rocket at one of the gang bangers down the street. That’ll get the cops here, in celebration, but that’s better than nothing.

And yes, Sheba pooped yesterday. Cowpie, but who cares, its poop and our vet says cowpie is ok. While I was in class, Ruth took Sheba in for a new fentanyl patch. By the way, removing the old one was a total nightmare last night, but its way better than the staples we had after the TPLO patches. Dr. Appel did a once over, incision looks good and stitches will come out next Wednesday.

Histopathology came in today: definitely NOT cancer, definitely YES its infectious. Still waiting on the fungal identification and susceptibility. Why can’t they make the little hyphae grow faster!!! I hated doing fungal cultures in microlab, these people must really love their jobs because I’d just shoot myself!

fentanyl patch kickin' in — fentanyl patch kickin’ in