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A call came into a local rescue from a good Samaritan. There was a female pit that found its way to her yard a few weeks before her call. She had been feeding her, but had no place for her, so she'd been sleeping in the elements, basically running loose, but continuing to stand guard and live in her yard. The neighbors were upset, and the post office refused to deliver the mail to the house and next door neighbor's until the dog was gone. The woman couldn't take the dog in as she is renting and is forbidden to have any more dogs than the two she has. She spent a few weeks contacting local rescues, to be turned down due to capacity. She did everything she could to avoid calling animal control. As we all know here, the "shelter" for pit bulls, especially older, female, unaltered pit bulls is a death sentence. She only had one last option to avoid sending her to the shelter, and as much as she did not want to do so, she tied her to a tree all day and then, because she hated doing that, she let her off the chain and using her car, parked sideways in the drive, to try to keep the dog confined to her property.
I don't know how long she'd been roaming the streets until she staked her claim on this particular house, but from the sound of it, it had been awhile. The lady who was feeding her said she had become more playful and wanted to be petted. She was wary and barked quite a bit towards strangers but was food motivated and calms fairly easily. She didn't charge, growl, etc. The lady had two small dogs of her own, but she did not allow them to interact as she said she has no idea what the stray female may or may not be carrying since she had no idea of her vaccination history. But, she said the pitty girl didn't pay much attention to the other dogs anyway and she was not aggressive towards them.
I don't know how long she'd been roaming the streets until she staked her claim on this particular house, but from the sound of it, it had been awhile. The lady who was feeding her said she had become more playful and wanted to be petted. She was wary and barked quite a bit towards strangers but was food motivated and calms fairly easily. She didn't charge, growl, etc. The lady had two small dogs of her own, but she did not allow them to interact as she said she has no idea what the stray female may or may not be carrying since she had no idea of her vaccination history. But, she said the pitty girl didn't pay much attention to the other dogs anyway and she was not aggressive towards them.
Rescue's comments:
This girl needed urgent help. She was VERY thin despite being fed. The way she was shaped was like she may have been potentially sick. Flies were stuck on her right ear the entire time. She walked strangely (I can't say its a limp, but it's weird). She's broken! And, the neighborhood kids were throwing things at her.
She was stranger wary, but not aggressive at all. Her head was down but her tail wags. At first she would just retreat a few yards and lay down. After a few minutes she would cautiously approach and take the treat out of my hand then go lay down. Towards the end of my visits she was licking my hands and showing a slight hint of playfulness. She was sweet but absolutely terrified. Her head hung, she wouldn't look at you, she was miserable. I had her vaccinated (fully, including bordetella, parvo/distemper and rabies), dewormed and tested for heartworm. And of course she was pregnant. She had two at about 4-5 weeks gestation, and one at about 2 weeks gestation. Doctor said none were likely viable. She was also diagnosed as being Heartworm Positive.
She then went into an awesome foster home with a woman who loves pitties and helped care for dogs with severe issues before. Initially, this girl (now named Coco) settled in at her foster's house. No accidents in the house, loved sleeping on her new bed and was good in the crate. She hadn't messed with the cats, either! A couple of days after she got there, I got this message from the foster:
Foster's Comments:
"First, I think she may have lived in a home at one point and is potty trained. Twice yesterday, she started acting really silly, wiggling around and grumbling at me. Both times, we got harnessed and leashed and headed outside. Sure enough, she had to go! Last night, around 3am, she got very restless and woke me up. Same behavior as yesterday. I tried getting her to go in the yard but she must think it’s part of the house.
We went for a quick walk and she pottied again. Second, I don’t think interaction with CATS is a problem. She interacted with mine just fine yesterday and this morning, EXCEPT when food was part of the equation. As I let her eat hers from my hand, my cat got too close and she growled. This morning, she was actually hesitant to come into the apartment after our walk because my cat was standing in the kitchen. She seems almost afraid, or wary, of her – definitely not aggressive towards her. She protects her food rather than has a problem with the cat. I take her bowl away while she’s eating – no reaction. I take her bone away while she’s chewing – no reaction. I sorta wonder if another animal was stealing her food, or if that might be her perception – that she has to protect it from other animals." When you put Coco on a leash attached to her collar, she freaked out, sat and refused to move, just terrified...but if you put her in a harness, she did fine.
"We were walking along the sidewalk and a Time Warner white van drove past and parked. She stopped in her tracks, ears perked up and tail started wagging. Then, a second Time Warner white van drove past and parked behind the first. Again, ears perked up and tail started wagging. She stood riveted to the spot for minutes, staring at the vans like she was expecting a particular person to get out. Maybe her previous owner drove a white van, how sad for her.
Comments from Rescue:
Sadly, Coco was confined to her crate during the day while her foster worked. On the 3rd day, she demolished her crate and the room it was in. We don’t know if it was lawn people that startled her outside the window, or what, but she was not able to live in the apartment uncrated due to the cats, so without a crate, she had to leave the fosters asap. Her teeth are worn down half way from chewing herself out of the wired crate. She went to boarding and was again confined to a kennel. She then went to another foster home.
Rescue's comments:
This girl needed urgent help. She was VERY thin despite being fed. The way she was shaped was like she may have been potentially sick. Flies were stuck on her right ear the entire time. She walked strangely (I can't say its a limp, but it's weird). She's broken! And, the neighborhood kids were throwing things at her.
She was stranger wary, but not aggressive at all. Her head was down but her tail wags. At first she would just retreat a few yards and lay down. After a few minutes she would cautiously approach and take the treat out of my hand then go lay down. Towards the end of my visits she was licking my hands and showing a slight hint of playfulness. She was sweet but absolutely terrified. Her head hung, she wouldn't look at you, she was miserable. I had her vaccinated (fully, including bordetella, parvo/distemper and rabies), dewormed and tested for heartworm. And of course she was pregnant. She had two at about 4-5 weeks gestation, and one at about 2 weeks gestation. Doctor said none were likely viable. She was also diagnosed as being Heartworm Positive.
She then went into an awesome foster home with a woman who loves pitties and helped care for dogs with severe issues before. Initially, this girl (now named Coco) settled in at her foster's house. No accidents in the house, loved sleeping on her new bed and was good in the crate. She hadn't messed with the cats, either! A couple of days after she got there, I got this message from the foster:
Foster's Comments:
"First, I think she may have lived in a home at one point and is potty trained. Twice yesterday, she started acting really silly, wiggling around and grumbling at me. Both times, we got harnessed and leashed and headed outside. Sure enough, she had to go! Last night, around 3am, she got very restless and woke me up. Same behavior as yesterday. I tried getting her to go in the yard but she must think it’s part of the house.
We went for a quick walk and she pottied again. Second, I don’t think interaction with CATS is a problem. She interacted with mine just fine yesterday and this morning, EXCEPT when food was part of the equation. As I let her eat hers from my hand, my cat got too close and she growled. This morning, she was actually hesitant to come into the apartment after our walk because my cat was standing in the kitchen. She seems almost afraid, or wary, of her – definitely not aggressive towards her. She protects her food rather than has a problem with the cat. I take her bowl away while she’s eating – no reaction. I take her bone away while she’s chewing – no reaction. I sorta wonder if another animal was stealing her food, or if that might be her perception – that she has to protect it from other animals." When you put Coco on a leash attached to her collar, she freaked out, sat and refused to move, just terrified...but if you put her in a harness, she did fine.
"We were walking along the sidewalk and a Time Warner white van drove past and parked. She stopped in her tracks, ears perked up and tail started wagging. Then, a second Time Warner white van drove past and parked behind the first. Again, ears perked up and tail started wagging. She stood riveted to the spot for minutes, staring at the vans like she was expecting a particular person to get out. Maybe her previous owner drove a white van, how sad for her.
Comments from Rescue:
Sadly, Coco was confined to her crate during the day while her foster worked. On the 3rd day, she demolished her crate and the room it was in. We don’t know if it was lawn people that startled her outside the window, or what, but she was not able to live in the apartment uncrated due to the cats, so without a crate, she had to leave the fosters asap. Her teeth are worn down half way from chewing herself out of the wired crate. She went to boarding and was again confined to a kennel. She then went to another foster home.
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(FYI on above: she doesn't have a problem with cats)
My Story:
The end and a new beginning:
On June 25th, 2011, she showed up with a rescue/foster at a Dog Show, that’s where her NOW owner fell in love with her.
July 3rd, 2011
She is now in her new home and adjusting with three other small dogs. Her new name.."Diamond". Looking frightened and depressed, in two days she has lifted her head and began to show signs of playfulness. She now enjoys her spot on the couch and lots of rubbing on her and kisses. Strange and new noises seem to startle her. When she is fearful, she runs to the outdoors for she feels safer in a larger space. She has scars all over her. They appear to be fighting scars.
Four weeks after adoption: She seems to do just fine eating even though one of her canine teeth is down to the nub and her others are gnawed half way down from trying to get out of a wire crate. She has learned to use the doggie door and has had ZERO accidents. She has been started on Heartworm Treatment as well. She is still underweight but hopefully soon we can get her fattened up and healthy again. In time, I know she will be a perfect girl. (She weighs 45 lbs) She no longer has food issues and no more growling. She is barking now when the doorbell rings, when before she ran away. She loves stuffed animals and chewing the stuffing out of them which takes all of about 3 minutes even with half of her teeth worn down. This girl has had a rough life and now she can began to recover and know the world as a dog should. She also walks PERFECTLY on and off a leash. No Harness needed.
This is a Diamond in the Ruff.
A perfect model to what rescuing a dog is all about. From feral to friend..a dog in the making.
UPDATE: Four Months later ~ This girl is extremely playful, very loving, and loves everyone now. Very funny and a blast to be with. She weighed 45 lbs when I got her, now she weighs 60 lbs. Wow..she looks awesome! This girl has done a complete change and is a big social butterfly. She loves everyone and everything. She will follow or run to any person now wanting attention. She wiggles her whole body as if it were to break in half any minute, and she talks to you with growly whiny noises and chomps her teeth. She can almost walk sideways with her body bent. Very funny I might say. She loves going outdoors and basking in the sun. She also loves chew sticks as well. She will chase after mom when mom is running with one of her stuffed toys she likes. When she runs, her front legs fly out in opposite directions. It's hilarious!! And her favorite spot is on the couch just dreaming and chasing bunnies.
Her one thing she has issues with..she likes to chew up things when I am not home, so she has to go into a crate. I purchased a plastic one since she is good at chewing her way out of wired ones. At first she didn't care to go in it. Now...she knows when I am about to leave and heads for the crate to get in. Also I have another crate that is wired but with a cover over it. I almost think she likes it better cause she has gone into it and laid down several times when I am about to leave. She seems so comfortable in them now. But she isn't left in a crate for more than 4-5 hours tops. Usually a lot less than that. She is such a wonderful, loving and amazing girl. And I love her SOOO MUCH!!
Update: 3-9-12
Diamond has been diagnosed with Spondylosis. It is a degeneration of the spine. It occurs in older animals or ones that have had an injury. She will need pain meds and anti-inflammatory meds as needed throughout the rest of her life. Also she is being put on some all natural joint support formula to help her. As she ages, she will get worse. I am hoping to avoid any critical issues by making sure we do everything we can to keep her healthy and comfortable. Her activity level will have to remain low. She can take short walks but no jumping or running or anything strenuous. I knew something was wrong because she's never been that active. As in wanting to walk or run much. And since she's been with me, there has been an occasional whimper from her. She also crawls onto the couch, not jump. This disease comes with age or injury. And injury could have happened since she has a deep 3 inch scar on her hind leg and scars all over her from her past. Was she possibly hit by a car?
There isn't a cure for this nor will surgery solve the problem. All we can do is maintain her health, weight, and limit her activity. I have also purchased a larger crate with very soft thick bedding to help her be able to move around more and be comfortable. I hope she will have a full life for the rest of her years here with me.
*Note: I had her retested for heartworms. It was very faint so they are almost gone. Awesome!
Update: 11-21-12
Diamond had her teeth cleaned, a rabies shot and some antibiotics. Three days later, she was in pain. Her spondylosis kicked in. I feel it had something to do with her visit to the vet's. So no more of all of that. She has never hurt this long. It took a week for her to even be able to sleep normal and get any rest. She has been in tremendous pain. After 3 visits to the vets office, we finally got her walking and out of pain. She received an Adequan shot, joint supplement prescribed for horses (Actiflex 4000), and Tramadol, Gabapentin, Robaxin, and Rimadyl for flare ups. Also I took her to an animal chiropractor in South Dallas. By the end of the day she was up and walking and free of pain. We will maintain this high dosage of joint support throughout her life. I am also giving her the Adequan shots at home now. I am having her previous x-rays sent to me to show the new vet so to look for further possible injury. She has been put on a special diet as well. No nightshade foods since they aggravate arthritis and she has arthritis all up and down her spine and possibly neck. I hope now on this joint support we can maintain her health and keep her pain free. There may be an occasion that she will need meds for inflammation and pain. This was her first incident since March. I feel it was triggered from her dental visit. I give her daily massages and also had a friend do some Reiki on her.
I bought her a memory foam bed and a pet heating pad as well. Looking to buy her a blanket coat for going outside but not sure she will wear it.
On a good note, had her retested for Heartworms, she is NOW HW negative. Woohoo!!
Diamond is my best friend. I hope she will live a long and healthy life as long as she can. I will enjoy every moment we can be together. She is such a wonderful, fun, and loving girl.
DNA TEST Revealed: American Staffordshire Terrier Mix & American Staffordshire Terrier or pitbull/ Dachshund Cross, with 15% English Setter
Update 7-2013: Diamond has never really pulled out of her pain since her visit last November to the vet for dental work. It's been a tough road. Joint support hasnt done alot. Since then I have purchased an Activator tool, A sound wave therapy machine (Alphasonic) and a cold laser therapy machine. These are all tools chiropractors use. We do this almost on a daily basis. I also give her massages throughout the day...like 5 minute massages to keep the blood flowing in those areas as well as some long extended massages. She LOVES it. We discontinued the Adequan shots in thoughts of it not helping her much since this was more of a spinal cord issue BUT...I decided to try them again and low and behold..they are working. It seems they are keeping the inflammation down which is allowing her to not be in pain. She is acting more like herself and being a happy girl. I am happy for this. A little bit of relief.
I have also switched her to a raw diet and have been taking a course on natural pet care. All of this to help her live a healthy pain free life.
We are planning Stem Cell therapy for the first of September. After much reading about it and a visit with the orthopedic vet, it appears this may work for Diamond. Only because the Adequan is working for her does he think it may help her also. This is something that you just don't know till you have done it and see what the results are. But 75%-90% of cases show improvement. I will come back and update after the Stem Cell Therapy takes place. Paws Crossed!
9-3-13
Had Diamond's surgery today to remove the fat cells from her tummy for the Stem Cell Therapy. We go back next Thursday to administer the cells via IV. It will take up to 90 days to see results from it. Lets hope it works for her. we did more xrays. Her neck looks good (including the bebe implanted under the skin on the back of her head). her back leg joints look great. Hips-on a scale of 1-10..10 being the best. One hip is an 8. The other is at a 10, so pretty good there. Her spondylosis isn't so good. Looks pretty severe on xray from the front view. So now we have to wait 90 days for results. The Vet-Stem people were there for her surgery as well and they will keep up with her progress to document for further research. Here is a pic of her and her Doctor. She loves him. He has wonderful bedside manners.
9-12-13
We went back for our stem cell treatment. Took about 10 minutes. It went well. Diamond WAS feeling hot afterwards and the rest of the evening. She seemed to not be feeling good all day and slept alot. The next day she was back to normal. I spoke with someone from Vet-Stem and they said it wasn't common but isn't unheard of either for a dog to get hot afterwards.
I will keep you posted on what comes of this in the next 90 days. Hope it kicks in before wintertime. She hurts a lot more in the damp and cold weather.
11-8-13
Well we are at the two month mark after getting stem cells. I must say, I am tickled pink at how well this has worked. We had one afternoon that she was tippy toeing and didn't want to get on the couch. I gave her a muscle relaxer and moist heat pack and a few hours later..she was back up and going. Since then shes been doing well. We are getting into winter time so we will see how well she does with it. Overall, we made it. It worked and I am sooo happy!!
Well we are at the two month mark after getting stem cells. I must say, I am tickled pink at how well this has worked. We had one afternoon that she was tippy toeing and didn't want to get on the couch. I gave her a muscle relaxer and moist heat pack and a few hours later..she was back up and going. Since then shes been doing well. We are getting into winter time so we will see how well she does with it. Overall, we made it. It worked and I am sooo happy!!
1-8-2014
It's been 4 months. Diamond had 2 weeks where she was having the up and down pain. One day fine, next day not. These periods were a lot less severe and short lived. Since then even during these cold winter days, we have not had any pain or issues whatsoever.
It's been 4 months. Diamond had 2 weeks where she was having the up and down pain. One day fine, next day not. These periods were a lot less severe and short lived. Since then even during these cold winter days, we have not had any pain or issues whatsoever.
2-2014
Well our stem cell procedure only lasted 4 months. :( Since then we have been back on Adequan...but she is doing well and having lots of good days although it took 2 months to really get the Adequan back in her good. A lot longer than normal. We will do a second stem cell dose in November to hope help her get thru the winter time without meds or Adequan injections.
Well our stem cell procedure only lasted 4 months. :( Since then we have been back on Adequan...but she is doing well and having lots of good days although it took 2 months to really get the Adequan back in her good. A lot longer than normal. We will do a second stem cell dose in November to hope help her get thru the winter time without meds or Adequan injections.
4-2014
Diamond had a rotted tooth when I adopted her and has always been a concern and something we were to watch. Well it became black and a hole going up in the center of it rotting from the inside out. So we decided to have it removed a couple weeks ago. Only a few days afterwards..she ripped those stitches right out. We will watch it for about 2 months. The hole where the tooth was will need to grow together. If a flap of skin exists then, we will have to go back in and stitch it together. Let's hope it heals well. It was a Canine tooth which makes it a much bigger deal. Otherwise she's doing good and chewing away on things like always. LOL **I also have purchased a Magnetic Pet Bed for her.
Diamond had a rotted tooth when I adopted her and has always been a concern and something we were to watch. Well it became black and a hole going up in the center of it rotting from the inside out. So we decided to have it removed a couple weeks ago. Only a few days afterwards..she ripped those stitches right out. We will watch it for about 2 months. The hole where the tooth was will need to grow together. If a flap of skin exists then, we will have to go back in and stitch it together. Let's hope it heals well. It was a Canine tooth which makes it a much bigger deal. Otherwise she's doing good and chewing away on things like always. LOL **I also have purchased a Magnetic Pet Bed for her.
7-28-14
Well Diamond's skin in her mouth healed up very nicely. BUT now we have a new problem.. another canine tooth has broken into. So, I will be having to take her in to have this one removed also. UGH! She seems to be pain free but if there is any bacteria floating around, it can cause inflammation to travel through her system and settle into her back also causing major problems. Speaking of, a few days ago, she was hurting some. So this may have caused this. She's been doing very well with her back as we are still on the Adequan shots but only having to give around the 3 week mark.
I am calling the vet next week to make an appointment. This is terrible. Three times to be put under in one year. I hate this but I don't feel I have a choice. Poor girl. My million dollar baby.
Well Diamond's skin in her mouth healed up very nicely. BUT now we have a new problem.. another canine tooth has broken into. So, I will be having to take her in to have this one removed also. UGH! She seems to be pain free but if there is any bacteria floating around, it can cause inflammation to travel through her system and settle into her back also causing major problems. Speaking of, a few days ago, she was hurting some. So this may have caused this. She's been doing very well with her back as we are still on the Adequan shots but only having to give around the 3 week mark.
I am calling the vet next week to make an appointment. This is terrible. Three times to be put under in one year. I hate this but I don't feel I have a choice. Poor girl. My million dollar baby.
8-4-14
Diamond had a second canine tooth removed. She somehow broke it and it split down the middle. This time it is a lower tooth and is much more difficult to heal. She's had a rough week and still not doing great. Stinky mouth and she's mopey. Giving her antibiotics and pain meds. We will keep an eye on it.
Diamond had a second canine tooth removed. She somehow broke it and it split down the middle. This time it is a lower tooth and is much more difficult to heal. She's had a rough week and still not doing great. Stinky mouth and she's mopey. Giving her antibiotics and pain meds. We will keep an eye on it.
June 2015
We will be doing our second Stem Cell injection in August.
August 19th, 2015-We did our second round of stem cell and also complete bloodwork and xrays. Bloodwork was perfect. X-rays look bad but when compared to xrays from 2 years ago, it appears there has been no change. My vet was shocked when looking at them until he compared them to the old ones. She's really got spondylosis bad. Poor girl. But she is doing well and we haven't had any issues.
October 2015-Diamond is doing very well. We are giving Adequan injections every 4 weeks instead of every 2 1/2 weeks. Seems the stem cell once again is helping her. She has had no problems so far. Let's see what the winter holds. We decided to keep her on the Adequan injections this time. We just stretched them out to 4 weeks.
February 2016-Diamond is doing wonderful. Even though we have had a mild winter, it still has gotten pretty cold at times. After 4 months we started doing Adequan injections every 3 weeks. There has been ZERO issues at all. In fact we also started walking and she has walked a lot further than she ever has. VERY happy with how things are going.
4-7-2016-Diamond is doing very well. Taking one mile walks and ZERO pain.
April 15, 2016-Diamond had one day of some slowing on movement and slight pain. I immediately gave her an Adequan Injection and she was fine a few hours later. So this time the Stem cell worked for 6 months instead of 4 months. Very nice results considering odds were against it working at all.
June 2016-Diamond is doing well. We take long walks and she does great. She loves hunting for rabbits. Don't worry, she doesn't catch them.
9-2016 Diamond snoozing with her stuffless baby. What a life!
February 2017 - Diamond is doing wonderful. Walking one mile on our walks without ANY issues whatsoever. She loves looking for and chasing the rabbits. She's definitely a hunter. She comes to me every single day begging for a massage. Such a spoiled queen bee. But she deserves it!! Love this girl! She is one happy pain free girl living the life she always deserved.
May 2017 - Enjoying the outdoors and living life to her fullest. Her muzzle is graying. :( My old girl. But she still has lots of spunk. I love her so much!
Nov 2017 - Diamond is doing wonderful. Her and her sister got into a fight about 6 weeks ago. Not sure what triggered it. We think a squirrel got them riled up. They still get along..we just don't leave them alone together now at anytime at all. Diamond got 2 stitches behind her ear and several in her gums from ripping out two teeth..but she actually was doing well the next day. She looked pretty bad though for a few days. But she's made a full recovery without long term issues.
1-7-2018
4-23-18
6-11-18
Diamond went in for a teeth cleaning, skin tag removal, mole removal, full blood work up, and xrays.
In this photo, on our way home..she was still drugged and her tongue wouldn't stay in her mouth. Poor baby. She couldn't even hold her head up and hold it still. She will be 10 yrs old in a few weeks so we made this her last time to go under anesthesia as older dogs become higher risk for something to go wrong.
Diamond went in for a teeth cleaning, skin tag removal, mole removal, full blood work up, and xrays.
In this photo, on our way home..she was still drugged and her tongue wouldn't stay in her mouth. Poor baby. She couldn't even hold her head up and hold it still. She will be 10 yrs old in a few weeks so we made this her last time to go under anesthesia as older dogs become higher risk for something to go wrong.
Diamond has severe spondylosis so getting her xrays today was a little expected bad news. This disease is definitely progressing. It's been 3 years since her last xrays. About a month ago I noticed something a little off with her. It was very subtle but I did notice. She seemed tired or not as active and then I saw her stumble over so slightly. I immediately started her on a new joint supplement (Ostinol) I was using for my other dog and within a few days, she was acting better. Since then she has been good.
As for her blood work, it looks perfect. VERY happy about that. We did a ProBNP test (early heart disease test) 5 years ago and she was on the low end of heart disease. We redid this test and she does have heart disease. Normal numbers are 0-900. In 2013 she was 854. Today she is 1775. So I will get her on some herbs and heart supplements.
She also had 3 teeth extracted. She has some really bad teeth with what she has left.
She also had 3 teeth extracted. She has some really bad teeth with what she has left.
Vet called to tell me he thought her spleen may be enlarged. We will do xrays again on her spleen and heart in 2-3 weeks. hhmm..This has me worried.
7-3-2018
We had a fabulous birthday party for Diamond. She turned 10 years old and 7 years to the day that I adopted her.
I made her an organic cake of her favorite flavors. We ate cake, then played and took pictures. She chewed up the Taira's. LOL. I gave her a wrapped toy and she managed to get package open and get her squeaky toy out. She loves to rip out the squeakers but since she has had about 6-8 front teeth removed recently, she really struggles to do it. It's sad because she really loves to rip them out. After taking pics, the girls got fed and we hopped in the truck to go for a ride. When we got back, she was so exhausted. She passed right out. LOL But she had fun. She didn't quite understand she had a cake to eat but I hand fed her and the other girls bites of it..although Stormy was about to go for the whole cake. All in all...we had a great day..except for not able to go outside due to 108 temps. sigh. It was a good day. My girl..
I made her an organic cake of her favorite flavors. We ate cake, then played and took pictures. She chewed up the Taira's. LOL. I gave her a wrapped toy and she managed to get package open and get her squeaky toy out. She loves to rip out the squeakers but since she has had about 6-8 front teeth removed recently, she really struggles to do it. It's sad because she really loves to rip them out. After taking pics, the girls got fed and we hopped in the truck to go for a ride. When we got back, she was so exhausted. She passed right out. LOL But she had fun. She didn't quite understand she had a cake to eat but I hand fed her and the other girls bites of it..although Stormy was about to go for the whole cake. All in all...we had a great day..except for not able to go outside due to 108 temps. sigh. It was a good day. My girl..
7-7-2018
Went back to vet today for an ultrasound and xrays. Ultrasound did not show any masses. We also looked at her 2015 x-rays and yes her spleen was enlarged then too. So that means less worry as for cancer. He said she has a small liver and a large spleen. We looked at heart on ultrasound and also we did x-rays of both spleen and heart. Heart looks great. Not enlarged, no murmurs. Just a high number on her blood test. So this MIGHT be an infection but he felt there was an 80% chance that it isn't but we are going to go ahead and do a round of antibiotics to cover our bases. He said unfortunately we can treat liver issues and heart issues but there really isn't anything for the spleen. I said herbs. LOL I told him what I was doing for her. She is getting a bunch of supplements for her heart and I have been giving her RAW spleen from a capsule. It is actually for humans but it's just grass fed raw spleen powder in a capsule. I open up and put into food. 6 capsules is the human dose. I have been giving 8-10 a day. Nope not cheap. Anyway, he said her lungs looked good and all upper portion as well. We are going to do a recheck with x-rays and redo blood work in 3 months. So I feel much relief. He DID say that we need to watch the spleen. If it gets larger, we may have to remove it. If it ruptures, that's an emergency and she would maybe only have hours to live without emergency surgery. So while we aren't completely out of the woods yet on what's going on, we can pretty much rule out cancer at this time. Thank you God!!
I have been thinking about this and as I mentioned, we are not sure what caused this. BUT I read that being put under anesthesia can make the spleen enlarge. Both times above in xrays was during a teeth cleaning and she was put under. So she may be having a reaction to the anesthesia. With that said, she won't be going under anymore due to her age unless an emergency occurs. I will update on her in 3 months when we return for her check up. But so for everything looks good. It was a good day since I was worried sick and been crying over this for 3 weeks. I love my girl.
I have been thinking about this and as I mentioned, we are not sure what caused this. BUT I read that being put under anesthesia can make the spleen enlarge. Both times above in xrays was during a teeth cleaning and she was put under. So she may be having a reaction to the anesthesia. With that said, she won't be going under anymore due to her age unless an emergency occurs. I will update on her in 3 months when we return for her check up. But so for everything looks good. It was a good day since I was worried sick and been crying over this for 3 weeks. I love my girl.
7-15-18
This is long but it covers the entire story on how everything played out.
Diamond, my BFF and senior dog of 10 years old had a check up with blood work including a ProBNP test for her heart, teeth cleaning/extractions and x-rays. We did this on June 11th, 2018. The blood work come back perfect except for her heart test. The numbers were high. Normal range from 0-900. Her numbers were at 1775. Before surgery my vet listened to her heart and it sounded good. The x-rays was for keeping an eye on her Spondylosis. My plan for all of this was..for this to be her last time to go under anesthesia. As a dog ages, the risks increase and normally after 10 yrs old, it's time to consider how important it is to put a pet under and the health of the pet and best to avoid it if possible. We just had her birthday the week before with cake and took pictures and car rides and squeaky toys. I even made my first dog cake and it's all organic.
Diamond, my BFF and senior dog of 10 years old had a check up with blood work including a ProBNP test for her heart, teeth cleaning/extractions and x-rays. We did this on June 11th, 2018. The blood work come back perfect except for her heart test. The numbers were high. Normal range from 0-900. Her numbers were at 1775. Before surgery my vet listened to her heart and it sounded good. The x-rays was for keeping an eye on her Spondylosis. My plan for all of this was..for this to be her last time to go under anesthesia. As a dog ages, the risks increase and normally after 10 yrs old, it's time to consider how important it is to put a pet under and the health of the pet and best to avoid it if possible. We just had her birthday the week before with cake and took pictures and car rides and squeaky toys. I even made my first dog cake and it's all organic.
Anyway the next day after her check up, I called to get her blood work results. The blood work was perfect. The heart test had not come back yet and so I waited two days and called back. The numbers were high. The day after that I called to speak to the vet to see what he had to say about her x-rays. He said things really didn't look much different and he wasn't sure why the high heart test numbers because her heart sounded good but we didn't get x-rays of the heart so didn't know if it were enlarged or not. As for the x-rays, he said he noticed her spleen enlarged. He wasn't too concerned and didn't elaborate on it but did say we might need to do an ultrasound and/or x-rays in 30 days or so. I said ok and went to the internet to search out enlarged spleen as I had not studied anything on spleens. OMG, of course..it always comes back to cancer. I completely freaked out. It had other things that could cause an enlarged spleen but..Hemangiosarcoma as the most common reason. A very aggressive cancer. Well you know where my mind went. I had already ordered supplements specific for heart disease and was going to be aggressive with her to try to reduce these numbers for her heart. Many of these also are immune system builders as well. So I sat there thinking, OMG I have to sit here and wait to do this ultrasound. And I really didn't have a choice cause I was out of funds. I had spent everything on her checkup. So the time of waiting would also be to replenish the funds. About 3 1/2 weeks, we went in to get the ultrasound done and possibly x-rays. I was a nervous wreck. This was going to tell me more and I was afraid to know..even though I needed and wanted to know.
Diamond's x-rays from 2013, 2015 and 2018.
During this entire time Diamond was NEVER sick, acting normal and doing fine...so the enlarged spleen was baffling. The ultrasound showed nothing. No cancer. Thank God. That was great news. So what caused it? That was my next question. I am the type to not stop until I find a sensible reasonable answer. As in an article I read that was VERY thorough about spleens, it mentioned other things. Infection was one; immune mediated disease was another. We also did x-rays. Her spleen was smaller (shrinking) and her heart was normal and looked great. No murmurs..nothing. Again still baffling. During the time before we did x-rays I told you I was giving her supplements for her heart. As my vet said, we have a way to treat heart disease and treat liver disease but we really don't have anything to treat the spleen. I told him I was treating it using supplements. RAW SPLEEN. You treat spleen with spleen. ( I am trying to educate my conventional vet on natural supplements. I even gave him a copy of my book-LOL) During our ultrasound..while in the room, I mentioned to him that in 2015 her x-rays showed an enlarged spleen as well. So he pulled up x-rays on computer and said yes it is. I said so a dog that has an enlarged spleen lives symptom free for 3 years without any issues at all. hhmmm. In the images above..the 2013 the x-ray shows a normal spleen. She did not have surgery (anesthesia) on this day. Below are her x-rays from ultrasound day. No anesthesia of course and no sedatives given.
Day of ultrasound along with x-rays 7-6-18
So he said we may want to recheck her in about 3 months and see how it's looking. And I asked about infection. He said he felt that there was an 80% chance she did not have an infection..but we decided to rule out infection and go ahead and give Antibiotics. He said he wanted to give her Doxycycline but it upsets stomachs sometimes because it's strong and it can cause stomach upset. I said she has taken it many times and never had any issues. So out the door we went. I got home and opened up the bottle to give to her that eve with her food as it should be taken with food. The pills looked different. I knew what Doxy looked like and this didn't look right. My gut kept telling me not to give it to her. I have no reason why but it kept telling me not to give it. Something had me unsettled about those pills. The next day I called the clinic to double check that's what it was. They reassured me it was. I had a friend of mine that's a pharmacist that located the tablet and it was sure enough Doxycycline in a compounded form. So all was great until Tuesday evening. She threw up her food. Not long after she then pooped. It was very loose and had a little blood in it. I thought uh oh..not good. So she did this several times. I gave her an Imodium to help stop the diarrhea. Things calmed down for a few hours then back out she went..so I gave her another Imodium. I called the emergency number for my vets clinic and spoke to a vet on call. She said yes the Doxy can cause vomiting and diarrhea. Sigh. At this time things were not as serious but needed to be watched closely. We finally got to bed at the wee hours of the morning. We slept 2 hours and she had me back up and out the back door we went. She started throwing up white gooey stuff. I assume the Imodium on an empty stomach of just stomach bile and white snotty looking stuff. Her poop turned to water. It was bad and it kept on coming. I started seeing more blood. She finally settled down and laid down a bit. Long enough for me to jump in shower and then take her to the vet. We waited awhile to get seen. She was not vomiting or diarrhea during this time. Once there, I showed the vet in a pic her poop. She still did not have any temp as I had taken it before bed. That was good. He gave her a shot to stop the vomiting and it only lasts for 24 hours. IF she started vomiting again, I was to give her a medication he had given me. Also he gave me Flagyl and a paste called Pro-Pectalin for diarrhea. I said she won't like that. She doesn't like me putting anything wet in her mouth. She doesn't like wet lips. LOL
He said we need to use the one tube and might need more but if not it was an over the counter treatment and they sold them there. I bought two. So after getting home I gave her the flagyl and then the paste. Her weight a month ago was 61 lbs. He said 1 cc per 10 lbs. So he said 6cc for each measured dose. That's what I gave her. I always want to know ingredients so I went to the internet and pulled up the paste. The label (that was covered with her RX on it on the tube) on this website said..60 lbs 5 cc and 61 lbs 8 cc. What a big difference.
He said we need to use the one tube and might need more but if not it was an over the counter treatment and they sold them there. I bought two. So after getting home I gave her the flagyl and then the paste. Her weight a month ago was 61 lbs. He said 1 cc per 10 lbs. So he said 6cc for each measured dose. That's what I gave her. I always want to know ingredients so I went to the internet and pulled up the paste. The label (that was covered with her RX on it on the tube) on this website said..60 lbs 5 cc and 61 lbs 8 cc. What a big difference.
He said 6 cc. So I gave her the 6cc and Flagyl and that evening..she went out again to poop. I followed with a flashlight. It was loose and blood in it. A lot like the pic I took to the vet. (I won't show you here, it may gross you out). She pooped a couple of times and came in. She laid down right here next to me and after about 20 minutes she jumped and went to sniff at her butt. I knew something was taking place so I lifted her tail and it was solid stream of blood. I thought OMG my dog is gonna die. It didn't happen again Thank God! I stayed up all night watching the clock waiting to give her another dose. So the next dose I went with 8cc. I didn't have much to lose really as she was pooping pure blood out. This isn't an actual medication so I seen no harm in it. All diarrhea stopped after that. And she didn't throw up again either. She had no desire to eat. I was extremely concerned about her not drinking so after giving her that nasty gooey paste, I squirted water into her mouth via syringe to help..wash it down. She needed water in her as well. Every 8 hours I made sure I gave her 8cc of the paste and the Flagyl once a day. She didn't want anything to eat either but she did drink some water. I was relieved. As the day went on, she slept a lot and turned her nose up at any food. Later on, I was expecting a delivery of her raw food. I always order dehydrated goat bones for treats. They are like crushed dehydrated goat mashed into a stick. I call them goat bones. They are not hard. They break easily and easy for her to eat. She doesn't have many teeth left so soft is always better. So I mentioned a goat bone and she got excited and was wagging her tail. First time for me to see that. Throughout the day she got a lot of drinks of water so I was encouraged by that. Our next mission was to get her back eating. About an hour later the raw food arrives and I opened up the goat bones, she loved it. She ate it all. I was soooo happy. She ate something. That was a good sign. Next, will it come out the other end? I followed her around all day. No poop. Later that evening she ate some sardines and a little bit of baked chicken. She would not drink the chicken soup or eat anything else. So I gave her another goat bone. Things were looking up but I knew we wasn't out of the woods yet. So I figured another 24 hours would tell more. The next day (today as I write this), she ate her food..with sardines on top. We had finished the paste the day before and there was no reason to give anymore. This evening for her meal, she didn't want to eat her food until I added sardines again. I guess her appetite isn't quite back yet and also the Flagyl will cause that as well. She did eat some baked chicken I gave her though also.
So I almost lost my dog. I was given one medication that almost killed her and 4 to save her. I started searching more on Doxycycline and was in a forum and read many stories of people that had given their dog Doxycycline and the dogs died. I was shocked. I had not heard of this nor had I ever experienced any bad side effects from it. But this medication is very powerful and can be very dangerous. On the same scale as NSAIDS. Why did this medication bother her now? Is it her age? Was it the compounded Doxy that was different? The other day when we were in to see the vet for the diarrhea and vomiting..I brought up the spleen again as I was still researching this. After thinking about the 2015 x-rays and the 2018 x-rays..both times she had been put under anesthesia. Both times.
In my search, it stated the anesthesia can enlarge the spleen. I found a trial study done with beagles that showed 4 different protocols using different anesthesia medications. Only one mix created less side effects. SO I told my vet I felt since the spleen was enlarged in 2015 and now in 2018 and both times she had went under for a teeth cleaning and x-rays...and had lived 3 years symptom free..it had to be the anesthesia...and I felt 99.9% sure. He agreed and said yes..anesthesia will case the spleen to become enlarged. This is where he failed to communicate this to me on the initial diagnosis. Why didn't that come up? I like my vet a lot..but I trust none of them. This is why it is SO IMPORTANT that WE as pet parents need to learn everything we can to find out what happened and how to help our pets. Maybe he didn't think about it being from the anesthesia but it certainly should have been an option in his mind and he should have expressed this to me. So I had to be the one to figure it out.
In the articles I read, the enlarged spleen was caused by something. It was encouraged to find what it was that had caused it to enlarge. I think vets forget to find a solution and just get use to handing out drugs for symptoms. That's not the answer. This is a problem and we must be vigilant. And let me tell you, that paste, that nasty gooey clay based paste..is what really helped her and I will ALWAYS keep a tube in my first aid kit for the future. That tube may save a dog's life. If I had of known of this stuff, I may have been able to reduce or stop all diarrhea before I ever had to take her in to see the vet. I think EVERYONE needs this on hand. It could save your dog's life. The other thing is, be very very careful when giving your dog medications. They are potent and they can kill. Pharmaceutical companies are not concerned for you or your pets being injured or dying from their drugs. They have one goal..make money. This is handed down to our vets and they have been trained to TREAT a symptom and not find the cause. So one medication that was used..was treated with 4 more to save her life. This is why I do not like medications. They can be dangerous. Now I will be taking her back in 3 months to do a recheck on her blood work along with heart test and more x-rays to check her spleen. BUT the last x-ray taken the same day as the ultrasound, it had already started shrinking. Not sure if it was the anesthesia wearing off and/or the RAW SPLEEN supplement was helping or perhaps both.
In my search, it stated the anesthesia can enlarge the spleen. I found a trial study done with beagles that showed 4 different protocols using different anesthesia medications. Only one mix created less side effects. SO I told my vet I felt since the spleen was enlarged in 2015 and now in 2018 and both times she had went under for a teeth cleaning and x-rays...and had lived 3 years symptom free..it had to be the anesthesia...and I felt 99.9% sure. He agreed and said yes..anesthesia will case the spleen to become enlarged. This is where he failed to communicate this to me on the initial diagnosis. Why didn't that come up? I like my vet a lot..but I trust none of them. This is why it is SO IMPORTANT that WE as pet parents need to learn everything we can to find out what happened and how to help our pets. Maybe he didn't think about it being from the anesthesia but it certainly should have been an option in his mind and he should have expressed this to me. So I had to be the one to figure it out.
In the articles I read, the enlarged spleen was caused by something. It was encouraged to find what it was that had caused it to enlarge. I think vets forget to find a solution and just get use to handing out drugs for symptoms. That's not the answer. This is a problem and we must be vigilant. And let me tell you, that paste, that nasty gooey clay based paste..is what really helped her and I will ALWAYS keep a tube in my first aid kit for the future. That tube may save a dog's life. If I had of known of this stuff, I may have been able to reduce or stop all diarrhea before I ever had to take her in to see the vet. I think EVERYONE needs this on hand. It could save your dog's life. The other thing is, be very very careful when giving your dog medications. They are potent and they can kill. Pharmaceutical companies are not concerned for you or your pets being injured or dying from their drugs. They have one goal..make money. This is handed down to our vets and they have been trained to TREAT a symptom and not find the cause. So one medication that was used..was treated with 4 more to save her life. This is why I do not like medications. They can be dangerous. Now I will be taking her back in 3 months to do a recheck on her blood work along with heart test and more x-rays to check her spleen. BUT the last x-ray taken the same day as the ultrasound, it had already started shrinking. Not sure if it was the anesthesia wearing off and/or the RAW SPLEEN supplement was helping or perhaps both.
I was also giving her things for inflammation and of course for her heart. I stopped all of these until she resumes to normal again. Just remember, learn all you can to help your pet. Never completely trust your vet. Always do your research. Try not to freak out too much when you read horrible things like I was. I had to stop reading it was so scary and horrific. No matter how much you think you know, you have not begun to learn it all. Keep reading. I hated school growing up and I hated to read. Still do..but I read a lot. I try to read several different articles from different types of sources to get a bigger picture. I want to know how I can take better care of my dogs even when problems arise. There are a lot of gray areas in articles and those are the ones I continue to search out and learn. When it comes to MY dogs and an issue arises like this, I go into research and learn mode cause I want to know how to help my dog and possibly save their life. That's how I saved this same dog 5 years ago. It took me finding a solution to help her live pain free from her Spondylosis. Don't stop looking. The answers are out there. You probably won't get them from your vet.
Thank you for reading my story and I hope that you will know what to do if this ever happens to you and warning you of the dangers of Doxycycline and that all medications do come with risks in which some are deadly.
Thank you for reading my story and I hope that you will know what to do if this ever happens to you and warning you of the dangers of Doxycycline and that all medications do come with risks in which some are deadly.
2-19-19
We woke today with Diamond in severe pain. Earlier a storm had woke us with thunder. She moved closer to me. After it was over, I moved her back over..but I moved her wrong. I knew it when I did it..but was unsure if I hurt her. We slept a little longer. When I woke, I found her down on the floor..actually on the bed with Sydney. I knew then something was wrong. A week ago I gave her an Adequan shot also. I have no exact reason for this other than me moving her wrong. Either way I did jump and give her a half a tab of Rimadyl. Then I gave her 1 Ostinol 350 (Cyplexinol), 2 caps of CanineActiv, did sound wave therapy, a VOM adjustment, and moist heat therapy. She wouldn't go out to pee because she was hurting too much. I warmed the house up for her and she slept most of the day. By evening..she managed to get up and go out to pee. I fed her and gave her two Tramadol, 2 CanineActiv, 1 Ostinol 350, a double dose of glucosamine, and 1 big scoop of anti-inflammatory herb mix. She was then able to walk around and go outside. Still slow moving but moving. She also was able to jump on the couch where I began moist heat and sound wave therapy. I also gave her another adjustment as well after her meal. We shall see how tomorrow is. This is her first time in 3 years for this to happen so I assume possibly it was me moving her wrong. sigh.
2-20-19
Diamond is somewhat better today. Still loading up on supplements and a little Tramadol. but she's moving better. Tomorrow her Adequan arrives for a new injection. We shall see the results then.
2-21-19
Diamond is feeling better today. Still not 100% sure what caused this. Either I moved her wrong the other night (knew when I did it) orrr...the last Adequan injection had gotten weak and didnt work as well. SO, after a ton of therapy, lots of high dose supplements and a small amount of pain meds, she is feeling much better today. Arriving today is her new vial of Adequan...so we will administer an injection and she should be completely good again. Thank goodness my baby is feeling better.
2-20-19
Diamond is somewhat better today. Still loading up on supplements and a little Tramadol. but she's moving better. Tomorrow her Adequan arrives for a new injection. We shall see the results then.
2-21-19
Diamond is feeling better today. Still not 100% sure what caused this. Either I moved her wrong the other night (knew when I did it) orrr...the last Adequan injection had gotten weak and didnt work as well. SO, after a ton of therapy, lots of high dose supplements and a small amount of pain meds, she is feeling much better today. Arriving today is her new vial of Adequan...so we will administer an injection and she should be completely good again. Thank goodness my baby is feeling better.
3-21-19
Went in for our checkup and her spleen and heart look almost similar to the last xrays last year (slight enlargement). Her heart sounds good as well. Her spondylosis hasn't progressed any further. So over all on xray..she appears to be doing well for her age. She has been on Adequan now since November 2012. We don't know the exact long term effects of this but, so far she seems to be doing well. Her weight remained the same as last year...61 lbs.
Blood Work results: ProBNP test came back high..Numbers are 1667..but lower than 9 months ago at 1776. Probably need to do EKG/ECG. No signs of murmur or other symptoms at this time. All blood work looked great-perfect numbers.
We also titered for core vaccines and rabies. She is immune to all. Woohoo!
Blood Work results: ProBNP test came back high..Numbers are 1667..but lower than 9 months ago at 1776. Probably need to do EKG/ECG. No signs of murmur or other symptoms at this time. All blood work looked great-perfect numbers.
We also titered for core vaccines and rabies. She is immune to all. Woohoo!
7-3-2019
July 4th, 2019
March 12th, 2020
I took Diamond in for her check up today and a mole removal. In the past we have had some issues with her being put under anesthesia. She came away with an enlarged spleen and heart. After 6 months or so..the spleen and heart reduced back down. huge you might say. He caught it on her last time under and I went back through my xrays of her over the years..as I keep ALL bloodwork and xrays on file. I noticed the enlarged spleen and heart 3 yrs before. but in between she didn't go under and had xrays and she was close to normal. Now they ARE slightly enlarged normally but under anesthesia, they blow up like balloons. I brought this to his attention and I summed it up as the anesthesia. She is also now 11 almost 12 yrs old and I did not want to put her under for the lump/mole removal. He is just sedating her. One problem though has come up, she has a lump under the skin on her tummy that is of concern. He cannot remove it without her going under. I decided on not today, Lets see what the new xrays and bloodwork say first. So I go pick her up after 3pm and we will see what he says then once we look at xrays. We dont get bloodwork back until maybe tomorrow or Monday. I want to see where shes at at this point. In the mean time, I am going to treat the lump as a cancerous tumor and use some herbs to see what I can maybe get done with it. He is going to aspirate the lump though to see what he can see. So anyway, not sure on where things stand with her and I should know more a little later and for sure by next week.
I took Diamond in for her check up today and a mole removal. In the past we have had some issues with her being put under anesthesia. She came away with an enlarged spleen and heart. After 6 months or so..the spleen and heart reduced back down. huge you might say. He caught it on her last time under and I went back through my xrays of her over the years..as I keep ALL bloodwork and xrays on file. I noticed the enlarged spleen and heart 3 yrs before. but in between she didn't go under and had xrays and she was close to normal. Now they ARE slightly enlarged normally but under anesthesia, they blow up like balloons. I brought this to his attention and I summed it up as the anesthesia. She is also now 11 almost 12 yrs old and I did not want to put her under for the lump/mole removal. He is just sedating her. One problem though has come up, she has a lump under the skin on her tummy that is of concern. He cannot remove it without her going under. I decided on not today, Lets see what the new xrays and bloodwork say first. So I go pick her up after 3pm and we will see what he says then once we look at xrays. We dont get bloodwork back until maybe tomorrow or Monday. I want to see where shes at at this point. In the mean time, I am going to treat the lump as a cancerous tumor and use some herbs to see what I can maybe get done with it. He is going to aspirate the lump though to see what he can see. So anyway, not sure on where things stand with her and I should know more a little later and for sure by next week.
3-14-2020
I posted yesterday about Diamonds bloodwork being good. Receptionist sent last years bloodwork. I caught it last night. Sooo now I have the new. Still waiting on lab results on the lump on her tummy. Her ProBNP heart test was much higher. SIGH. Last yr it was 1667 and this time 2039. This is extremely high despite giving her heart supplements. So my focus will be much more on her heart.
She had one liver marker slightly high but usually there are about 5-6 to watch. If all 5-6 are high, then there is a big problem. But her's isn't and only one is slightly abnormal sooo this is something to watch..but not of concern at this point. Her heart is the main concern. I am very disappointed cause I have been trying to work at reducing these numbers and it hasn't helped. Her heart sounds good though (per vet) and she does NOT have any heart murmurs. She has no cough or signs of heart issues so I would need to get an EKG to get more answers. Diamond is my BFF and the slightest thing makes me worry so much. PLEASE say huge prayers for my girl. I will post when I know more about her lab results on the lump.
I posted yesterday about Diamonds bloodwork being good. Receptionist sent last years bloodwork. I caught it last night. Sooo now I have the new. Still waiting on lab results on the lump on her tummy. Her ProBNP heart test was much higher. SIGH. Last yr it was 1667 and this time 2039. This is extremely high despite giving her heart supplements. So my focus will be much more on her heart.
She had one liver marker slightly high but usually there are about 5-6 to watch. If all 5-6 are high, then there is a big problem. But her's isn't and only one is slightly abnormal sooo this is something to watch..but not of concern at this point. Her heart is the main concern. I am very disappointed cause I have been trying to work at reducing these numbers and it hasn't helped. Her heart sounds good though (per vet) and she does NOT have any heart murmurs. She has no cough or signs of heart issues so I would need to get an EKG to get more answers. Diamond is my BFF and the slightest thing makes me worry so much. PLEASE say huge prayers for my girl. I will post when I know more about her lab results on the lump.
3-18-2020
Results are in on Diamonds bloodwork, xrays and Cytology on lump. The lab report states they have noticed a FEW mast cell type cells but..they cannot confirm it because there wasn't enough of them. Vet says that means they are covering their butts in case they are wrong...but it is only something to watch. He said there is also some inflammation in it. (which we know..cancer and inflammation go together.) Soooo I have a plan. The lump has since gotten smaller since he aspirated it. He said that was good because when you sometimes stick a needle into cancer cells, it pisses it off and it becomes bigger and more inflamed so this was also a good sign. So we will just watch it and do recheck if it changes or in 6 months check up. As for her heart (and spleen)..nothing on xray looks different. (still slight enlargement but thats all). He said he has seen even higher numbers on the ProBNP (heart) tests but sometimes he also has heart murmurs etc. and she has no clinical signs...soo he says we MIGHT consider Enalapril in the future. Overall she's doing good. He said an echocardiogram would show more on Diamonds heart but also more expensive. An EKG wouldn't tell us anything more since there are no other symptoms, but I assume for an older dog she still is doing very well. He said her slight elevation in her one liver number is not of concern cause it was a very mild elevation. We just need to watch the lump for any changes. I told him I was gonna try to work on that lump a little naturally and see if it helps since we have time. Overall good report for a soon to be 12 yr old dog.
Results are in on Diamonds bloodwork, xrays and Cytology on lump. The lab report states they have noticed a FEW mast cell type cells but..they cannot confirm it because there wasn't enough of them. Vet says that means they are covering their butts in case they are wrong...but it is only something to watch. He said there is also some inflammation in it. (which we know..cancer and inflammation go together.) Soooo I have a plan. The lump has since gotten smaller since he aspirated it. He said that was good because when you sometimes stick a needle into cancer cells, it pisses it off and it becomes bigger and more inflamed so this was also a good sign. So we will just watch it and do recheck if it changes or in 6 months check up. As for her heart (and spleen)..nothing on xray looks different. (still slight enlargement but thats all). He said he has seen even higher numbers on the ProBNP (heart) tests but sometimes he also has heart murmurs etc. and she has no clinical signs...soo he says we MIGHT consider Enalapril in the future. Overall she's doing good. He said an echocardiogram would show more on Diamonds heart but also more expensive. An EKG wouldn't tell us anything more since there are no other symptoms, but I assume for an older dog she still is doing very well. He said her slight elevation in her one liver number is not of concern cause it was a very mild elevation. We just need to watch the lump for any changes. I told him I was gonna try to work on that lump a little naturally and see if it helps since we have time. Overall good report for a soon to be 12 yr old dog.
7-3-2020
Homemade organic cake for my girl. She jumped right on that.
I adopted a skinny, shy, filthy, heartworm positive sweet girl. Today she is full of fun and laughter, lots of entertaining, completely connected to me in our minds and souls. TODAY - Diamond is her designated birthday making her 12 years old. It's been a great 9 years to have this girl apart of my life. She is my true companion. The stories I could tell about my girl are too funny. She's such a character. I pray to God that we have more years together and alot more entertaining from her. She makes me laugh, she makes me worry, and she keeps me on my toes. Diamond has been Queen Bee here all these years and the pack follows her lead. She's such a gorgeous girl. Thank you God for putting this girl in my life so I could learn so much. She gave me all my knowledge I have about caring for dogs. She is a TRUE LEADER and a wonderful BEST FRIEND. Happy Birthday my sweet BFF. Pics of cake and birthday coming later.
7-10-2020
Well Sydney (one of my other dogs) got kennel cough after visiting the vets office...and then Diamond caught it. Diamond had it pretty bad. But we got thru it and we are doing good again. woohoo
Well Sydney (one of my other dogs) got kennel cough after visiting the vets office...and then Diamond caught it. Diamond had it pretty bad. But we got thru it and we are doing good again. woohoo
July 3rd, 2021
My BFF turned 13 (Give or take-birthday unknown). She's been with me since 2011. I love this girl. She's such a funny and entertaining girl. I hope we make it to 14 yrs old. In 2013 I had a vet tell me to put her down...because she has severe spondylosis. AT THE TIME, she was on 4 different pain meds and barely knocking the edge off. FINALLY I found her miracle. Its called Adequan. She has not taken pain meds since and is doing great. You would never know she had any issues at all. Vets suck sometimes. Only good for emergencies or diagnostic. Remember that. This girl is a miracle because I didn't give up on her nor think vets are the ones to call the shots. Some vets are heartless. Anyway this is my miracle girl and I love her so much. Happy Birthday miss Diamond. She got organic cake too. YUM! That icing was tasty. hehe
July 22, 2021
7-22-2021
Went in for a check up. Her heart is same on xray..no change which is good. Heart sounded good. We have been giving Ubiquinol and some other supplements. Bloodwork results came back. Last year her numbers were slightly higher on her ALT (liver) numbers and also higher on her ProBNP. This year her numbers on ALT is still slightly higher (up from last yr 144 to this yr 191). (Normal high end range is 121) Other liver numbers look good. She weighed in at 60 lbs.
Her ProBNP numbers are slightly higher also. Up from 2039 to 2113. So a slight increase only. The year before it was at 1667 and jumped to 2039 in 2020. She has ZERO symptoms of heart disease. Vet said overall for her age (13) she was in really good shape.
Went in for a check up. Her heart is same on xray..no change which is good. Heart sounded good. We have been giving Ubiquinol and some other supplements. Bloodwork results came back. Last year her numbers were slightly higher on her ALT (liver) numbers and also higher on her ProBNP. This year her numbers on ALT is still slightly higher (up from last yr 144 to this yr 191). (Normal high end range is 121) Other liver numbers look good. She weighed in at 60 lbs.
Her ProBNP numbers are slightly higher also. Up from 2039 to 2113. So a slight increase only. The year before it was at 1667 and jumped to 2039 in 2020. She has ZERO symptoms of heart disease. Vet said overall for her age (13) she was in really good shape.
Oct 22, 2021
Diamond was outside to pee and was coming back in house when she went into severe limp mode. I didn't see what happened in the few steps she took (10 ft or less) but she came in limping very hard. Not sure what's going on but she got lots of stuff to help her with pain including CanineActiv, homeopathic (Ruta and Arnica), an Adequan shot, CBD oil, and double dose of Actiflex (equine).
Diamond was outside to pee and was coming back in house when she went into severe limp mode. I didn't see what happened in the few steps she took (10 ft or less) but she came in limping very hard. Not sure what's going on but she got lots of stuff to help her with pain including CanineActiv, homeopathic (Ruta and Arnica), an Adequan shot, CBD oil, and double dose of Actiflex (equine).
UPDATE:
Oct 28 - She seems stable but still limping fairly well. Still on same regimen as above. She walks a tiny bit better. Seems we are at that stand still of not getting better anytime soon. This will be a long recovery I am sure. Possibly torn ACL. I will take her next week most likely to vet to get checked. UGH....
Oct 28 - She seems stable but still limping fairly well. Still on same regimen as above. She walks a tiny bit better. Seems we are at that stand still of not getting better anytime soon. This will be a long recovery I am sure. Possibly torn ACL. I will take her next week most likely to vet to get checked. UGH....
10-30-2021
Diamond balancing herself on her toes to keep from putting leg down with all the weight. Taking her to vet this week for xrays to double check.
Diamond balancing herself on her toes to keep from putting leg down with all the weight. Taking her to vet this week for xrays to double check.
Nov 4th, 2021
Well BAD NEWS for Diamond. 2 weeks ago, she went out to pee and within a few minutes came crawling back in through the doggie door limping on her left back leg. First thought..she tore her ACL..DAMN! Well I treated her that night with everything I had..and I have a lot... Used ice pack, tons of supplements and the next day I did give her a pain pill because she was just trying to walk way too much and was pushing it. She went to sleep on the pain meds. She was knuckling her foot under her. So my other thought was....could be neurological. So I decided to watch her close and I really did a thorough check over that leg. I didn't see anything. It appeared that possibly she had slight swelling in her knee. So I focused on that. I treated her as if it was an ACL tear for 2 weeks. I took her in yesterday and vet said I was right..it is an ACL tear. Although he also thought at first possibly neurological to due to her foot under her. I determined she is doing that to balance herself and not put her leg straight out to the floor. BAD NEWS is..it's a full tear. Normally from what I have read...full tears-- they can’t walk on that leg but she is. BUT vet said full tear. The femur is out of place causing it to slide backwards. Full tears on a large dog require surgery in most cases. BUT Diamond can’t be put under anesthesia. Also she has a tumor on her tummy and she has had it for nearly 2 yrs.(We are treating that now as well). Its slow growing. She also has high heart numbers on the ProBNP test. ZERO symptoms. She's been this way for yrs. From the test numbers..she should be dead. She's doing great on that. She is on heart supplements..no meds. So of course..vets never give positive hope. He didn't with Sydney either and she lasted another 5 yrs. NEVER go by what your vet thinks. You know your pets, you determine what's best.
With that said..here we are again...not my first rodeo...so I will be working with her for the next 6 months on getting her back walking better..hopefully much better. She does have severe spondylosis in which has been being managed by Adequan injections and it has given her a pain free life for the last 10 yrs. The last 2-3 months she seemed slower getting up and her gait changed slightly so I moved her to a bed on the floor next to my bed because it was getting harder for her to climb the stairs to get on the bed. (Sydney's old spot). It was a very wise move since we are were we are now. Anyway, I added in Ostinol 350 and that has seemed to help. This might be why her ACL tore due to change in gait. So I am using a laser light on her, massage, chiropractic, tons of supplements and a leg brace during this time. I will have her rest that leg for 2 more weeks then we will start P.R.O.M. exercises. I will continue therapy at home. Diamond is 13 yrs old but we will get through this like we did with Sydney before with her ACL tear. Diamond is my HEART dog so when her time comes to leave this Earth, it will devastate me. God I hope it isn't anytime soon. I lost 2 last yr..not ready for another. Say a prayer for my girl.. I love her so much.
Well BAD NEWS for Diamond. 2 weeks ago, she went out to pee and within a few minutes came crawling back in through the doggie door limping on her left back leg. First thought..she tore her ACL..DAMN! Well I treated her that night with everything I had..and I have a lot... Used ice pack, tons of supplements and the next day I did give her a pain pill because she was just trying to walk way too much and was pushing it. She went to sleep on the pain meds. She was knuckling her foot under her. So my other thought was....could be neurological. So I decided to watch her close and I really did a thorough check over that leg. I didn't see anything. It appeared that possibly she had slight swelling in her knee. So I focused on that. I treated her as if it was an ACL tear for 2 weeks. I took her in yesterday and vet said I was right..it is an ACL tear. Although he also thought at first possibly neurological to due to her foot under her. I determined she is doing that to balance herself and not put her leg straight out to the floor. BAD NEWS is..it's a full tear. Normally from what I have read...full tears-- they can’t walk on that leg but she is. BUT vet said full tear. The femur is out of place causing it to slide backwards. Full tears on a large dog require surgery in most cases. BUT Diamond can’t be put under anesthesia. Also she has a tumor on her tummy and she has had it for nearly 2 yrs.(We are treating that now as well). Its slow growing. She also has high heart numbers on the ProBNP test. ZERO symptoms. She's been this way for yrs. From the test numbers..she should be dead. She's doing great on that. She is on heart supplements..no meds. So of course..vets never give positive hope. He didn't with Sydney either and she lasted another 5 yrs. NEVER go by what your vet thinks. You know your pets, you determine what's best.
With that said..here we are again...not my first rodeo...so I will be working with her for the next 6 months on getting her back walking better..hopefully much better. She does have severe spondylosis in which has been being managed by Adequan injections and it has given her a pain free life for the last 10 yrs. The last 2-3 months she seemed slower getting up and her gait changed slightly so I moved her to a bed on the floor next to my bed because it was getting harder for her to climb the stairs to get on the bed. (Sydney's old spot). It was a very wise move since we are were we are now. Anyway, I added in Ostinol 350 and that has seemed to help. This might be why her ACL tore due to change in gait. So I am using a laser light on her, massage, chiropractic, tons of supplements and a leg brace during this time. I will have her rest that leg for 2 more weeks then we will start P.R.O.M. exercises. I will continue therapy at home. Diamond is 13 yrs old but we will get through this like we did with Sydney before with her ACL tear. Diamond is my HEART dog so when her time comes to leave this Earth, it will devastate me. God I hope it isn't anytime soon. I lost 2 last yr..not ready for another. Say a prayer for my girl.. I love her so much.
11-7-2021
Look at her go. In two weeks she's made great progress. Very happy with her walking...especially in a short period of time.
12-2-2021 - Diamond is doing well but still has the same limp. So it seems we are at a stand still on recovery over the next several months.
Look at her go. In two weeks she's made great progress. Very happy with her walking...especially in a short period of time.
12-2-2021 - Diamond is doing well but still has the same limp. So it seems we are at a stand still on recovery over the next several months.
12-17-2021
Jan 8th, 2022
4-19-2022
Well Diamond tore her other ACL....6 months after the first one. This isn't good. She still limped alot on the other one since the femur is offset and now she's having to use that one for her weight due to the new injury. She's not steady on her feet at all.
Lots of therapy going on. End of May we will put up the pool to start therapy. It should be warm enough then.
4-26-2022
Its only been a week...feels like weeks...and I am hoping in another week or so she will begin to walk a little better. Its hard watching her walk.
Well Diamond tore her other ACL....6 months after the first one. This isn't good. She still limped alot on the other one since the femur is offset and now she's having to use that one for her weight due to the new injury. She's not steady on her feet at all.
Lots of therapy going on. End of May we will put up the pool to start therapy. It should be warm enough then.
4-26-2022
Its only been a week...feels like weeks...and I am hoping in another week or so she will begin to walk a little better. Its hard watching her walk.
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June 3rd, 2022
Diamond having a tough day. First one in awhile. Not sure why. Possibly the storm coming in (weather change). More limpy than usual.
Diamond having a tough day. First one in awhile. Not sure why. Possibly the storm coming in (weather change). More limpy than usual.
6-22-2022
7-3-2022
Diamonds Birthday. She turned 14 yrs old. We had steak and cake.
Diamonds Birthday. She turned 14 yrs old. We had steak and cake.
August 2, 2022
Well we got back from vet and they are going ahead and checking the lump. He thinks it is most likely cancer. 10% it could be an infection.. We changed antibiotics since she seems to be acting strange on this other one. (From Clindamycin to Clavamox). She has lost 5 lbs. She isn’t wanting to eat except maybe some treats; she had chicken broth last night and liver the night before but overall..is refusing to eat. She is drinking a lot of water though..probably from meds and not eating. We will find out tomorrow or Thursday what the test shows. As I said, I figured it was most likely infection or cancer. Due to her age and no other explanation as to why the lump appeared..it's probably cancer. You try everything in your power to avoid this shit and it still happens. I hope God strikes down the human flesh that created cancer. YES IT WAS CREATED! My heart is breaking wide open and I am trying to process this in my mind. If she goes, I want to go with her. She is my Best Friend and I don’t know how I will make it without her. My world just shattered.
Well we got back from vet and they are going ahead and checking the lump. He thinks it is most likely cancer. 10% it could be an infection.. We changed antibiotics since she seems to be acting strange on this other one. (From Clindamycin to Clavamox). She has lost 5 lbs. She isn’t wanting to eat except maybe some treats; she had chicken broth last night and liver the night before but overall..is refusing to eat. She is drinking a lot of water though..probably from meds and not eating. We will find out tomorrow or Thursday what the test shows. As I said, I figured it was most likely infection or cancer. Due to her age and no other explanation as to why the lump appeared..it's probably cancer. You try everything in your power to avoid this shit and it still happens. I hope God strikes down the human flesh that created cancer. YES IT WAS CREATED! My heart is breaking wide open and I am trying to process this in my mind. If she goes, I want to go with her. She is my Best Friend and I don’t know how I will make it without her. My world just shattered.
Aug 3rd, 2022
I was going to wait until tomorrow after I got final test back to post this but..I couldn’t wait. Last night I thought Diamond was dying. I really did. I bawled my eyes out. Panting, shaking, etc. Wont eat, hasn’t pooped, drinking a TON of water and peeing a lot. I truly thought OMG, her kidneys are failing. Then after thinking harder I thought wait…what about these antibiotics. I gave her the new antibiotic last night and she wanted to puke. Panting, shaking etc…horrible. Then I said to myself, to hell with those meds, they are killing her. So I called my vet first thing, twice..he of course did not return my call. I just knew today was the day. Last night and this morning I made up a mix of calcium carbonate, probiotics, and slippery elm with either purified water or chicken broth and syringed into her mouth. Last night 2 syringe fulls. This was to help line her stomach and intestines…it helped I think as she seemed to act a little better this morning.
So I got dressed and took Diamond back to vet today. On my way I was thinking…they make injections that are for this….right? I know they do…anyway, seen new dr….OH I love him. He is now my new Dr. He was young, vibrant, friendly, and VERY thorough. He did x-ray and sonogram of her liver/spleen/intestines etc. NO tumors. Slight enlargement of liver and spleen. This may be from the infection. He found that the intestines showed an infection. BINGO..this might be the culprit. This may have caused the lymph nodes to become infected. He found it. Also I asked for antibiotic injection and something to help line her stomach cause those meds had made her sick and not want to eat. Also something to get her to want to eat. This was my biggest concern..her not eating. She hasn’t ate since this all began..Friday night. He said this infection may have been causing her some pain and why she was shaking/panting. OH scales today said only 5 lbs lost..not 7 lbs. Yesterday she was wobbly on the scales so they bounced around some. Anyway he also recommended a subQ B12 injection with minerals to help her feel better. That it would look funny cause it would be like a bubble floating around under her skin. YEP it does. As for blood work, kidneys are good, liver is pretty good. Last yr one number was a little high and same this yr. so not a big difference. Her heart test was a little bit higher (up 119 points-2232)..but…I expected that. According to the heart test she should have been dead a long time ago. The supplements for her have worked perfectly for that. He sent home with us a liquid to give her once a day to help stimulate her appetite. Another med is for the vomiting/nausea etc she’s been having. No vomiting but almost.
The lump on her neck has changed shape. It was round and is now more oval. It feels slightly warm and she had a temp of 103. He said there can be infection around the tumor and the tumor hiding in it still though. I will get those results back tomorrow and that will be our final answer to this. PRAYERS everyone that she is healed and there is no tumor. I now have hope..thanks to a wonderful vet. (And you won’t hear those words from me too often).
We are still beginning to mend and have a few weeks of recovery and tonight may be a rough one too but..atleast I have a lot more answers that make much more sense to me.
Oh the eye pic is a cyst on her eyelid. Not good I know..but we can’t remove it. She cant go under anesthesia.
I was going to wait until tomorrow after I got final test back to post this but..I couldn’t wait. Last night I thought Diamond was dying. I really did. I bawled my eyes out. Panting, shaking, etc. Wont eat, hasn’t pooped, drinking a TON of water and peeing a lot. I truly thought OMG, her kidneys are failing. Then after thinking harder I thought wait…what about these antibiotics. I gave her the new antibiotic last night and she wanted to puke. Panting, shaking etc…horrible. Then I said to myself, to hell with those meds, they are killing her. So I called my vet first thing, twice..he of course did not return my call. I just knew today was the day. Last night and this morning I made up a mix of calcium carbonate, probiotics, and slippery elm with either purified water or chicken broth and syringed into her mouth. Last night 2 syringe fulls. This was to help line her stomach and intestines…it helped I think as she seemed to act a little better this morning.
So I got dressed and took Diamond back to vet today. On my way I was thinking…they make injections that are for this….right? I know they do…anyway, seen new dr….OH I love him. He is now my new Dr. He was young, vibrant, friendly, and VERY thorough. He did x-ray and sonogram of her liver/spleen/intestines etc. NO tumors. Slight enlargement of liver and spleen. This may be from the infection. He found that the intestines showed an infection. BINGO..this might be the culprit. This may have caused the lymph nodes to become infected. He found it. Also I asked for antibiotic injection and something to help line her stomach cause those meds had made her sick and not want to eat. Also something to get her to want to eat. This was my biggest concern..her not eating. She hasn’t ate since this all began..Friday night. He said this infection may have been causing her some pain and why she was shaking/panting. OH scales today said only 5 lbs lost..not 7 lbs. Yesterday she was wobbly on the scales so they bounced around some. Anyway he also recommended a subQ B12 injection with minerals to help her feel better. That it would look funny cause it would be like a bubble floating around under her skin. YEP it does. As for blood work, kidneys are good, liver is pretty good. Last yr one number was a little high and same this yr. so not a big difference. Her heart test was a little bit higher (up 119 points-2232)..but…I expected that. According to the heart test she should have been dead a long time ago. The supplements for her have worked perfectly for that. He sent home with us a liquid to give her once a day to help stimulate her appetite. Another med is for the vomiting/nausea etc she’s been having. No vomiting but almost.
The lump on her neck has changed shape. It was round and is now more oval. It feels slightly warm and she had a temp of 103. He said there can be infection around the tumor and the tumor hiding in it still though. I will get those results back tomorrow and that will be our final answer to this. PRAYERS everyone that she is healed and there is no tumor. I now have hope..thanks to a wonderful vet. (And you won’t hear those words from me too often).
We are still beginning to mend and have a few weeks of recovery and tonight may be a rough one too but..atleast I have a lot more answers that make much more sense to me.
Oh the eye pic is a cyst on her eyelid. Not good I know..but we can’t remove it. She cant go under anesthesia.
A slight increase in numbers and is usually normal when we do our yearly checkup.
August 4th, 2022
Received a copy of blood work tests. Upon closer review, her liver number that was high last yr is now down and in the normal range.. and another number is high for liver but I think that's it's from the infection because that number has always been normal. For a 14 yr old dog, she's in great shape on her blood work.
Also xrays show her hip joints are beautiful but her knees (both torn ACLs this yr) and sacrum (spondylosis) are horrible with arthritis and joint issues. This isn't anything new, just reiterated.
Oh on two xrays, one showed a little cloudiness in her lungs and something that may or may not be something on top of her neck.
Received a copy of blood work tests. Upon closer review, her liver number that was high last yr is now down and in the normal range.. and another number is high for liver but I think that's it's from the infection because that number has always been normal. For a 14 yr old dog, she's in great shape on her blood work.
Also xrays show her hip joints are beautiful but her knees (both torn ACLs this yr) and sacrum (spondylosis) are horrible with arthritis and joint issues. This isn't anything new, just reiterated.
Oh on two xrays, one showed a little cloudiness in her lungs and something that may or may not be something on top of her neck.
Aug 5th, 2022
I was waiting to post until I got aspiration test results back. NOT BACK YET! Looks like next week before we know.UGH! Yesterday and today when we got up, Diamond really didn’t want to eat much. She had a treat or two. I gave her the appetite stimulator and her meds for vomiting/nausea and about an hour later I gave her some baked chicken and she ate most all of it. I was tickled pink to see her eat. Then she got more treats. Later that night I fed her chicken, liver, and hamburger and she ate the chicken and liver. Seems she’s not a fan of hamburger. She even came into the kitchen while I was preparing her food letting me know she was hungry. Afterwards we went outside and she finally pooped. Thank goodness. The meds for appetite is only for 4 days I think. 4 days for the nausea for sure. That means 2 days left. She seems more relaxed now and sleeping better. Still drinking a lot of water and peeing a lot but hopefully soon that will calm down. We have been catching up on sleep. At night though when lying here sleeping, she starts this rapid breathing like she’s struggling to breathe or in pain. I got her up and got her to go pee then she gets another drink and back laying down. It seems to slow the rapid breathing down after that. I am gonna guess, possibly still having pain in her gut. FYI, her neck is still big and the vet said this could take weeks to go down. If cancer, it will stay the same.
I have spent the past 24 hours going over Diamonds bloodwork and xrays and if you are interested in knowing the details, here they are. Upon looking at her liver numbers I was looking at different things. Her ALT was higher the last 2 yrs. This time it was normal. Her AST has remained normal. Her ALP this time shows a high number in which I feel it is due to infection (per vet). It has never been high in the past. So overall… for a 14 yr old dog, her blood work is awesome. As my vet said last yr…”For a 13 yr old dog, she’s in pretty good health”. Her health issues are her heart and joints. Her heart is slightly enlarged..maybe more this yr although her ProBNP numbers increased 119 points from last yr. In 2020 her numbers jumped 372 points in one yr. That freaked me out and I began focusing heavily on her heart. The normal range of numbers is up to 900. Anything past that is considered an early sign of heart failure. This has been going on since I first had her tested for heart disease in 2013. Her number was 853. On the high end of normal. I didn’t retest her again till 5 yrs later in 2018 which jumped to 1775. TODAY her number is now 2232. She should be dead now I would think. When pressing or putting pressure on her chest, she will cough. BUT I doubled her Ubiquinol daily and that had stopped. Otherwise she has ZERO symptoms of heart disease other than on xray. RIGHT NOW, since we have not been able to give that, and her organs are slightly enlarged all pressing on one another, she is coughing if I put pressure on her chest or stomach, so I am being very careful with this.
This is what it says about the heart test:
NTproBNP >1,800 pmol/L
There is evidence of increased stretch and stress on the myocardium. The likelihood that clinical signs (i.e., respiratory and/or exercise intolerance) are due to heart failure is high. Additional diagnostics are recommended to diagnose and assess severity of the disease.
Now the xrays you are looking at above kind of explain what the vet was telling me and showing me.
FYI-Diamond was diagnosed with Severe Spondylosis in her Sacrum area right after I adopted her in 2011. Several vets recommended I put her down when in the beginning she was in a lot of pain. I started a deep dive into joint issues. I was trying everything. We even did Stem Cell. I found what worked and has basically saved her life. Adequan. This monthly injection saved her life. Pain free and doing well. This past 9 months though she tore BOTH ACLs (full tears) and while that has slowed her down some, she’s doing fairly well considering we didn’t do surgery. The last tear took a little bit more toll on her though. But her hips are in good shape. Spondylosis is a horrible painful disease and as it progresses, they can become incontinent and sometimes could paralyze the back legs. So what I see is a miracle dog. Anyway that was a little background on her health throughout her life. I adopted her when she was 3 yrs old.
I was waiting to post until I got aspiration test results back. NOT BACK YET! Looks like next week before we know.UGH! Yesterday and today when we got up, Diamond really didn’t want to eat much. She had a treat or two. I gave her the appetite stimulator and her meds for vomiting/nausea and about an hour later I gave her some baked chicken and she ate most all of it. I was tickled pink to see her eat. Then she got more treats. Later that night I fed her chicken, liver, and hamburger and she ate the chicken and liver. Seems she’s not a fan of hamburger. She even came into the kitchen while I was preparing her food letting me know she was hungry. Afterwards we went outside and she finally pooped. Thank goodness. The meds for appetite is only for 4 days I think. 4 days for the nausea for sure. That means 2 days left. She seems more relaxed now and sleeping better. Still drinking a lot of water and peeing a lot but hopefully soon that will calm down. We have been catching up on sleep. At night though when lying here sleeping, she starts this rapid breathing like she’s struggling to breathe or in pain. I got her up and got her to go pee then she gets another drink and back laying down. It seems to slow the rapid breathing down after that. I am gonna guess, possibly still having pain in her gut. FYI, her neck is still big and the vet said this could take weeks to go down. If cancer, it will stay the same.
I have spent the past 24 hours going over Diamonds bloodwork and xrays and if you are interested in knowing the details, here they are. Upon looking at her liver numbers I was looking at different things. Her ALT was higher the last 2 yrs. This time it was normal. Her AST has remained normal. Her ALP this time shows a high number in which I feel it is due to infection (per vet). It has never been high in the past. So overall… for a 14 yr old dog, her blood work is awesome. As my vet said last yr…”For a 13 yr old dog, she’s in pretty good health”. Her health issues are her heart and joints. Her heart is slightly enlarged..maybe more this yr although her ProBNP numbers increased 119 points from last yr. In 2020 her numbers jumped 372 points in one yr. That freaked me out and I began focusing heavily on her heart. The normal range of numbers is up to 900. Anything past that is considered an early sign of heart failure. This has been going on since I first had her tested for heart disease in 2013. Her number was 853. On the high end of normal. I didn’t retest her again till 5 yrs later in 2018 which jumped to 1775. TODAY her number is now 2232. She should be dead now I would think. When pressing or putting pressure on her chest, she will cough. BUT I doubled her Ubiquinol daily and that had stopped. Otherwise she has ZERO symptoms of heart disease other than on xray. RIGHT NOW, since we have not been able to give that, and her organs are slightly enlarged all pressing on one another, she is coughing if I put pressure on her chest or stomach, so I am being very careful with this.
This is what it says about the heart test:
NTproBNP >1,800 pmol/L
There is evidence of increased stretch and stress on the myocardium. The likelihood that clinical signs (i.e., respiratory and/or exercise intolerance) are due to heart failure is high. Additional diagnostics are recommended to diagnose and assess severity of the disease.
Now the xrays you are looking at above kind of explain what the vet was telling me and showing me.
FYI-Diamond was diagnosed with Severe Spondylosis in her Sacrum area right after I adopted her in 2011. Several vets recommended I put her down when in the beginning she was in a lot of pain. I started a deep dive into joint issues. I was trying everything. We even did Stem Cell. I found what worked and has basically saved her life. Adequan. This monthly injection saved her life. Pain free and doing well. This past 9 months though she tore BOTH ACLs (full tears) and while that has slowed her down some, she’s doing fairly well considering we didn’t do surgery. The last tear took a little bit more toll on her though. But her hips are in good shape. Spondylosis is a horrible painful disease and as it progresses, they can become incontinent and sometimes could paralyze the back legs. So what I see is a miracle dog. Anyway that was a little background on her health throughout her life. I adopted her when she was 3 yrs old.
August 7th, 2022
Last night she started doing a little better. Not as much on rapid breathing so it seems the pain is subsiding.
Today she is showing more improvement. Diamond ate on her own today without the help of anti-nausea medicine or appetite stimulator meds. She's got a little more energy, tail wagging more. I am also giving to her twice a day Slippery elm, Ubiquinol, Spleen activator (chinese herb mix), calcium carbonate, digestive enzymes, probiotics, and milk thistle mixed in water and administered orally via syringe. Her poop is a little runny most likely from this combo.
Her lump has gotten a little smaller.
Tomorrow I think we will get back her test results on cancer. I am nervous. Either I will be super happy or my world will shatter. It will be a big day.
Last night she started doing a little better. Not as much on rapid breathing so it seems the pain is subsiding.
Today she is showing more improvement. Diamond ate on her own today without the help of anti-nausea medicine or appetite stimulator meds. She's got a little more energy, tail wagging more. I am also giving to her twice a day Slippery elm, Ubiquinol, Spleen activator (chinese herb mix), calcium carbonate, digestive enzymes, probiotics, and milk thistle mixed in water and administered orally via syringe. Her poop is a little runny most likely from this combo.
Her lump has gotten a little smaller.
Tomorrow I think we will get back her test results on cancer. I am nervous. Either I will be super happy or my world will shatter. It will be a big day.
August 9th, 2022
JUST spoke with the (second) vet that my first vet did, the initial day. The test for cancer was inconclusive. UGH. Meaning it most likely needs a recheck AFTER the swelling has gone down. So he is saying to bring her back on the 18th for recheck and see if we need to continue the antibiotics or not. I now feel in my heart..she does NOT have cancer. But will get more answers then. Thats a certain sigh of relief. With that said, her lump is small. It's maybe quarter size or just a big marble running my hand over it. It's not even noticeable when looking at her. In the pic, my hand is just above where it is. Diamond is eating well and acting her old self. I am very happy with her progress. SHEW. I have really prayed hard over this. She's me girl and I am just not ready to lose my happy funny girl.
Aug 11th, 2022
Diamond is doing very well. Her lump is almost gone. Still slight swelling but very hard to tell. If lump is gone by Wednesday of next week, I won't take her back to vet. BUT I have decided to continue the antibiotics for atleast another week.
Diamond is doing very well. Her lump is almost gone. Still slight swelling but very hard to tell. If lump is gone by Wednesday of next week, I won't take her back to vet. BUT I have decided to continue the antibiotics for atleast another week.
Aug 22, 2022
I did not take Diamond back to a recheck. Her lump went down alot every day. I DID however continue antibiotics for another 6 days. Her lump is practically gone. Very happy with her progress.
I did not take Diamond back to a recheck. Her lump went down alot every day. I DID however continue antibiotics for another 6 days. Her lump is practically gone. Very happy with her progress.
Aug 25th. 2022
Took Diamond in today for a recheck. A small lump almost unnoticeable is still in her neck. More like closer to her vocal cords. Vet said watch it and if it changes shape or size in any way, bring her back to biopsy it. It's there but no one would know it unless they were digging around for it. She weighed in at 57 lbs.
Aug 29th, 2022
Back to vet. Weight 58 lbs. Lump returned with a vengeance. She started being a little mopey the day before. Gave her Clavamox over the weekend till we could get to the vet on Monday. Vet doesn't know what caused this but he said it didn't seem to be acting like lymphoma so this is most likely an infection that doesn't want to go away. We made a plan. Gave her another shot of Convenia injection (Cephalosporin). This seems to work well for her. Meds caused a slight decrease in appetite first day or two..but much better now. In 10 days I start her on Cephalexin tabs till end of month. So 30 days of antibiotics. IF it is still there, we will most likely go ahead and biopsy it in some way. Its very close to the vocal cords so this may not can be done. Other option is try steroids for a week and see what happens.. We MUST get rid of this infection or it WILL kill her. Prayers for my girlfriend.
Sept 3rd, 2022
It's only been a week and the lump is gone. We will continue antibiotics (Cephalexin) for several more weeks...just in case.
Sept 11, 2022
Diamond woke up today and wouldn't eat. I did get her to eat a few treats. Shortly thereafter she threw up. I gave her some medicine for nausea and vomiting (Cerenia). Later on she did eat some baked chicken. She was very mopey all day. I assumed the Cephalexin was upsetting her tummy. I stopped the meds.
Sept 12, 2022
Today she ate fine and is acting good again. I didn't give her any Cephalexin at all yesterday and today she seems better.
Diamond woke up today and wouldn't eat. I did get her to eat a few treats. Shortly thereafter she threw up. I gave her some medicine for nausea and vomiting (Cerenia). Later on she did eat some baked chicken. She was very mopey all day. I assumed the Cephalexin was upsetting her tummy. I stopped the meds.
Sept 12, 2022
Today she ate fine and is acting good again. I didn't give her any Cephalexin at all yesterday and today she seems better.
Sept 16th, 2022
So far, the lump has not returned. I am checking it daily. If it is still gone by first of next week, then we may be in the clear of no more infection.
Sept 19th, 2022
Diamonds neck back big again. Bigger than a golf ball. I gave her Prednisone 12.5 mg. I called vet today and no one returned my call. So taking her in the morning. ggrrr
So far, the lump has not returned. I am checking it daily. If it is still gone by first of next week, then we may be in the clear of no more infection.
Sept 19th, 2022
Diamonds neck back big again. Bigger than a golf ball. I gave her Prednisone 12.5 mg. I called vet today and no one returned my call. So taking her in the morning. ggrrr
Sept 20th, 2022
I JUST got home from the vets. Seen a NEW vet. She said it is NOT the lymph nodes at all. It is a mass over her thyroid. She did a sonogram on it and the needle aspiration is being sent off. Will know in a week if it is cancer. If so, she has only months to live. 😭😭😭 In the meantime..another Convenia antibiotic shot to reduce infection around it. Just checked, my vet when we did bloodwork, he didn't check the thyroid.This vet thinks it is a thyroid issue. So if not cancer then its her thyroid.
Vet said they go down hill pretty quick........I will do what I can to extend this if so. I am gonna have to do a go fund me for cremation if so.... I am flat broke. Will post one once test results come back.
I JUST got home from the vets. Seen a NEW vet. She said it is NOT the lymph nodes at all. It is a mass over her thyroid. She did a sonogram on it and the needle aspiration is being sent off. Will know in a week if it is cancer. If so, she has only months to live. 😭😭😭 In the meantime..another Convenia antibiotic shot to reduce infection around it. Just checked, my vet when we did bloodwork, he didn't check the thyroid.This vet thinks it is a thyroid issue. So if not cancer then its her thyroid.
Vet said they go down hill pretty quick........I will do what I can to extend this if so. I am gonna have to do a go fund me for cremation if so.... I am flat broke. Will post one once test results come back.
Sept 20th, 2022
I spent many hours and 20-30 articles of researching on thyroid tumors. NOT ONE single article says a word about infection along with it. This vet was wrong too. I am going with the fact that this is a SERIOUS bacterial infection (from who knows what) and it needs long term antibiotics to get rid of it. I ran across an article stating something to this same effect. I THINK this infection is so bad that it inflamed everything around it...including close to vocal cords which is same area as thyroid. I think the infection is so bad it appears to be the thyroid. A mass over thyroid doesn't mean cancer, it means there is something obstructing the thyroid.... if it was thyroid...WHY is there infection when all articles mention ZIP about any infection with thyroid cancer. NOT ONE. SIGH......What is wrong with these vets? SERIOUSLY..it's gonna end up being me that cures my dog.
I spent many hours and 20-30 articles of researching on thyroid tumors. NOT ONE single article says a word about infection along with it. This vet was wrong too. I am going with the fact that this is a SERIOUS bacterial infection (from who knows what) and it needs long term antibiotics to get rid of it. I ran across an article stating something to this same effect. I THINK this infection is so bad that it inflamed everything around it...including close to vocal cords which is same area as thyroid. I think the infection is so bad it appears to be the thyroid. A mass over thyroid doesn't mean cancer, it means there is something obstructing the thyroid.... if it was thyroid...WHY is there infection when all articles mention ZIP about any infection with thyroid cancer. NOT ONE. SIGH......What is wrong with these vets? SERIOUSLY..it's gonna end up being me that cures my dog.
Sept 30,2022
FINALLY got results back on needle aspiration from the vet after blowing up their phones.
INCONCLUSIVE!!! is what the receptionist said that the second vet (Dr G) said.
AS I SAID, this is nothing more than a bad infection that they seem to be trying to make it into something. HER LUMP IS GONE..nothing anywhere. Going to take her back in on Wednesday. Her shot will be wearing off at that time...so may see if we can do one more...and maybe some pills to follow up that dont make her sick..such as Clavamox. I DID put her on a 5 day prednisone with a very low dose. We are now beginning the weaning stage which takes a couple of weeks. I also am giving her Oil of Oregano twice a day and Colloidal Silver as well. Both are antibiotics and antifungals. I hope all of this will knock out whatever this is. I have been searching and the best I can find is a bad bacterial or fungal infection. No known cause. Prayers for Diamond!!!
FINALLY got results back on needle aspiration from the vet after blowing up their phones.
INCONCLUSIVE!!! is what the receptionist said that the second vet (Dr G) said.
AS I SAID, this is nothing more than a bad infection that they seem to be trying to make it into something. HER LUMP IS GONE..nothing anywhere. Going to take her back in on Wednesday. Her shot will be wearing off at that time...so may see if we can do one more...and maybe some pills to follow up that dont make her sick..such as Clavamox. I DID put her on a 5 day prednisone with a very low dose. We are now beginning the weaning stage which takes a couple of weeks. I also am giving her Oil of Oregano twice a day and Colloidal Silver as well. Both are antibiotics and antifungals. I hope all of this will knock out whatever this is. I have been searching and the best I can find is a bad bacterial or fungal infection. No known cause. Prayers for Diamond!!!
Oct 5th, 2022
Yesterday Dr G, the vet I liked, called and left a message to say after looking at the aspiration done 2 weeks ago (by that female vet), it was "likely" to be cancer and mentioned the word...Neoplasia. I looked that word up. NONE of the symptoms fit. I was so pissed off all night long and today. I was taking her back to vet anyway because today reached the 2 week mark for the antibiotic shot to wear off and I got nervous.
We were suppose to see Dr G but he got caught in a small surgery but wouldn't take that long and they asked if I would like to see my original vet, Dr B..I said yes. So when he came in..I kinda unloaded on him and I know he didn't want to hear alot of what I had to say about the female vet and about what Dr G said yesterday...but I did praise Dr G for helping save Diamonds life. Anyway Dr B seen both aspirations; I went over every single thing that Dr G did and what he discovered with xrays, sonogram, etc etc.
I said to Dr B...Dr G's remarks made no sense yesterday. If he is looking at ONE test..and giving his opinion of cancer..then he failed at his job. (I didn’t say that last part to Dr B). I said, you MUST look at the whole picture. All the other tests done and results, how she is doing, etc etc. Dr B clearly said..this is not cancer. I said there is no proof it is cancer. NONE. Show me the proof. All tests were clear. Aspirations showed infection with a few words related to cancer but not directly finding cancer. He said with 2 aspirations..that pretty much says it is NOT cancer. He said, now if something changes or pops up then we might have to reconsider..but for the last two months..it's clearly an infection from an unknown source that has the vets baffled.
He said if 100 dogs came in with a swollen infected lymph node on a 14 yr old dog, 97 of them would be diagnosed with lymphoma. Clearly this isn't her or the other lymph nodes would have gotten large, not reacted to the antibiotics and attacked other organs. He asked how she was doing/feeling? I said she's been great. Her old self...eating, drinking, pooping, walking..doing her thing. I told him I stepped over the boundaries and took it upon myself to start her on a low dose of prednisone and also oil of oregano and Colloidal silver that are antibiotics in natural form. Now to reiterate..Dr B has been her vet for 10 yrs. He is a lazy vet...but since all the testing had been done...there wasn’t much else to do..plus I am now flat broke. I have no more money to continue this charade of trying to find cancer.
I told him...I know you said her lungs looked a little cloudy and something with her neck..but I looked at old x-rays of her lungs and they looked the same to me. I said and she isn’t coughing or anything. I said I am no expert at xrays by far but from what I could tell...its the same. (This is the part where he is lazy. HE should have looked back to compare..not me). I know drs are busy but damn..it can mean life or death.
Anyway,,, Dr G dropped the ball yesterday when he left me that disturbing opinionated message. He was wrong in doing so. So now it’s a battle to kill this infection...and my question that will remain in my mind.."What the hell caused this?"
He even said today that she didn’t even show a bug bite or any type of head on it when he seen it in the beginning. So she wasn’t bitten...nor did she poke anything in there..like a stick or thorn or something. Clearly her immune system was attacked and by what is the remaining huge question..this is why they think it was cancer..cause the body is being attacked and cancer can/will have this effect on them.
I have since the beginning said this is not cancer. I think because they see so much cancer..that’s their first thought...and that’s a sad thing to think of. Did you know..1 out of 2 dogs will get cancer in their lifetime? VERY SAD! We are being poisoned by our food. This is why I feed a homemade diet, no vaccines, filtered water etc etc...I am trying to dodge as many contaminants as possible for me and my dogs. I will say at 14 and no cancer...we are doing good.
She got another shot today with a 10 day supply of antibiotics that don't normally make her sick. They are for JUST IN CASE only if the swelling reappears after the shot wears off.
This is whats for back up:
What bacteria does Clavamox (Augmentin in human drugs) treat?
This antibiotic drug is effective against a range of infections including those caused by Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, and E. coli bacteria. It has no effect against viral or fungal infections, however. Clavamox can be used to treat a variety of skin and soft tissue infections and dental infections in dogs.
Clavamox is a potentiated penicillin approved for veterinary use in dogs and cats. It combines the broad-spectrum antibiotic activity of amoxicillin with the unique β-lactamase-inhibiting effect of clavulanate potassium for antimicrobial activity. In addition, it provides activity against many Gram-positive and Gram-negative aerobic and anaerobic bacteria.
What is Convenia (Cephalosporin/Cephalexin) (the injection) for dogs used for?
Convenia is used in dogs to treat skin and soft tissue infections; these are infections on the skin and in the layers just below the skin, such as wounds, abscesses and pyoderma (a skin infection with a rash and pustules). It is also used in dogs to treat urinary tract infections caused by certain specific bacteria.
Yesterday Dr G, the vet I liked, called and left a message to say after looking at the aspiration done 2 weeks ago (by that female vet), it was "likely" to be cancer and mentioned the word...Neoplasia. I looked that word up. NONE of the symptoms fit. I was so pissed off all night long and today. I was taking her back to vet anyway because today reached the 2 week mark for the antibiotic shot to wear off and I got nervous.
We were suppose to see Dr G but he got caught in a small surgery but wouldn't take that long and they asked if I would like to see my original vet, Dr B..I said yes. So when he came in..I kinda unloaded on him and I know he didn't want to hear alot of what I had to say about the female vet and about what Dr G said yesterday...but I did praise Dr G for helping save Diamonds life. Anyway Dr B seen both aspirations; I went over every single thing that Dr G did and what he discovered with xrays, sonogram, etc etc.
I said to Dr B...Dr G's remarks made no sense yesterday. If he is looking at ONE test..and giving his opinion of cancer..then he failed at his job. (I didn’t say that last part to Dr B). I said, you MUST look at the whole picture. All the other tests done and results, how she is doing, etc etc. Dr B clearly said..this is not cancer. I said there is no proof it is cancer. NONE. Show me the proof. All tests were clear. Aspirations showed infection with a few words related to cancer but not directly finding cancer. He said with 2 aspirations..that pretty much says it is NOT cancer. He said, now if something changes or pops up then we might have to reconsider..but for the last two months..it's clearly an infection from an unknown source that has the vets baffled.
He said if 100 dogs came in with a swollen infected lymph node on a 14 yr old dog, 97 of them would be diagnosed with lymphoma. Clearly this isn't her or the other lymph nodes would have gotten large, not reacted to the antibiotics and attacked other organs. He asked how she was doing/feeling? I said she's been great. Her old self...eating, drinking, pooping, walking..doing her thing. I told him I stepped over the boundaries and took it upon myself to start her on a low dose of prednisone and also oil of oregano and Colloidal silver that are antibiotics in natural form. Now to reiterate..Dr B has been her vet for 10 yrs. He is a lazy vet...but since all the testing had been done...there wasn’t much else to do..plus I am now flat broke. I have no more money to continue this charade of trying to find cancer.
I told him...I know you said her lungs looked a little cloudy and something with her neck..but I looked at old x-rays of her lungs and they looked the same to me. I said and she isn’t coughing or anything. I said I am no expert at xrays by far but from what I could tell...its the same. (This is the part where he is lazy. HE should have looked back to compare..not me). I know drs are busy but damn..it can mean life or death.
Anyway,,, Dr G dropped the ball yesterday when he left me that disturbing opinionated message. He was wrong in doing so. So now it’s a battle to kill this infection...and my question that will remain in my mind.."What the hell caused this?"
He even said today that she didn’t even show a bug bite or any type of head on it when he seen it in the beginning. So she wasn’t bitten...nor did she poke anything in there..like a stick or thorn or something. Clearly her immune system was attacked and by what is the remaining huge question..this is why they think it was cancer..cause the body is being attacked and cancer can/will have this effect on them.
I have since the beginning said this is not cancer. I think because they see so much cancer..that’s their first thought...and that’s a sad thing to think of. Did you know..1 out of 2 dogs will get cancer in their lifetime? VERY SAD! We are being poisoned by our food. This is why I feed a homemade diet, no vaccines, filtered water etc etc...I am trying to dodge as many contaminants as possible for me and my dogs. I will say at 14 and no cancer...we are doing good.
She got another shot today with a 10 day supply of antibiotics that don't normally make her sick. They are for JUST IN CASE only if the swelling reappears after the shot wears off.
This is whats for back up:
What bacteria does Clavamox (Augmentin in human drugs) treat?
This antibiotic drug is effective against a range of infections including those caused by Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, and E. coli bacteria. It has no effect against viral or fungal infections, however. Clavamox can be used to treat a variety of skin and soft tissue infections and dental infections in dogs.
Clavamox is a potentiated penicillin approved for veterinary use in dogs and cats. It combines the broad-spectrum antibiotic activity of amoxicillin with the unique β-lactamase-inhibiting effect of clavulanate potassium for antimicrobial activity. In addition, it provides activity against many Gram-positive and Gram-negative aerobic and anaerobic bacteria.
What is Convenia (Cephalosporin/Cephalexin) (the injection) for dogs used for?
Convenia is used in dogs to treat skin and soft tissue infections; these are infections on the skin and in the layers just below the skin, such as wounds, abscesses and pyoderma (a skin infection with a rash and pustules). It is also used in dogs to treat urinary tract infections caused by certain specific bacteria.
Oct 9,2022
Well I am outta my mind and at my wits end. I am trying everything and nothing I am doing is working. Diamond's lump is coming back. It reared its head today a little bit. SO this means, she now has built a resistance to the antibiotics she was getting. She JUST got the shot on Wednesday and here it is Sunday and its returned. I will put her back on Oil of Oregano and Colloidal Silver and add a few more things in. I just ordered some Goldenseal (in which I have never used before) and Olive Leaf and I havent used it either. We have a different antibiotic in pill form but I can't give it to her right now I assume on top of the other. I may have to call vet tomorrow and see if they will return my call. I am absolutely clueless and disappointed this isn't going away. I have no clue what's going on.
Well I am outta my mind and at my wits end. I am trying everything and nothing I am doing is working. Diamond's lump is coming back. It reared its head today a little bit. SO this means, she now has built a resistance to the antibiotics she was getting. She JUST got the shot on Wednesday and here it is Sunday and its returned. I will put her back on Oil of Oregano and Colloidal Silver and add a few more things in. I just ordered some Goldenseal (in which I have never used before) and Olive Leaf and I havent used it either. We have a different antibiotic in pill form but I can't give it to her right now I assume on top of the other. I may have to call vet tomorrow and see if they will return my call. I am absolutely clueless and disappointed this isn't going away. I have no clue what's going on.
On another note, she's had this cyst thing that grew on her eyelid about 6-8 months ago. Yesterday part of it came off. Looking a little better.
I have some MIND BLOWING information. As you all know, Diamond has had this horrible bacterial infection that will not go away for months. This last shot she built a resistance to. After 4 days, her lump popped up. It is the size of a quarter to a half dollar. It isn’t getting bigger right now. The shot wears off after 10-14 days. So 10 days will be Saturday Oct 15th. I will start the backup antibiotics probably then. I am also going to still be searching for something that will knock this out naturally. I have a few irons in the fire on this.
Now the mind blowing information. I been searching for answers on this. Scouring the internet for a connection. I searched bacterial infections, fungal infections, cancers etc..zero connections. Callie my other dog has been limping pretty bad this past week. She has an issue with her left front paw. X-rays showed no arthritis. I had had her on Adequan before but took her off because it says that dogs may not can have Adequan due to kidney or liver issues. She has a few higher numbers with liver. Something to watch. I had her on it but took her off of it about 2 months ago because I was concerned. I decided to go recheck the info on the Adequan and liver issue. While reading the insert for Adequan…it listed under TOXICITY ..kidneys, liver, and LYMPH NODES. I was like huh….It didn’t go into detail. I know all the studies are short term, never long term. So, I decided to write the manufacture with no intent to do harm or anything towards them because Adequan saved Diamonds life. I proceeded to tell them that she had been on it since 2012/2013 and it saved her life. I told them about the lymph node infection and that the vets don’t have a clue what caused this. I asked the manufacture if there was any way possible this might be connected. (I knew this was a long shot and I was probably grasping at straws but wanted to ask any way to satisfy my mind).
They replied to my email within a day or so with a jaw dropping reply.
They said:
“ Thank you for taking the time on 09OCT2022 to provide information regarding your dog’s experience with Adequan® Canine.
Case number XXXXXXXXX
At American Regent, the health and well-being of animals is our utmost priority, and we take all reports of potential adverse events to our products seriously. The information you provided will be shared with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine in the form of a product adverse event report.
Should you or your veterinarian want to share any additional information regarding your pet’s medical history, please contact us and reference the above case number.”
That told me everything I needed to know. For one, they didn’t blow me off and they answered my email fast. I have been in shock over this because I found this info without looking for this for Diamond. I also DID NOT expect that sort of a reply. In fact I expected denial of anything being connected. I haven’t been able to sleep since this email. So, it appears that I may have found the needle in the haystack and then the odds of Diamond NOT having cancer with a swollen lymph node was 3%. What are the odds? I say these are small miracles and it all goes to everyone that has prayed for my girl as I have prayed everyday for her health. I am blown away by this. Somehow God must have intervened because I was led to the Adequan information by chance for Callie. What timing.
Now, the problem with this is, she will no longer get Adequan. It’s the only thing that has kept her pain free for 10 years. Now I have to find something else. This means, a lot of trial and error and probably pain coming her way until we find the right mix of supplements/meds for her. We tried a Hyaluronic Acid injection in the past but she showed a reaction to it. We MIGHT try this again to double check. This is a huge concern for finding what will help my girl not be in pain. We have a long road ahead of us. UGH!
After finding out this information….I called the vet (Dr. B). I gave him everything I found, went over her blood work and the words stated on the toxicity report that were similar to her blood work. He asked if it was ok if he gave them Diamonds medical records. I said sure. If this helps another dog in the future due to Diamonds long term use of Adequan, it makes it all worth it. Anyway, tomorrow he will be contacting the manufacture to see if they can provide more information and if it is possibly related (which we won’t really ever know) then figure out how we get rid of this. We need answers on how to move forward in helping Diamond. I feel right now we are just in a circling pattern until we can find a place to land. Unless they can give me definitive proof that this is not from the Adequan, I am going with that but we will see what my vet finds out.
Now the mind blowing information. I been searching for answers on this. Scouring the internet for a connection. I searched bacterial infections, fungal infections, cancers etc..zero connections. Callie my other dog has been limping pretty bad this past week. She has an issue with her left front paw. X-rays showed no arthritis. I had had her on Adequan before but took her off because it says that dogs may not can have Adequan due to kidney or liver issues. She has a few higher numbers with liver. Something to watch. I had her on it but took her off of it about 2 months ago because I was concerned. I decided to go recheck the info on the Adequan and liver issue. While reading the insert for Adequan…it listed under TOXICITY ..kidneys, liver, and LYMPH NODES. I was like huh….It didn’t go into detail. I know all the studies are short term, never long term. So, I decided to write the manufacture with no intent to do harm or anything towards them because Adequan saved Diamonds life. I proceeded to tell them that she had been on it since 2012/2013 and it saved her life. I told them about the lymph node infection and that the vets don’t have a clue what caused this. I asked the manufacture if there was any way possible this might be connected. (I knew this was a long shot and I was probably grasping at straws but wanted to ask any way to satisfy my mind).
They replied to my email within a day or so with a jaw dropping reply.
They said:
“ Thank you for taking the time on 09OCT2022 to provide information regarding your dog’s experience with Adequan® Canine.
Case number XXXXXXXXX
At American Regent, the health and well-being of animals is our utmost priority, and we take all reports of potential adverse events to our products seriously. The information you provided will be shared with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine in the form of a product adverse event report.
Should you or your veterinarian want to share any additional information regarding your pet’s medical history, please contact us and reference the above case number.”
That told me everything I needed to know. For one, they didn’t blow me off and they answered my email fast. I have been in shock over this because I found this info without looking for this for Diamond. I also DID NOT expect that sort of a reply. In fact I expected denial of anything being connected. I haven’t been able to sleep since this email. So, it appears that I may have found the needle in the haystack and then the odds of Diamond NOT having cancer with a swollen lymph node was 3%. What are the odds? I say these are small miracles and it all goes to everyone that has prayed for my girl as I have prayed everyday for her health. I am blown away by this. Somehow God must have intervened because I was led to the Adequan information by chance for Callie. What timing.
Now, the problem with this is, she will no longer get Adequan. It’s the only thing that has kept her pain free for 10 years. Now I have to find something else. This means, a lot of trial and error and probably pain coming her way until we find the right mix of supplements/meds for her. We tried a Hyaluronic Acid injection in the past but she showed a reaction to it. We MIGHT try this again to double check. This is a huge concern for finding what will help my girl not be in pain. We have a long road ahead of us. UGH!
After finding out this information….I called the vet (Dr. B). I gave him everything I found, went over her blood work and the words stated on the toxicity report that were similar to her blood work. He asked if it was ok if he gave them Diamonds medical records. I said sure. If this helps another dog in the future due to Diamonds long term use of Adequan, it makes it all worth it. Anyway, tomorrow he will be contacting the manufacture to see if they can provide more information and if it is possibly related (which we won’t really ever know) then figure out how we get rid of this. We need answers on how to move forward in helping Diamond. I feel right now we are just in a circling pattern until we can find a place to land. Unless they can give me definitive proof that this is not from the Adequan, I am going with that but we will see what my vet finds out.
Oct 12, 2022
Diamond got really sick last night..her tummy. Not sure why as of yet. But today she was pretty sleepy and slept alot. By evening she perked up some and is doing better. Oh, really weird, her lump got smaller...its now back to a size of a pecan..overnight. Strange stuff going on here.
Diamond got really sick last night..her tummy. Not sure why as of yet. But today she was pretty sleepy and slept alot. By evening she perked up some and is doing better. Oh, really weird, her lump got smaller...its now back to a size of a pecan..overnight. Strange stuff going on here.
Oct 16, 2022
Diamond is feeling much better. Her lump is down to a dime size. Next wednesday is 2 weeks since shot; will most likely start the antibiotic pills. We are done with the prednisone as of Thursday. I am still in search of something to help her joints. In the meantime I upped her Ostinol to 450mg.
Diamond is feeling much better. Her lump is down to a dime size. Next wednesday is 2 weeks since shot; will most likely start the antibiotic pills. We are done with the prednisone as of Thursday. I am still in search of something to help her joints. In the meantime I upped her Ostinol to 450mg.
Oct 25th, 2022
Vet called and he spoke to American Regent on the Adequan. He said there were 3 dogs that got lesions on the lymph nodes in the trials using 5x and 10x the recommended dosing, so most likely this isn't it. Good thing since I went ahead and gave her an Adequan shot yesterday. I was on a time crunch. I started her on the Clavamox at the 2 week mark after the Convenia antibiotic shot and she will finish the 10 day dose this Friday. This is the first time for her to take a different antibiotic and in pill form. I believe these are aggravating her joints because since she has been on them, she's really struggled to walk. Next week I am taking her back to vet for more tests. I have been deep diving into medical info trying to find answers and solutions. Overall, her lump is gone and she's acting good.
Oh I ordered the Tesla BioHealing units which I really could not afford at all but, I have to help my girl so I gotta do what I gotta do. She has had them since Saturday eve (Oct 22nd). It takes up to 8 weeks but hopefully we will see some results sooner. I am also syringing into her mouth.. CDS (Chlorine Dioxide)..twice a day and I have already been adding it into her water bowl as well.
Vet called and he spoke to American Regent on the Adequan. He said there were 3 dogs that got lesions on the lymph nodes in the trials using 5x and 10x the recommended dosing, so most likely this isn't it. Good thing since I went ahead and gave her an Adequan shot yesterday. I was on a time crunch. I started her on the Clavamox at the 2 week mark after the Convenia antibiotic shot and she will finish the 10 day dose this Friday. This is the first time for her to take a different antibiotic and in pill form. I believe these are aggravating her joints because since she has been on them, she's really struggled to walk. Next week I am taking her back to vet for more tests. I have been deep diving into medical info trying to find answers and solutions. Overall, her lump is gone and she's acting good.
Oh I ordered the Tesla BioHealing units which I really could not afford at all but, I have to help my girl so I gotta do what I gotta do. She has had them since Saturday eve (Oct 22nd). It takes up to 8 weeks but hopefully we will see some results sooner. I am also syringing into her mouth.. CDS (Chlorine Dioxide)..twice a day and I have already been adding it into her water bowl as well.
Oct 27th, 2022
Holy Cow. I called vets office and requested a copy of her first aspiration back in August. hhmmm. Also zero cancer in it. Also..I spoke about Diamond nearly dying on me. Well yes she almost did. It states SEPSIS. That's life threatening/emergency. I knew she was dying on me. Here see for yourself. Her intestines, spleen and liver were affected from this.
Holy Cow. I called vets office and requested a copy of her first aspiration back in August. hhmmm. Also zero cancer in it. Also..I spoke about Diamond nearly dying on me. Well yes she almost did. It states SEPSIS. That's life threatening/emergency. I knew she was dying on me. Here see for yourself. Her intestines, spleen and liver were affected from this.
11-1-2022
After 4 days off antibiotics, the lump has returned. We go to vet in the morning. I will say this last pill form antibiotic made her limp more on her back right leg. Yep antibiotics will do that sometimes. Cephalexin did that to her back in 2012 and now this one was Clavamox that did. Otherwise she did ok on this pill form. She has a really sensitive tummy so it’s hard for her to take pills. I could really use more donations. I have about 4-5 tests ( some new ones) that are needed for tomorrow and I don’t have enough money to get them done. These tests will either find something or rule out different things..mostly cancer. I have searched till my brain was in overload on looking for answers. Nothing is fitting. I have looked at all kinds of cancers including leukemia and it is close but just doesn’t quite go with her blood work from August. Tomorrow I will have blood work redone to search again. Her lump is back but it’s at half the size it originally was…at this time. It pops up within hours so who’s to say what size it will be in a few hours. I am taking her in the morning and as I said…we need to redo all tests from 3 months ago plus add in some others. If you are able, please share this with friends and donate if you can. I have another dog with lumps (4 on one side all popped up in the last 3-4 months) that needs checked out as well. One is under her front leg/armpit area..which is lymph node area. Otherwise she is doing fine. If anyone knows any drs/vets that are specialists in this sort of stuff..maybe they can point in a direction to what this may be.
After 4 days off antibiotics, the lump has returned. We go to vet in the morning. I will say this last pill form antibiotic made her limp more on her back right leg. Yep antibiotics will do that sometimes. Cephalexin did that to her back in 2012 and now this one was Clavamox that did. Otherwise she did ok on this pill form. She has a really sensitive tummy so it’s hard for her to take pills. I could really use more donations. I have about 4-5 tests ( some new ones) that are needed for tomorrow and I don’t have enough money to get them done. These tests will either find something or rule out different things..mostly cancer. I have searched till my brain was in overload on looking for answers. Nothing is fitting. I have looked at all kinds of cancers including leukemia and it is close but just doesn’t quite go with her blood work from August. Tomorrow I will have blood work redone to search again. Her lump is back but it’s at half the size it originally was…at this time. It pops up within hours so who’s to say what size it will be in a few hours. I am taking her in the morning and as I said…we need to redo all tests from 3 months ago plus add in some others. If you are able, please share this with friends and donate if you can. I have another dog with lumps (4 on one side all popped up in the last 3-4 months) that needs checked out as well. One is under her front leg/armpit area..which is lymph node area. Otherwise she is doing fine. If anyone knows any drs/vets that are specialists in this sort of stuff..maybe they can point in a direction to what this may be.
11-2-2022
Well we spent 5 hours at the vets. Callie had one lump aspirated..under her front leg (armpit). Will get results in a week. The others are most likely fatty tumors..(benign). Also doing a deep liver check on bloodwork for her. Should have that in the next day or two.
As for Diamond, well sigh..where do I start. Today we did xrays on her organs and neck…everything was clear and looked great. Also we did an ultrasound. There was something there….but not sure what. There was a white area. I watched as it was being done. Also he stuck a needle in Diamonds lump area and couldn’t hardly get anything out. What did come out was like a drop of clear fluid. So not enough to do a Bacterial Culture but enough to send off to lab for another cancer check. First aspiration did not show any cancer cells. 2nd aspiration showed some..but not enough to confirm cancer. So we are doing another anddd we did another full blood work-up. The previous blood work did not indicate cancer. Dr B is NOT convinced this is even a lymph node at all. It’s embedded in her neck. It’s the exact spot of a lymph node though to me. She is NOT going back on antibiotics at this time. I have some Clindamycin for just in case it gets large. Right now it’s not too bad. It’s a watch thing. We just don’t know what this is right now. Hopefully these tests will tell us something. A PARR test which will rule out cancer costs $620. I did not have the money for that as I haven’t gotten near enough donations. There is one other test that can be done to check for cancer and it’s a Bone Marrow aspiration. That will be last thing to do if we suspect cancer. God knows what that costs. I still need help financially until this is over. Pray and donate if you can please. Thank you!
Well we spent 5 hours at the vets. Callie had one lump aspirated..under her front leg (armpit). Will get results in a week. The others are most likely fatty tumors..(benign). Also doing a deep liver check on bloodwork for her. Should have that in the next day or two.
As for Diamond, well sigh..where do I start. Today we did xrays on her organs and neck…everything was clear and looked great. Also we did an ultrasound. There was something there….but not sure what. There was a white area. I watched as it was being done. Also he stuck a needle in Diamonds lump area and couldn’t hardly get anything out. What did come out was like a drop of clear fluid. So not enough to do a Bacterial Culture but enough to send off to lab for another cancer check. First aspiration did not show any cancer cells. 2nd aspiration showed some..but not enough to confirm cancer. So we are doing another anddd we did another full blood work-up. The previous blood work did not indicate cancer. Dr B is NOT convinced this is even a lymph node at all. It’s embedded in her neck. It’s the exact spot of a lymph node though to me. She is NOT going back on antibiotics at this time. I have some Clindamycin for just in case it gets large. Right now it’s not too bad. It’s a watch thing. We just don’t know what this is right now. Hopefully these tests will tell us something. A PARR test which will rule out cancer costs $620. I did not have the money for that as I haven’t gotten near enough donations. There is one other test that can be done to check for cancer and it’s a Bone Marrow aspiration. That will be last thing to do if we suspect cancer. God knows what that costs. I still need help financially until this is over. Pray and donate if you can please. Thank you!
11-4-2022
Diamonds bloodwork is back. It shows high liver numbers. I am guessing due to so many drugs. She is off all drugs now. Has been for over a week. I will be giving Milk Thistle to her. NO SIGN of cancer on bloodwork. All normal numbers. Thyroid is also good. White blood cell count..normal. No infection. RBC normal..no anemia. Things look pretty good. FYI..Diamond has not had high liver numbers (only once in 2020 and it was only the ALP) so this is rare. I assume the drugs. I will work on that now. Swelling in neck has even gone down more in her neck today. Weird stuff going on. NEXT WEEK we get the needle aspiration test results. That will tell us more on the cancer stuff.
Oh her first bloodwork in August at the beginning of this, her ALP was normal. Diamonds ProBNP was at 2232 up from last year that was 2113.
Diamonds bloodwork is back. It shows high liver numbers. I am guessing due to so many drugs. She is off all drugs now. Has been for over a week. I will be giving Milk Thistle to her. NO SIGN of cancer on bloodwork. All normal numbers. Thyroid is also good. White blood cell count..normal. No infection. RBC normal..no anemia. Things look pretty good. FYI..Diamond has not had high liver numbers (only once in 2020 and it was only the ALP) so this is rare. I assume the drugs. I will work on that now. Swelling in neck has even gone down more in her neck today. Weird stuff going on. NEXT WEEK we get the needle aspiration test results. That will tell us more on the cancer stuff.
Oh her first bloodwork in August at the beginning of this, her ALP was normal. Diamonds ProBNP was at 2232 up from last year that was 2113.
11-10-2022
I have some good news on Diamond. Dr B called and her lump shows lipoma or fat. NO CANCER. They didn’t find anything in the area that was aspirated. I pointed to the spot myself and Dr B aspirated it there. So unless I was way off on the spot, this infection is GONE! Dr B said, he was thinking if he called and I told him her neck was swelled again..he was gonna say I give up, I don’t have a clue what this is. - Well we really still don’t. Anyway this will just be a WATCH thing now…..I am gonna say all the prayers prayed over her have been awesome. Don’t stop right now…it might return. Let’s hope not. So FOR NOW, we won’t need to do further testing. IF the lump returns..we may have to try a PARR test which will rule out cancer for sure. But as of today…….it’s all good and we have finally made progress. It’s been 2 weeks since any medication so let’s hope this remains good from here on out. I am happy with the results today. Hallelujah!!!!!! 🥰
I have some good news on Diamond. Dr B called and her lump shows lipoma or fat. NO CANCER. They didn’t find anything in the area that was aspirated. I pointed to the spot myself and Dr B aspirated it there. So unless I was way off on the spot, this infection is GONE! Dr B said, he was thinking if he called and I told him her neck was swelled again..he was gonna say I give up, I don’t have a clue what this is. - Well we really still don’t. Anyway this will just be a WATCH thing now…..I am gonna say all the prayers prayed over her have been awesome. Don’t stop right now…it might return. Let’s hope not. So FOR NOW, we won’t need to do further testing. IF the lump returns..we may have to try a PARR test which will rule out cancer for sure. But as of today…….it’s all good and we have finally made progress. It’s been 2 weeks since any medication so let’s hope this remains good from here on out. I am happy with the results today. Hallelujah!!!!!! 🥰
In a nutshell the last 3 months:
Aug 2nd was the beginning of a 3 month long nightmare for us. Fast forward to today and the infection is finally gone. Our last vet visit was Nov 2nd. I requested a redo of bloodwork, x-rays and/or sonogram to recheck everything. At the time she still had a small lump..about marble size. She had just finished a 2 week run with the Convenia injection (4th one) and a 10 day supply of Clavamox (pill form). First time for a different antibiotic that we could get in her without making her sick. It DID however make her limp pretty bad. I was willing to deal with the limp just to get these in her. Four days into her last shot, the lump popped up...sat there for two days larger and then...went away. I immediately started her on the Clavamox at end of the 14 day shot period. A week after being off the Clavamox is when we returned to the vets office with the small lump that had returned. X-rays were good. No spots and the liver and spleen looked great. He said the liver even looked smaller. (I also gave her what I had left from Sydney back in the day for the spleen called Spleen Activator to help reduce spleen size). My vet aspirated the lump on her neck twice. He sent off two samples to the lab. We did the sonogram while I watched with the Dr. There was a small white spot there. I asked what he thought it might be. He wouldn't give me an answer knowing if it wasn't cancer, I would be pissed. You see, I gave them a very hard time over the past 2 months. They were not happy with me at all. I questioned them alot. Three vets told me this was cancer. I said prove it. There was no proof. I complained a lot. I did a ton of research looking for answers. I brought up any findings to my vet I found. He got sick of all of my findings..LOL ... but I don't care. This was my dogs life and I didn't care who I pissed off, I wanted answers. So in 3 months we had 3/4 aspirations, tons of x-rays, 3 sonograms and 2 full blood workups. Also 4 Convenia injections, 3-4 days of trying off and on..with Clindamycin and Cephalexin. Cephalexin made her sick. The other was the initial meds but we switched to the shot due to her being so sick and not eating in the beginning. Also a low dose of prednisone for 5 days then weaned off. During our last visit, we decided to not give more antibiotics and to just watch the small lump. If it grew, start the new meds he sent home with me. The next day I got her blood work back. Her liver numbers were high. I imagine from all those drugs. So I am working on getting those down now. BUT everything else looked great. The fluid he removed from her neck during that visit was clear. That was a good sign. So a week later, my vet called me with results of the aspiration. He asked me several times how Diamond was doing. He seemed genuinely concerned. I told him the lump was gone now. He was so happy. He said if it was still there, he was gonna say.. I give up, I don't know what this is. (Ha, we still don't know what it was).
To explain on all the aspirations, the first one showed bacterial infection. The second one showed bacterial infection with a few squamous cells. The vet was focused 100% on this last aspiration. He felt this one would be the tell all. I was looking at the whole picture myself. Anyway, It showed NO infection and only fat...a lipoma...a benign lump. So that explains the white spot on the Sonogram although it didn't show on x-ray. Also her blood work would have given us indication of cancer and it was clear. So we talked for awhile about what the heck this might have been caused from. No one has a clue. In fact the vet kept saying he wasn't even sure this was in the lymph node. The aspirations never mentioned lymph nodes...but it was certainly right on that area. My vet also keeps saying how good of shape she is in for a 14 yr old dog. He is amazed really that she's still trucking along and doesnt even look or act 14. (My youngest dog, is 11 and her face is almost solid white. She's gray big time.)
To intervene real quick, I also took another dog too. Callie has 4 lumps on her side. They all popped up during this 3 month period as well with exception of one that popped up 2 months before. We aspirated the one under her armpit. It came back a fatty tumor also..Lipoma. Her liver numbers are high but it appears she may be having the onset of Cushing's. She's never had prednisone so not sure what's triggered this. I have now put her on two chinese herbs along with liver support for it. I am not waiting for it to hit her...I am tackling it now.
Ok back to Diamond. I cannot say 100% what has kept this infection from coming back. But I will now tell you what all I think could be the possibilities and which one I think may be the one that did it.
First off, I felt if we could just get a different antibiotic in her, that that might just work. In my mind I felt the Convenia shot was helping but wasn't killing it completely. I felt that all along and even mentioned that to my vet. I kept thinking maybe another antibiotic may do it. Now with that said...she did have the Clavamox and yet the lump did reappear but much smaller; about marble to pecan size. It was there when we went to the vets this last time and she had been off the meds for a week.
2) I had been putting MMS/CDS in the dogs water and put kind of a high dose in Diamond's water. I had been using this not long after she got sick but in a regular dose. The last few weeks of this I increased the amount quite a bit. Let me just say, I am still learning about this stuff. It's kind of confusing. BUT I thought....why not up the dose..if she gets diarrhea, I will back off. She did fine. The high dose had been in her about 2 weeks from the time of our last vet visit. MMS/CDS is now being used by many people healing themselves. This is what should be added into our city water for cleaning the water instead of chlorine and toxic fluoride. This stuff is curing diseases like crazy. Animals only need Part A of the MMS mix. I cannot recommend any brand as I think all will do fine. I bought this one last time. I am still learning about it though. It's pretty interesting.
3) I ordered some Tesla Biohealing cans for her. What did I have to lose except money that I didn't really have. This was my dogs life and this crap needed to stop. I had to find something to stop this because what we have been doing wasn't working. I was willing to try anything. So, I ordered 3 cans. Three cans are for severe cases and/or large animals. Its $500 a can and I needed 3. UGH! I got a 10% discount as well. I got financing for them too. I received them on Saturday Oct 22nd. What I got wasn't what I ordered. They sent me ones for Adults. I was like OMG they sent me the wrong ones. Its Saturday...what do I do....and I don't have time to send them back and postpone this. I said screw it, I am using them. I hope they work. So I sent an email to Tesla BioHealing on this issue and I also had a few other questions like how long do these cans last. BTW they are FDA approved. I spoke with a lady at Tesla's main office that next Monday and she said I had several options. One, return the adult cans and have them replaced with the pet cans..orrr keep these. She said they DO use the adult cans when they need a more powerful treatment for animals. The adult cans are $600 each. So that's $300 dollars I didn't have to pay cause they screwed up on order plus my 10% discount. I got a great deal. I talked to the lady for about 15 minutes and was happy with what I got. I have used these religiously every single day (8-12 hours)..and guess what..lump is gone and no infection and it has not returned and its been since Oct 27th since we finished antibiotics and i got the cans on the 22nd. Diamond is good now. These cans take anywhere from a couple of weeks up to 8 weeks to work. They work with the body. I cannot explain it but it works off of the body's energy force. This is what Tesla has on their site. (Tesla Healer is an FDA registered medical device for promoting blood circulation and reducing pain.)
The person or animal will only absorb what they need so there is no way to do any harm at all. You put these cans around the animal or person..within 3 feet of the body for at least 8 hours a day..longer is even better. The cans are FDA approved to last for 3 yrs but they really don't know how long past that that they work. This is fairly new technology on the market although not new technology. (Look up Nikola Tesla). It works on the whole body. You should read the reviews on their site from people. Pretty awesome. They cannot claim that it cures anything or is a treatment for anything pretty much. It's just energy force for the body, but let me say, some sick people and animals are using this stuff and getting healed.
Note on another product: I want to add in another small thing as well. I did add in some Colloidal Silver during this time. I increased the ppm on it for her. So after reading about some testing on different brands that had been done for purity and strength (on NCBI website), I picked the Silver Wings 250ppm brand. This is stronger and can easily be diluted using filtered water to the strength you want. I added 1-2 dropper fulls to her meal daily and to date, I am now giving 6 drops twice a day. Do I think this got rid of the infection? Maybe! Can't say for sure!
So you decide on which one you think worked. It could have been all but..I am not quite convinced the antibiotics did much because the lump was still there after we finished them. I am unsure if it was the MMS because I had been using it although I increased the dose those last 3 weeks. Colloidal Silver...maybe but I don't feel it did. Was it the Tesla cans? I feel there is a good possibility that it was. I cannot say for sure..but..it's what makes the most sense to me at this time. Otherwise it was God's hand that cured her. That's all I have on what made this go away. I will call this a miracle though..and leave it at that. As for her limp, this continued for several weeks after off the meds..and she is now starting to walk a little better. BUT because she tore both of her ACLs last yr,..she struggles to pick herself up from a sitting position due to weak knees. So, I am going to get her a leg brace. It won't be custom cause those are about $1,000 and I am flat 'freaking' broke and then some. The leg brace is a hard/plastic brace..not custom fitted but..can be ordered with some basic measurements. I am hoping this will help her walk and get her up off the floor. This brace is $325 plus tax. I am TRYING to save up some money for this to get asap. Donations always welcome to help speed this up.
I am glad this 3 month long (felt much longer) nightmare is over. I am exhausted and broke now..but my dog is alive and well and I am happy. I did alot of fighting with my vets office but, in the end...I got the results I was fighting for.
I have to say, this is how you have to be these days with drs. Many are lazy, many don't care, and it really blows my mind how brainwashed they are as well by big Pharma. I truly hope in the future things will change for the better in our medical system and use more supplements and natural healing. I will leave it at that although I have a lot more feelings on this. And this is EXACTLY WHY we MUST learn how to take care of ourselves and our pets. Be pushy, demand tests, demand proof of any claims....and read, read, read....the internet is your friend. It may just save your dogs life..or yours.
Short story, a friend contacted me the other day and said her dog has been diagnosed with Grade 3 Mast Cell. Her vet aspirated the big lump on the dogs hip and looked at it himself under a microscope. He DID NOT send it to a lab. He did not do x-rays, he did not do blood work, he did not do a sonogram. He didn't do a thing. I was furious when she told me this. He isn't a pathologist. How can he diagnose this? I am not saying he is wrong, I am saying he is wrong for not doing more testing. This is why I am so upset. This is WRONG on all levels. ALWAYS do multiple testing. ALWAYS. Don't allow these vets to treat you this way. DEMAND them to do testing or find one that will. And yep get ready to spend some cash. Being sick isn't cheap. That's why we MUST learn alternative remedies at home. I am in no way saying we don't need drs because we do..but I am saying..don't let them be lazy and slack off. Don't allow them to give you a diagnoses over just ONE test that's done. DO NOT!! It is you, that has to put a stop to this sort of treatment. STAND UP against these slackers and make them do the work. Call them out. WHY do they not want to do tests? Do they think everyone only has $100 in their pocket? Well some people might..but that's why you need to try to have a savings, or pawn something or sell something. Do they not realize, if its life or death, we are more willing to spend some money to save a life. They need to do their damn job. And this is why my vet hates me. LOL. It was me that demanded almost every single test that was done. I spent $2500 on Diamond and $750 on Callie plus the Tesla cans of $1600. Was it worth it? YOU BETCHA IT WAS. My girl is alive and well. Sadly how many people trust their dr and allow the vet to call the shots... that means there are a lot of dead animals that shouldn't be. Fight for your babies. But also stash some cash. Seriously. You will need at least $2,000+
(that's in my neck of the woods) for a really sick dog.
Now I will get off my soapbox but I hope you all reading this...will start demanding these drs to do their job..and do not allow them to slack off. It can be life or death. Telling someone their dog has cancer without proof is unacceptable. Oh and BTW..my vet is the cheapest around and why I go there. Find a vet ahead of time that you like, will listen to you and doesn't charge you out the butt for a test. On that last visit, I requested either a sonogram or x-rays but I didn't have money for both. My vet did NOT charge me for 6 x-rays that he did. Thats $500 he didn't charge me. That's my kind of vet. Is he perfect? Far far from it..but he knows me...and I know him. I have been going there for 10 yrs. He also has learned this time around..that him being lazy and him not giving me the right answers isn't going to work for me. I think after all of this, we are even more on the same page now.
Aug 2nd was the beginning of a 3 month long nightmare for us. Fast forward to today and the infection is finally gone. Our last vet visit was Nov 2nd. I requested a redo of bloodwork, x-rays and/or sonogram to recheck everything. At the time she still had a small lump..about marble size. She had just finished a 2 week run with the Convenia injection (4th one) and a 10 day supply of Clavamox (pill form). First time for a different antibiotic that we could get in her without making her sick. It DID however make her limp pretty bad. I was willing to deal with the limp just to get these in her. Four days into her last shot, the lump popped up...sat there for two days larger and then...went away. I immediately started her on the Clavamox at end of the 14 day shot period. A week after being off the Clavamox is when we returned to the vets office with the small lump that had returned. X-rays were good. No spots and the liver and spleen looked great. He said the liver even looked smaller. (I also gave her what I had left from Sydney back in the day for the spleen called Spleen Activator to help reduce spleen size). My vet aspirated the lump on her neck twice. He sent off two samples to the lab. We did the sonogram while I watched with the Dr. There was a small white spot there. I asked what he thought it might be. He wouldn't give me an answer knowing if it wasn't cancer, I would be pissed. You see, I gave them a very hard time over the past 2 months. They were not happy with me at all. I questioned them alot. Three vets told me this was cancer. I said prove it. There was no proof. I complained a lot. I did a ton of research looking for answers. I brought up any findings to my vet I found. He got sick of all of my findings..LOL ... but I don't care. This was my dogs life and I didn't care who I pissed off, I wanted answers. So in 3 months we had 3/4 aspirations, tons of x-rays, 3 sonograms and 2 full blood workups. Also 4 Convenia injections, 3-4 days of trying off and on..with Clindamycin and Cephalexin. Cephalexin made her sick. The other was the initial meds but we switched to the shot due to her being so sick and not eating in the beginning. Also a low dose of prednisone for 5 days then weaned off. During our last visit, we decided to not give more antibiotics and to just watch the small lump. If it grew, start the new meds he sent home with me. The next day I got her blood work back. Her liver numbers were high. I imagine from all those drugs. So I am working on getting those down now. BUT everything else looked great. The fluid he removed from her neck during that visit was clear. That was a good sign. So a week later, my vet called me with results of the aspiration. He asked me several times how Diamond was doing. He seemed genuinely concerned. I told him the lump was gone now. He was so happy. He said if it was still there, he was gonna say.. I give up, I don't know what this is. (Ha, we still don't know what it was).
To explain on all the aspirations, the first one showed bacterial infection. The second one showed bacterial infection with a few squamous cells. The vet was focused 100% on this last aspiration. He felt this one would be the tell all. I was looking at the whole picture myself. Anyway, It showed NO infection and only fat...a lipoma...a benign lump. So that explains the white spot on the Sonogram although it didn't show on x-ray. Also her blood work would have given us indication of cancer and it was clear. So we talked for awhile about what the heck this might have been caused from. No one has a clue. In fact the vet kept saying he wasn't even sure this was in the lymph node. The aspirations never mentioned lymph nodes...but it was certainly right on that area. My vet also keeps saying how good of shape she is in for a 14 yr old dog. He is amazed really that she's still trucking along and doesnt even look or act 14. (My youngest dog, is 11 and her face is almost solid white. She's gray big time.)
To intervene real quick, I also took another dog too. Callie has 4 lumps on her side. They all popped up during this 3 month period as well with exception of one that popped up 2 months before. We aspirated the one under her armpit. It came back a fatty tumor also..Lipoma. Her liver numbers are high but it appears she may be having the onset of Cushing's. She's never had prednisone so not sure what's triggered this. I have now put her on two chinese herbs along with liver support for it. I am not waiting for it to hit her...I am tackling it now.
Ok back to Diamond. I cannot say 100% what has kept this infection from coming back. But I will now tell you what all I think could be the possibilities and which one I think may be the one that did it.
First off, I felt if we could just get a different antibiotic in her, that that might just work. In my mind I felt the Convenia shot was helping but wasn't killing it completely. I felt that all along and even mentioned that to my vet. I kept thinking maybe another antibiotic may do it. Now with that said...she did have the Clavamox and yet the lump did reappear but much smaller; about marble to pecan size. It was there when we went to the vets this last time and she had been off the meds for a week.
2) I had been putting MMS/CDS in the dogs water and put kind of a high dose in Diamond's water. I had been using this not long after she got sick but in a regular dose. The last few weeks of this I increased the amount quite a bit. Let me just say, I am still learning about this stuff. It's kind of confusing. BUT I thought....why not up the dose..if she gets diarrhea, I will back off. She did fine. The high dose had been in her about 2 weeks from the time of our last vet visit. MMS/CDS is now being used by many people healing themselves. This is what should be added into our city water for cleaning the water instead of chlorine and toxic fluoride. This stuff is curing diseases like crazy. Animals only need Part A of the MMS mix. I cannot recommend any brand as I think all will do fine. I bought this one last time. I am still learning about it though. It's pretty interesting.
3) I ordered some Tesla Biohealing cans for her. What did I have to lose except money that I didn't really have. This was my dogs life and this crap needed to stop. I had to find something to stop this because what we have been doing wasn't working. I was willing to try anything. So, I ordered 3 cans. Three cans are for severe cases and/or large animals. Its $500 a can and I needed 3. UGH! I got a 10% discount as well. I got financing for them too. I received them on Saturday Oct 22nd. What I got wasn't what I ordered. They sent me ones for Adults. I was like OMG they sent me the wrong ones. Its Saturday...what do I do....and I don't have time to send them back and postpone this. I said screw it, I am using them. I hope they work. So I sent an email to Tesla BioHealing on this issue and I also had a few other questions like how long do these cans last. BTW they are FDA approved. I spoke with a lady at Tesla's main office that next Monday and she said I had several options. One, return the adult cans and have them replaced with the pet cans..orrr keep these. She said they DO use the adult cans when they need a more powerful treatment for animals. The adult cans are $600 each. So that's $300 dollars I didn't have to pay cause they screwed up on order plus my 10% discount. I got a great deal. I talked to the lady for about 15 minutes and was happy with what I got. I have used these religiously every single day (8-12 hours)..and guess what..lump is gone and no infection and it has not returned and its been since Oct 27th since we finished antibiotics and i got the cans on the 22nd. Diamond is good now. These cans take anywhere from a couple of weeks up to 8 weeks to work. They work with the body. I cannot explain it but it works off of the body's energy force. This is what Tesla has on their site. (Tesla Healer is an FDA registered medical device for promoting blood circulation and reducing pain.)
The person or animal will only absorb what they need so there is no way to do any harm at all. You put these cans around the animal or person..within 3 feet of the body for at least 8 hours a day..longer is even better. The cans are FDA approved to last for 3 yrs but they really don't know how long past that that they work. This is fairly new technology on the market although not new technology. (Look up Nikola Tesla). It works on the whole body. You should read the reviews on their site from people. Pretty awesome. They cannot claim that it cures anything or is a treatment for anything pretty much. It's just energy force for the body, but let me say, some sick people and animals are using this stuff and getting healed.
Note on another product: I want to add in another small thing as well. I did add in some Colloidal Silver during this time. I increased the ppm on it for her. So after reading about some testing on different brands that had been done for purity and strength (on NCBI website), I picked the Silver Wings 250ppm brand. This is stronger and can easily be diluted using filtered water to the strength you want. I added 1-2 dropper fulls to her meal daily and to date, I am now giving 6 drops twice a day. Do I think this got rid of the infection? Maybe! Can't say for sure!
So you decide on which one you think worked. It could have been all but..I am not quite convinced the antibiotics did much because the lump was still there after we finished them. I am unsure if it was the MMS because I had been using it although I increased the dose those last 3 weeks. Colloidal Silver...maybe but I don't feel it did. Was it the Tesla cans? I feel there is a good possibility that it was. I cannot say for sure..but..it's what makes the most sense to me at this time. Otherwise it was God's hand that cured her. That's all I have on what made this go away. I will call this a miracle though..and leave it at that. As for her limp, this continued for several weeks after off the meds..and she is now starting to walk a little better. BUT because she tore both of her ACLs last yr,..she struggles to pick herself up from a sitting position due to weak knees. So, I am going to get her a leg brace. It won't be custom cause those are about $1,000 and I am flat 'freaking' broke and then some. The leg brace is a hard/plastic brace..not custom fitted but..can be ordered with some basic measurements. I am hoping this will help her walk and get her up off the floor. This brace is $325 plus tax. I am TRYING to save up some money for this to get asap. Donations always welcome to help speed this up.
I am glad this 3 month long (felt much longer) nightmare is over. I am exhausted and broke now..but my dog is alive and well and I am happy. I did alot of fighting with my vets office but, in the end...I got the results I was fighting for.
I have to say, this is how you have to be these days with drs. Many are lazy, many don't care, and it really blows my mind how brainwashed they are as well by big Pharma. I truly hope in the future things will change for the better in our medical system and use more supplements and natural healing. I will leave it at that although I have a lot more feelings on this. And this is EXACTLY WHY we MUST learn how to take care of ourselves and our pets. Be pushy, demand tests, demand proof of any claims....and read, read, read....the internet is your friend. It may just save your dogs life..or yours.
Short story, a friend contacted me the other day and said her dog has been diagnosed with Grade 3 Mast Cell. Her vet aspirated the big lump on the dogs hip and looked at it himself under a microscope. He DID NOT send it to a lab. He did not do x-rays, he did not do blood work, he did not do a sonogram. He didn't do a thing. I was furious when she told me this. He isn't a pathologist. How can he diagnose this? I am not saying he is wrong, I am saying he is wrong for not doing more testing. This is why I am so upset. This is WRONG on all levels. ALWAYS do multiple testing. ALWAYS. Don't allow these vets to treat you this way. DEMAND them to do testing or find one that will. And yep get ready to spend some cash. Being sick isn't cheap. That's why we MUST learn alternative remedies at home. I am in no way saying we don't need drs because we do..but I am saying..don't let them be lazy and slack off. Don't allow them to give you a diagnoses over just ONE test that's done. DO NOT!! It is you, that has to put a stop to this sort of treatment. STAND UP against these slackers and make them do the work. Call them out. WHY do they not want to do tests? Do they think everyone only has $100 in their pocket? Well some people might..but that's why you need to try to have a savings, or pawn something or sell something. Do they not realize, if its life or death, we are more willing to spend some money to save a life. They need to do their damn job. And this is why my vet hates me. LOL. It was me that demanded almost every single test that was done. I spent $2500 on Diamond and $750 on Callie plus the Tesla cans of $1600. Was it worth it? YOU BETCHA IT WAS. My girl is alive and well. Sadly how many people trust their dr and allow the vet to call the shots... that means there are a lot of dead animals that shouldn't be. Fight for your babies. But also stash some cash. Seriously. You will need at least $2,000+
(that's in my neck of the woods) for a really sick dog.
Now I will get off my soapbox but I hope you all reading this...will start demanding these drs to do their job..and do not allow them to slack off. It can be life or death. Telling someone their dog has cancer without proof is unacceptable. Oh and BTW..my vet is the cheapest around and why I go there. Find a vet ahead of time that you like, will listen to you and doesn't charge you out the butt for a test. On that last visit, I requested either a sonogram or x-rays but I didn't have money for both. My vet did NOT charge me for 6 x-rays that he did. Thats $500 he didn't charge me. That's my kind of vet. Is he perfect? Far far from it..but he knows me...and I know him. I have been going there for 10 yrs. He also has learned this time around..that him being lazy and him not giving me the right answers isn't going to work for me. I think after all of this, we are even more on the same page now.
Dec 9th, 2022 (Friday night)
Diamond had a stroke. Fed the dogs, took a quick shower, took the dogs out and she stumbled and fell. Walked for a few moments then her head began to tilt. Got her back inside the house and things went downhill from there. My immediate thought was, "Oh my God, she just had a stroke". It was late and I didnt have the funds to take her to the vet.
Diamond had a stroke. Fed the dogs, took a quick shower, took the dogs out and she stumbled and fell. Walked for a few moments then her head began to tilt. Got her back inside the house and things went downhill from there. My immediate thought was, "Oh my God, she just had a stroke". It was late and I didnt have the funds to take her to the vet.
Dec 10th, 2022
I didn't sleep all night, got up early and took her to the ER. First I called my vet clinic and they said not much could be done really and to bring her in next week. A storm was coming in and I didnt want to drive 15 miles to my vets to meet on call vet and get caught out in it...so I ran up to the ER here close by. OMG never again.
I ran all over town, and spoke to my vet clinic as well..TWICE. The ER wanted $600 for a sonogram. MY VET charges $125. Think I will wait. All other clinics wanted by appointment only, were closed when should be open or not taking new patients. SMH.
Diamond has Vestibular disease most likely. It has VERY similar symptoms as a stroke. The eye twitching going on is more commonly seen in Vestibular Disease. ER vet said COULD BE a brain tumor or inner ear issue also. My vet clinic said it sounded like the Vestibular disease.
The ER doc said..her tummy is extended..we need to xray that. I said..noooo her belly is fine. The vets always gotta say..well shes 14..so it could be cancer, etc etc etc.
Anyway the bottom line....there isnt much that can be done without doing an MRI to find the actual issue....BUT it sounded like the Vestibular disease. My vet clinic said if she gets worse, of course bring her in for diagnostics..but right now....this should work itself out within a week or may take longer.
There could be residual side effects..like head stays tilted or balance could stay off some. I think this is going to be much harder for me trying to get her to poop and pee and will have to hand feed her. Her appetite was good today and I am syringing water into her mouth every hour or two. So everyone PLEASE PRAY for her COMPLETE healing of this. We still may have to do tests IF this gets worse or she doesn't get better. If it truly is Vestibular or even a stroke...this is all a wait and see game.
Diamond looks terrible. It's absolutely heartbreaking to watch her not able to focus her eyes nor hold her head up.
I didn't sleep all night, got up early and took her to the ER. First I called my vet clinic and they said not much could be done really and to bring her in next week. A storm was coming in and I didnt want to drive 15 miles to my vets to meet on call vet and get caught out in it...so I ran up to the ER here close by. OMG never again.
I ran all over town, and spoke to my vet clinic as well..TWICE. The ER wanted $600 for a sonogram. MY VET charges $125. Think I will wait. All other clinics wanted by appointment only, were closed when should be open or not taking new patients. SMH.
Diamond has Vestibular disease most likely. It has VERY similar symptoms as a stroke. The eye twitching going on is more commonly seen in Vestibular Disease. ER vet said COULD BE a brain tumor or inner ear issue also. My vet clinic said it sounded like the Vestibular disease.
The ER doc said..her tummy is extended..we need to xray that. I said..noooo her belly is fine. The vets always gotta say..well shes 14..so it could be cancer, etc etc etc.
Anyway the bottom line....there isnt much that can be done without doing an MRI to find the actual issue....BUT it sounded like the Vestibular disease. My vet clinic said if she gets worse, of course bring her in for diagnostics..but right now....this should work itself out within a week or may take longer.
There could be residual side effects..like head stays tilted or balance could stay off some. I think this is going to be much harder for me trying to get her to poop and pee and will have to hand feed her. Her appetite was good today and I am syringing water into her mouth every hour or two. So everyone PLEASE PRAY for her COMPLETE healing of this. We still may have to do tests IF this gets worse or she doesn't get better. If it truly is Vestibular or even a stroke...this is all a wait and see game.
Diamond looks terrible. It's absolutely heartbreaking to watch her not able to focus her eyes nor hold her head up.
Dec 11, 2022 (Sunday)
Today wasn't really much better. She still isn't walking. I have to hold her head so she doesn't fall over when trying to walk. She almost refuses to try to walk. I get her out and she stands there.. If she looks right, she falls over. She cant lay on her left side cause it makes her feel more dizzy I think. On her right side she sleeps fine. She didn't care much to eat today but with a little push to get her to, she finally ate. Only will eat chicken.. I finally got her outside and she pooped. I stood next to her to make sure she didn't fall over. It must be really hard for her with those bad knees too and trying to balance. Poor girl. I got caught up on some sleep today. I had been up yesterday for almost 48 hours with all of this. Seems my backup energy reserve kicked in cause I was still going all night. Tired but not sleepy. I hope tomorrow things will show improvement. They say 72 hours...but from people going through the same.....said 4 days and there dog as still having a hard time. My vet clinic said if not better by Tuesday to bring her in. Thats the 4 days period as well.
Today wasn't really much better. She still isn't walking. I have to hold her head so she doesn't fall over when trying to walk. She almost refuses to try to walk. I get her out and she stands there.. If she looks right, she falls over. She cant lay on her left side cause it makes her feel more dizzy I think. On her right side she sleeps fine. She didn't care much to eat today but with a little push to get her to, she finally ate. Only will eat chicken.. I finally got her outside and she pooped. I stood next to her to make sure she didn't fall over. It must be really hard for her with those bad knees too and trying to balance. Poor girl. I got caught up on some sleep today. I had been up yesterday for almost 48 hours with all of this. Seems my backup energy reserve kicked in cause I was still going all night. Tired but not sleepy. I hope tomorrow things will show improvement. They say 72 hours...but from people going through the same.....said 4 days and there dog as still having a hard time. My vet clinic said if not better by Tuesday to bring her in. Thats the 4 days period as well.
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12-12-2022
Today Diamond took her first drink of water from the water bowl. that was awesome. Still not walking without falling over...but her eyes are a little better today. Hopefully tomorrow will be back to normal or close to it. This is a good sign that she's getting better. So it seems we are for sure dealing with Vestibular Disease. Thank Goodness it isn't anything worse. But to see her, it sure does look bad. I hope people learn about this disease. Because someone may put their dog down way too fast looking at them in this condition.
Today Diamond took her first drink of water from the water bowl. that was awesome. Still not walking without falling over...but her eyes are a little better today. Hopefully tomorrow will be back to normal or close to it. This is a good sign that she's getting better. So it seems we are for sure dealing with Vestibular Disease. Thank Goodness it isn't anything worse. But to see her, it sure does look bad. I hope people learn about this disease. Because someone may put their dog down way too fast looking at them in this condition.
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This evening
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12-14-2022
Let me first say..last night I gave Diamond some Cerenia. It helps for nausea and dizziness and later she ate better. She still is hesitant with food and wants nothing other than chicken breast. I am still hand feeding her. Anyway at bedtime, she was laying on her other side..the side that's not comfortable for her and she looked like this. that eye has been sorta weird since all of this. This is her asleep. In the middle of the night, I woke up and noticed she had never moved. I always think..OMG she's dead. I turned on the light, flipped her over on her good side..and she never moved again until we got up. She woke with her tail just a wagging. She walked outside on her own..with me standing next to her the whole way so she didn't fall into a wall. BUT she's walking much better. She pee'd, no poop yet..but will take her out in a bit again to see if she will. Anyway she walked to the front door that I always open for them to watch out..her favorite spot..and she laid up there a bit. Then she quietly got up..without my knowing and walked back to the living room by herself. Her tail was just a going. I will post a video. It was so precious. I am certain this head tilt thing will be the longest lasting thing. Poor baby.
Let me first say..last night I gave Diamond some Cerenia. It helps for nausea and dizziness and later she ate better. She still is hesitant with food and wants nothing other than chicken breast. I am still hand feeding her. Anyway at bedtime, she was laying on her other side..the side that's not comfortable for her and she looked like this. that eye has been sorta weird since all of this. This is her asleep. In the middle of the night, I woke up and noticed she had never moved. I always think..OMG she's dead. I turned on the light, flipped her over on her good side..and she never moved again until we got up. She woke with her tail just a wagging. She walked outside on her own..with me standing next to her the whole way so she didn't fall into a wall. BUT she's walking much better. She pee'd, no poop yet..but will take her out in a bit again to see if she will. Anyway she walked to the front door that I always open for them to watch out..her favorite spot..and she laid up there a bit. Then she quietly got up..without my knowing and walked back to the living room by herself. Her tail was just a going. I will post a video. It was so precious. I am certain this head tilt thing will be the longest lasting thing. Poor baby.
cont 12-14-2022
Diamond finally pooped tonight. I also gave her an appetite stimulator. She had already ate a little but not much. Keeps turning her nose up at food and treats. So I gave her that and later on, she was wanting to eat alot more. She gobbled up more chicken and some treats, then drank alot of water and went out to potty. I have to walk with her so she doesn't fall over or run into walls. But she is walking better. We are 5 days into this. Each day she has gotten a little bit better. The recovery is going slow but it's happening. She still has no desire to go out front like we do each night to check the mail. I have given her CBD oil atleast 2 times a day. At night she gets really restless. Diamond is a busy body but naps alot. Being like this she has hardly moved so she seems restless on the couch later in the eve..constantly getting my attention to do something for her. But overall we are moving forward.
Diamond finally pooped tonight. I also gave her an appetite stimulator. She had already ate a little but not much. Keeps turning her nose up at food and treats. So I gave her that and later on, she was wanting to eat alot more. She gobbled up more chicken and some treats, then drank alot of water and went out to potty. I have to walk with her so she doesn't fall over or run into walls. But she is walking better. We are 5 days into this. Each day she has gotten a little bit better. The recovery is going slow but it's happening. She still has no desire to go out front like we do each night to check the mail. I have given her CBD oil atleast 2 times a day. At night she gets really restless. Diamond is a busy body but naps alot. Being like this she has hardly moved so she seems restless on the couch later in the eve..constantly getting my attention to do something for her. But overall we are moving forward.
12-15-2022
Today there wasn't really a change. She kept me busy though. She was wanting to be all over the place. Her walking is the same, head tilt the same. Tonight though she finally ate on her own, without me hand feeding her out of her own plate. I added in a tiny bit of her regular food with the chicken and she only ate the chicken. So she is still being pretty finicky. Does not want any treats either although she ate 2 organic animal crackers after her meal. Let's hope tomorrow will be better. Today she also did not poop. Will try again tomorrow. OH I did quickly mow the leaves up in the back yard with backdoor open and she could see me from the couch. I came in at some point and she was off the couch and nowhere to be seen. I started searching the living room floor just knowing she had fallen and hurt herself and I didnt see her. I headed for the kitchen and as I came to the entry of the kitchen..there she stood..wagging her tail. I was like OMG. So she was ok. How she pulled that off I have no clue. I just had to get those leaves up so it wouldn't be so messy for all of us to walk in and not drag them inside. A mess.
Today there wasn't really a change. She kept me busy though. She was wanting to be all over the place. Her walking is the same, head tilt the same. Tonight though she finally ate on her own, without me hand feeding her out of her own plate. I added in a tiny bit of her regular food with the chicken and she only ate the chicken. So she is still being pretty finicky. Does not want any treats either although she ate 2 organic animal crackers after her meal. Let's hope tomorrow will be better. Today she also did not poop. Will try again tomorrow. OH I did quickly mow the leaves up in the back yard with backdoor open and she could see me from the couch. I came in at some point and she was off the couch and nowhere to be seen. I started searching the living room floor just knowing she had fallen and hurt herself and I didnt see her. I headed for the kitchen and as I came to the entry of the kitchen..there she stood..wagging her tail. I was like OMG. So she was ok. How she pulled that off I have no clue. I just had to get those leaves up so it wouldn't be so messy for all of us to walk in and not drag them inside. A mess.
12-16-2022
Diamond chillin' at the front door. She's been more active today. Wanting to move around more. Head still all tilted and still off balanced on her walking. She sure keeps her tail tucked in tight. 😔. Has pee'd 3 times and drank water twice. She ate good today on her own. I did add in some of her regular food but only very little. Sneaking it in..so she will start eating her food again. This little toot yesterday while I ran out to mow the leaves up, I left backdoor wide open and she was on the couch and I can see her from outside. Somehow she managed to get off the couch and move around without hurting herself. I dont have a clue how she did that. It took me only about 20 min to mow and I looked in on her often..so she really snuck past me. I was running through the house freaking out looking for her. As I came around the corner, there she stood, tail just a wagging. She sure could have hurt herself. Thats what was going through my mind, that she had fallen and injured herself. It is not easy getting off this couch without hitting the coffee table. Gotta watch her EVERY second. The head tilt thing is really awful. I pray that goes away very soon. She's trying to do her normal things but is stumbling. Doorways and steps are not easy. Her depth perception is still off.
Diamond chillin' at the front door. She's been more active today. Wanting to move around more. Head still all tilted and still off balanced on her walking. She sure keeps her tail tucked in tight. 😔. Has pee'd 3 times and drank water twice. She ate good today on her own. I did add in some of her regular food but only very little. Sneaking it in..so she will start eating her food again. This little toot yesterday while I ran out to mow the leaves up, I left backdoor wide open and she was on the couch and I can see her from outside. Somehow she managed to get off the couch and move around without hurting herself. I dont have a clue how she did that. It took me only about 20 min to mow and I looked in on her often..so she really snuck past me. I was running through the house freaking out looking for her. As I came around the corner, there she stood, tail just a wagging. She sure could have hurt herself. Thats what was going through my mind, that she had fallen and injured herself. It is not easy getting off this couch without hitting the coffee table. Gotta watch her EVERY second. The head tilt thing is really awful. I pray that goes away very soon. She's trying to do her normal things but is stumbling. Doorways and steps are not easy. Her depth perception is still off.
12-16-2022 cont---> This was from earlier tonight. She ate her regular food with chicken mixed in and liver. She ate nearly all of it. Look at that tail. 😕. She is walking a tiny bit better. Depth perception still off and head still in tilt mode. Her eyes looks great now. She sat at the front door today most all day. Definitely feeling better. I ended up moving that coffee table out of living room. It was just in the way trying to keep her from running into it. Every time she passed it, she was hitting it so it had to go for now. My house looks like a tornado went through it but..oh well...it will get cleaned up when she is back to herself.
12-17-2022
DAY 8 - Diamond out today getting some sun. It was a little brisk though. I have video I will post of her walking. But today she has made great improvements. She is walking better..still staggers on uneven ground..head tilt still there but her neck seems much less stiff like it was. Her appetite is not 100% but its very close. She snuck out the doggie door on me to go poop. I am gonna have to put a bell around her neck..geezz. She has been a busy body today which is more like her old self. I hope in a few more days she's more balanced but not sure if that will happen until possibly the head tilt rights itself. It's all a wait and see thing. But today was a very good day.
DAY 8 - Diamond out today getting some sun. It was a little brisk though. I have video I will post of her walking. But today she has made great improvements. She is walking better..still staggers on uneven ground..head tilt still there but her neck seems much less stiff like it was. Her appetite is not 100% but its very close. She snuck out the doggie door on me to go poop. I am gonna have to put a bell around her neck..geezz. She has been a busy body today which is more like her old self. I hope in a few more days she's more balanced but not sure if that will happen until possibly the head tilt rights itself. It's all a wait and see thing. But today was a very good day.
12-18-2022 (Day 9)
Ms Diamond has been active today. Even grabbed one of her babies like she has always done and took it outside. She is walking better although still staggers at times and cant get on couch yet. But today her neck is less stiff and she is feeling better. We are at that getting back to eating normal..picky stage. UGH. This is what she does. She still has the head tilt but hopefully in a week it will be gone. That's what I am hoping for.
Ms Diamond has been active today. Even grabbed one of her babies like she has always done and took it outside. She is walking better although still staggers at times and cant get on couch yet. But today her neck is less stiff and she is feeling better. We are at that getting back to eating normal..picky stage. UGH. This is what she does. She still has the head tilt but hopefully in a week it will be gone. That's what I am hoping for.
12-19-2022 (DAY 10)
Today Diamond is acting back to her normal self. She is still staggering a little but seems to learn to balance a little bit more on slopes. She ate good this morning without any fuss. She is carrying her babies (toys) and cardboard around. She has not pooped in 2 days so hopefully this eve she will. Last night she walked all the way to the mailbox and back. That's only the next door house its in front of but that was big for her through all of this. Still sporting the tilted head thing...but moving around well.
Today Diamond is acting back to her normal self. She is still staggering a little but seems to learn to balance a little bit more on slopes. She ate good this morning without any fuss. She is carrying her babies (toys) and cardboard around. She has not pooped in 2 days so hopefully this eve she will. Last night she walked all the way to the mailbox and back. That's only the next door house its in front of but that was big for her through all of this. Still sporting the tilted head thing...but moving around well.
12-20-2022 (Day 11)
Diamond is back being VERY active. Still stumbles and head tilt but shes walking much better overall. I don't have to walk with her now. I do watch her though when she heads to the backyard. I hope this head tilt thing goes away. If not gone by the weekend then...it might be here to stay. I hope not. OH laying on her left side has been very difficult for her. The room spins..can see it in her eyes....but she is doing a little better on that side now. Hopefully that will be gone when the head tilt is gone.
Diamond is back being VERY active. Still stumbles and head tilt but shes walking much better overall. I don't have to walk with her now. I do watch her though when she heads to the backyard. I hope this head tilt thing goes away. If not gone by the weekend then...it might be here to stay. I hope not. OH laying on her left side has been very difficult for her. The room spins..can see it in her eyes....but she is doing a little better on that side now. Hopefully that will be gone when the head tilt is gone.
12-21-2022 (Day 12)
Diamond seems a tiny tiny bit better. Head tilt a tiny bit better. Less staggering.... She did have a back leg issue last night but today is ok. She is also having some gastrointestinal issues. Not sure what's going on there. If it doesn't clear up soon then we will head off to the vets to find out what's going on. Sigh.
Diamond seems a tiny tiny bit better. Head tilt a tiny bit better. Less staggering.... She did have a back leg issue last night but today is ok. She is also having some gastrointestinal issues. Not sure what's going on there. If it doesn't clear up soon then we will head off to the vets to find out what's going on. Sigh.
12-22-2022 (Day 13)
Today is horribly cold. 14 degrees and minus 1 wind chill. Winds are gusting 30mph. So today is an inside day. I have blankets blocking any cold wind coming through the storm door so they can look out.... But Diamond is checking out the delivery person here. Slight head tilt and a stagger on occasion but she's doing really well today. Her recovery is looking good. Hope the head tilt disappears completely. No video today.
Today is horribly cold. 14 degrees and minus 1 wind chill. Winds are gusting 30mph. So today is an inside day. I have blankets blocking any cold wind coming through the storm door so they can look out.... But Diamond is checking out the delivery person here. Slight head tilt and a stagger on occasion but she's doing really well today. Her recovery is looking good. Hope the head tilt disappears completely. No video today.
12-23-2022 (Day 14)
Very slight tilt still. Walking pretty darn good.
Very slight tilt still. Walking pretty darn good.
12-24-2022
Today was the same as yesterday for Diamond. Seems when she gets tired in the eve that her head shows the tilt more and she staggers a little but more. But Diamond has a good appetite now and doing fairly well. Barking and dragging her toys out as usual.
Today was the same as yesterday for Diamond. Seems when she gets tired in the eve that her head shows the tilt more and she staggers a little but more. But Diamond has a good appetite now and doing fairly well. Barking and dragging her toys out as usual.
Dec 25th, 2022
Diamond acting really good. Head still at a tilt some..but overall acting back to normal.
Diamond acting really good. Head still at a tilt some..but overall acting back to normal.
Diamonds 2022 year in review:
April -She tore her second ACL (right leg)
June - Had professional pics taken in the heat
July 3rd - Had her 14th birthday
August - Serious bacterial infection in neck
Nov - Bacterial infection 'finally' gone
Dec - Diagnosed with Vestibular Disease
What a freaking year but here we are still going. It was a hard battle getting through all of this but....we got through it and hope 2023 will be better. Pray she makes it another year into her life of love and happiness. This is my best friend and I can't imagine my life without her..but I know one day it will come. I hope later before sooner.
April -She tore her second ACL (right leg)
June - Had professional pics taken in the heat
July 3rd - Had her 14th birthday
August - Serious bacterial infection in neck
Nov - Bacterial infection 'finally' gone
Dec - Diagnosed with Vestibular Disease
What a freaking year but here we are still going. It was a hard battle getting through all of this but....we got through it and hope 2023 will be better. Pray she makes it another year into her life of love and happiness. This is my best friend and I can't imagine my life without her..but I know one day it will come. I hope later before sooner.
12-31-2022
We are trying out a new leg brace. It will take awhile getting used to it. Also she has always loved being on the couch but since she got sick this last time, she now isn't as fond of the couch. It is also hard for her to move around on with her bad legs. So, being that it is very old and you sink down in it, I am going to get a new couch for her. Yep its a dog couch. Also her bed is worn out so I am replacing it as well. I gotta make my girl comfy and easier on her.
We are trying out a new leg brace. It will take awhile getting used to it. Also she has always loved being on the couch but since she got sick this last time, she now isn't as fond of the couch. It is also hard for her to move around on with her bad legs. So, being that it is very old and you sink down in it, I am going to get a new couch for her. Yep its a dog couch. Also her bed is worn out so I am replacing it as well. I gotta make my girl comfy and easier on her.
1-1-2023
It's been exactly one month since the onset of the Vestibular disease. I can say she is doing well with exception of a very slight head tilt. Seems it's a little harder for her to look up or when she stiffens her neck some..it tilts.
As for the leg brace..oh my..things kinda went sideways at home with my dishwasher and company so things have been extremely busy. Sooooo I have not had time to put her brace on and work with her. I feel terrible about it but..I will start over with her in a week or so...as soon as things calm down.
Couch has been removed from living room. Since dishwasher had an issue, I had to wind up buying a new one so couch is on hold. Its ok..dogs are laying on beds in the LR. Diamond got a new mattress pad for her bed that she sleeps on in bedroom. I hate it. LOL. It's like a tempurpedic. You sink in it. She seems to like it alot..sooo I guess it stays. Her old padding was the convoluted egg crate foam. This new one is cooling gel memory foam. I myself prefer convoluted. They are both 4 inches thick.
It's been exactly one month since the onset of the Vestibular disease. I can say she is doing well with exception of a very slight head tilt. Seems it's a little harder for her to look up or when she stiffens her neck some..it tilts.
As for the leg brace..oh my..things kinda went sideways at home with my dishwasher and company so things have been extremely busy. Sooooo I have not had time to put her brace on and work with her. I feel terrible about it but..I will start over with her in a week or so...as soon as things calm down.
Couch has been removed from living room. Since dishwasher had an issue, I had to wind up buying a new one so couch is on hold. Its ok..dogs are laying on beds in the LR. Diamond got a new mattress pad for her bed that she sleeps on in bedroom. I hate it. LOL. It's like a tempurpedic. You sink in it. She seems to like it alot..sooo I guess it stays. Her old padding was the convoluted egg crate foam. This new one is cooling gel memory foam. I myself prefer convoluted. They are both 4 inches thick.
1-8-2023
Diamonds lump has returned. I am so very upset. All this time she was fine and now its back.
Diamonds lump has returned. I am so very upset. All this time she was fine and now its back.
1-13-2023
I started her back on antibiotics (Clindamycin). Its huge right now. 2 days now of antibiotics. I dont have money for this. I don't know what I am gonna do.
I started her back on antibiotics (Clindamycin). Its huge right now. 2 days now of antibiotics. I dont have money for this. I don't know what I am gonna do.
1-14-2023
Made an appt with NEW vet for Tuesday afternoon.
Made an appt with NEW vet for Tuesday afternoon.
1-15-2023
4 days on antibiotics now.
She was nauseated earlier I think from this new antibiotic. UGH. Her lump has gone down a little. Not enough to make me feel good as of yet. But she is still acting ok. This is the biggest its ever been and this time it turned red as in inflammation/infection.
Waiting for Tuesday to get here.
4 days on antibiotics now.
She was nauseated earlier I think from this new antibiotic. UGH. Her lump has gone down a little. Not enough to make me feel good as of yet. But she is still acting ok. This is the biggest its ever been and this time it turned red as in inflammation/infection.
Waiting for Tuesday to get here.
1-17-2023 (Tuesday)
Went to see new vet. Didn't get any answers. He said not much he could do other than what's already been done...and referred us to a specialist. We will go in a week or two... The problem..WE NEED help VERY BAD. I do not have that kind of money to pay a specialist. PLEASE if you can donate anything, I would greatly appreciate it. We don't know what this is yet but...it isn't looking good. We cannot try to fix this or atleast find out what this is without seeing this specialist. I am now begging for your help...PLEASE. The funds you see in the fundraiser was from before. They have been used. So we are starting from scratch. I figure a specialist is a minimum of $2000. PLEASE help me reach my goal. PLEASE..
Went to see new vet. Didn't get any answers. He said not much he could do other than what's already been done...and referred us to a specialist. We will go in a week or two... The problem..WE NEED help VERY BAD. I do not have that kind of money to pay a specialist. PLEASE if you can donate anything, I would greatly appreciate it. We don't know what this is yet but...it isn't looking good. We cannot try to fix this or atleast find out what this is without seeing this specialist. I am now begging for your help...PLEASE. The funds you see in the fundraiser was from before. They have been used. So we are starting from scratch. I figure a specialist is a minimum of $2000. PLEASE help me reach my goal. PLEASE..
Later in the eve: Diamond just wasn't feeling good. She was coughing some and really seemed tired. Have no clue why the cough. sigh,
OH we changed her antibiotics back to Clavamox. Clindamycin wasn't doing much. I also gave her some Cerenia for nausea. Think that made her sleepy.
OH we changed her antibiotics back to Clavamox. Clindamycin wasn't doing much. I also gave her some Cerenia for nausea. Think that made her sleepy.
1-18-2023
Today Diamond is better. Coughed a couple times some but that's it. She moved around more today. Her swelling on other side of her neck went down. Yesterday her other side was a little swollen. Maybe this is why the cough. Not sure. She has a bigger than golf ball, maybe a baseball size lump still. This time it's weird. It doesn't appear to be in the lymph node. The vet yesterday thinks cancer too but to date..not one blood test, not one aspiration, not one x-ray has shown anything. A sonogram showed white spot that came back as fatty tumor...but its right where this lump is. So none of this is making sense. PLUS this has been going on for 6 months. Shouldn't I have been seeing other things going on if its cancer? It doesn't add up. No proof has been shown that its cancer. Not saying it isn't but there isn't anything showing that it is. Pray for my girl.
Today Diamond is better. Coughed a couple times some but that's it. She moved around more today. Her swelling on other side of her neck went down. Yesterday her other side was a little swollen. Maybe this is why the cough. Not sure. She has a bigger than golf ball, maybe a baseball size lump still. This time it's weird. It doesn't appear to be in the lymph node. The vet yesterday thinks cancer too but to date..not one blood test, not one aspiration, not one x-ray has shown anything. A sonogram showed white spot that came back as fatty tumor...but its right where this lump is. So none of this is making sense. PLUS this has been going on for 6 months. Shouldn't I have been seeing other things going on if its cancer? It doesn't add up. No proof has been shown that its cancer. Not saying it isn't but there isn't anything showing that it is. Pray for my girl.
1-21-2023
As of yesterday Diamond has stopped coughing. I was concerned about that. Could have been a couple things but now she is better. I been giving her Mullein and Spongia Tosta (homeopathic remedy). Her lump is still the size of a golf ball but everyday it goes down just a tiny bit. Very slow to reduce in size. Called Specialist and they are 3 weeks out for getting appt..so we will be calling vet for more antibiotics until then. This might be a good thing cause I honestly want the lump gone when she show up there. Still trying to get donations. We need at least another $700 since yesterday I was quoted the visit could be up to $1200 to start...depending on what they want to do. I will find out more on Monday and most likely a better dollar amount needed. Again I am thinking $2000 is a good number at this time.
As of yesterday Diamond has stopped coughing. I was concerned about that. Could have been a couple things but now she is better. I been giving her Mullein and Spongia Tosta (homeopathic remedy). Her lump is still the size of a golf ball but everyday it goes down just a tiny bit. Very slow to reduce in size. Called Specialist and they are 3 weeks out for getting appt..so we will be calling vet for more antibiotics until then. This might be a good thing cause I honestly want the lump gone when she show up there. Still trying to get donations. We need at least another $700 since yesterday I was quoted the visit could be up to $1200 to start...depending on what they want to do. I will find out more on Monday and most likely a better dollar amount needed. Again I am thinking $2000 is a good number at this time.
1-24-2023
Diamond is doing well. Her lump is down to a walnut size. I spoke with Allie, the lady at the specialist office and we are scheduled for an appt on Feb 8th at 10am. She said they want the lump to be somewhat visible when coming. By that time she will be off the Clavamox for a week. It should kick up again. We have another week left for the antibiotics right now. After us talking, she scheduled us with an Internal Medicine dr. A dr named Dr Wilson and she said she loves mysterious and difficult cases. She said depending on what is done..it can run up to $2500. ugh. But for sure they will want to do a biopsy and a bacterial culture. We are going to have to discuss more in detail on sedation for that. We did speak about Diamond having a severe reaction to the anesthesia in the past as well as her having a heart condition. The more I think about all of this, the more angry I am at my old vet. They should have referred me to the specialist. They didn't. They sucked me dry of money then left it at that. I am now in the process of looking for a new vet..which I know will be hard to find one I like. The lastest vet that referred us to the specialist..well his meds are way to high for me. So we will look elsewhere.
Diamond is doing well. Her lump is down to a walnut size. I spoke with Allie, the lady at the specialist office and we are scheduled for an appt on Feb 8th at 10am. She said they want the lump to be somewhat visible when coming. By that time she will be off the Clavamox for a week. It should kick up again. We have another week left for the antibiotics right now. After us talking, she scheduled us with an Internal Medicine dr. A dr named Dr Wilson and she said she loves mysterious and difficult cases. She said depending on what is done..it can run up to $2500. ugh. But for sure they will want to do a biopsy and a bacterial culture. We are going to have to discuss more in detail on sedation for that. We did speak about Diamond having a severe reaction to the anesthesia in the past as well as her having a heart condition. The more I think about all of this, the more angry I am at my old vet. They should have referred me to the specialist. They didn't. They sucked me dry of money then left it at that. I am now in the process of looking for a new vet..which I know will be hard to find one I like. The lastest vet that referred us to the specialist..well his meds are way to high for me. So we will look elsewhere.
2-4-2023
Diamonds lump has returned. 5 days off antibiotics and it comes right back...and getting big. Started her on Clindamycin until Wednesday when we see the specialist. This is getting so tiring. Sigh!
Diamonds lump has returned. 5 days off antibiotics and it comes right back...and getting big. Started her on Clindamycin until Wednesday when we see the specialist. This is getting so tiring. Sigh!
2-8-2023
BAD NEWS: Well today was EXTREMELY long. ZERO sleep last night. We also had very loud storms here. Andddd my alternator is going out on my truck. Almost didn’t crank several times. Brand new battery too. Sigh.
Went for our visit with specialist. Sigh..well what I worried about most is exactly what happened. NO ANSWERS. They don’t know what this is. It’s one of 3 things. Something embedded in neck we can’t see, a bacterial infection picked up from maybe inhalation or something or its cancer. So we discussed her heart issues and mentioned an EKCO. I have wanted to do this on her for yrs, I didn’t know anyone around here did these. Then we discussed surgery only if her heart was ok. So we did the EKCO today. The specialist looked at it and told me her opinion but is sending it out to a cardiologist to take a look. She feels her heart is in pretty good shape considering and most likely can handle the surgery. Oh back to surgery. The surgery would remove the polyp/cavity/tumor and also allow for a biopsy to see if it is a tumor and/or malignant.
Now the even worse news….The surgery will cost $5000. If we don’t do surgery she will have to live on antibiotics for the rest of her life. And yes I know my dog is older but you know what..she’s in pretty good shape for an old dog (even the specialist said she was) and she may have several yrs left..or more..who knows. We would do this for our elderly if it gave them a chance at life..even if it was only 6 more months. And yes even surgery is risky…all of it is..medicine is risky. We all know that. Anyway she sent us home with 2 prescriptions to get from my local pharmacy cause they will be cheaper. She increased her antibiotic medicine dosage another 300mg per day. The other med is for nausea and vomiting if they make her sick. Not that expensive dog med the vets have been giving us for that…but a human med.
So this is what I will do at this time. Starting a NEW fundraiser that is specific for the surgery. You will see all the donations that come in and the amount raised. Starting from scratch. She will continue to be on antibiotics the entire time until surgery.
*Cardiologist looked over EKCO test results, she is good to go for surgery.
Also the Dr did a sonogram for free. She seen a pocket...where the fluid is filled in there.
BAD NEWS: Well today was EXTREMELY long. ZERO sleep last night. We also had very loud storms here. Andddd my alternator is going out on my truck. Almost didn’t crank several times. Brand new battery too. Sigh.
Went for our visit with specialist. Sigh..well what I worried about most is exactly what happened. NO ANSWERS. They don’t know what this is. It’s one of 3 things. Something embedded in neck we can’t see, a bacterial infection picked up from maybe inhalation or something or its cancer. So we discussed her heart issues and mentioned an EKCO. I have wanted to do this on her for yrs, I didn’t know anyone around here did these. Then we discussed surgery only if her heart was ok. So we did the EKCO today. The specialist looked at it and told me her opinion but is sending it out to a cardiologist to take a look. She feels her heart is in pretty good shape considering and most likely can handle the surgery. Oh back to surgery. The surgery would remove the polyp/cavity/tumor and also allow for a biopsy to see if it is a tumor and/or malignant.
Now the even worse news….The surgery will cost $5000. If we don’t do surgery she will have to live on antibiotics for the rest of her life. And yes I know my dog is older but you know what..she’s in pretty good shape for an old dog (even the specialist said she was) and she may have several yrs left..or more..who knows. We would do this for our elderly if it gave them a chance at life..even if it was only 6 more months. And yes even surgery is risky…all of it is..medicine is risky. We all know that. Anyway she sent us home with 2 prescriptions to get from my local pharmacy cause they will be cheaper. She increased her antibiotic medicine dosage another 300mg per day. The other med is for nausea and vomiting if they make her sick. Not that expensive dog med the vets have been giving us for that…but a human med.
So this is what I will do at this time. Starting a NEW fundraiser that is specific for the surgery. You will see all the donations that come in and the amount raised. Starting from scratch. She will continue to be on antibiotics the entire time until surgery.
*Cardiologist looked over EKCO test results, she is good to go for surgery.
Also the Dr did a sonogram for free. She seen a pocket...where the fluid is filled in there.
4-20-2023
Something has happened with Diamond this morning. I am not 100% sure what happened but I think it may be her heart. She has never had any signs of issues with her damaged heart (from when she was young from heartworms) but today...something happened. I THOUGHT it might be vestibular disease again but it wasnt. I think she had a lack of oxygen to the brain. That comes back to her heart. For a couple weeks she's had a light cough around bedtime...followed with some heavy breathing. It lasts maybe 30 minutes. I wasnt sure what was going on so I have been watching her. Today scared me. She spread all fours, her head swayed side to side and she was about to fall down. I grabbed her and laid her down for a few minutes. I checked her eyes and they were ok..no wobbling. Then I carried her inside and put her on a bed in here. I immediately gave her a baby aspirin. Then I fixed her some boiled chicken and put half a pill of a water pill in her chicken and fed her that. She gobbled up the chicken like she was starving.
About 15-20 minutes later..she was up, peeing, drinking water and acting completely normal. So far she has been ok since. That makes me think heart. SO I will have to watch her the next few weeks. We have an appointment with the surgeon in 2 weeks so I will talk to him about all of this. NOW I dont know what will happen going forward. ALOT to think about, and speak with the dr about. I stopped the antibiotics last night also so we will see if the neck swells back up. I should know on that within the next 5-7 days or so. Anyway this has never happened before. As I said she has never had any heart issues at all but this may just be our first sign. PLEASE PRAY for her healing. How much more do we need to go through...seriously..enough is enough.
I took her off of her strong antibiotics last night thinking this may have something to do with it.
Something has happened with Diamond this morning. I am not 100% sure what happened but I think it may be her heart. She has never had any signs of issues with her damaged heart (from when she was young from heartworms) but today...something happened. I THOUGHT it might be vestibular disease again but it wasnt. I think she had a lack of oxygen to the brain. That comes back to her heart. For a couple weeks she's had a light cough around bedtime...followed with some heavy breathing. It lasts maybe 30 minutes. I wasnt sure what was going on so I have been watching her. Today scared me. She spread all fours, her head swayed side to side and she was about to fall down. I grabbed her and laid her down for a few minutes. I checked her eyes and they were ok..no wobbling. Then I carried her inside and put her on a bed in here. I immediately gave her a baby aspirin. Then I fixed her some boiled chicken and put half a pill of a water pill in her chicken and fed her that. She gobbled up the chicken like she was starving.
About 15-20 minutes later..she was up, peeing, drinking water and acting completely normal. So far she has been ok since. That makes me think heart. SO I will have to watch her the next few weeks. We have an appointment with the surgeon in 2 weeks so I will talk to him about all of this. NOW I dont know what will happen going forward. ALOT to think about, and speak with the dr about. I stopped the antibiotics last night also so we will see if the neck swells back up. I should know on that within the next 5-7 days or so. Anyway this has never happened before. As I said she has never had any heart issues at all but this may just be our first sign. PLEASE PRAY for her healing. How much more do we need to go through...seriously..enough is enough.
I took her off of her strong antibiotics last night thinking this may have something to do with it.
4-25-2023
Diamond had another spell. It seems to be more like some sort of dizzy spell. She never passed out. Her eyes are open and she knows whats taking place but..when I lay her down..she is limp...and pretty much doesn't move for about 10 minutes. Then she starts to gather her senses. Its strange. WHY is all this weird stuff happening to my girl?
I am going to take her in on Thursday to do a full blood work up and probably an xray of chest or sonogram. And if I cant get some sort of answers..we have an appt next Wednesday with surgeon. I am so tired of this weird stuff. FYI - I think this IS a heart issue and it is called Pulmonary edema. Upon rising, the oxygen isnt getting to her brain fast enough causing the dizzy/lightheadedness. So most likely we go onto Lasix(water pill).
Diamond had another spell. It seems to be more like some sort of dizzy spell. She never passed out. Her eyes are open and she knows whats taking place but..when I lay her down..she is limp...and pretty much doesn't move for about 10 minutes. Then she starts to gather her senses. Its strange. WHY is all this weird stuff happening to my girl?
I am going to take her in on Thursday to do a full blood work up and probably an xray of chest or sonogram. And if I cant get some sort of answers..we have an appt next Wednesday with surgeon. I am so tired of this weird stuff. FYI - I think this IS a heart issue and it is called Pulmonary edema. Upon rising, the oxygen isnt getting to her brain fast enough causing the dizzy/lightheadedness. So most likely we go onto Lasix(water pill).
4-27-2023
I took Diamond into see my vet. He checked her heart and her lungs. Both sounded good. No signs of any fluid in her lungs. So he isn’t sure why she had a dizzy spell. He talked about when waking the blood pressure may be low and upon waking..being an old dog and all like people..that she just got up too fast to go out. So we will be slowly going out now instead of dashing right out. He read the report from specialist on her heart results. He put it in laymans terms..and said her heart is in good shape for her age. He said skipping all those long fancy words that what this means. I said oh good to know. We did blood work. Also we are doing a ProBNP again. That is a heart test that gives you numbers. I got some Clavamox (human form med is Augmentin) for back up on her neck. IF her lump on her neck returns, then we will proceed with surgery. At this time we will watch it and see. I know last time it was 2 ½ months that it was gone and came back. BUT when/if it returns that’s when we will do surgery. My vet said Diamond was in good shape really for her age…and that I was such a wonderful doggie mom and I go above and beyond. When we were discussing the $5000 for her surgery, he mentioned that someone spent $22,000 on their dog. It wasn’t there but someone he knew. We didn’t do any x-rays nor sonogram as he felt it wasn’t needed since everything sounded good to him. He said he has had good results with the Clindamycin and has even given it in very very high doses before with no issues BUT every dog is different and since Diamond has gotten older, has had a lot of issues with taking medication. So she didn’t need to take that anymore. So I will continue giving her Nattokinase which breaks up blood clots and acts as sort of a blood thinner but no medications. We will see what blood work shows. I will get most of it back tomorrow but most likely the ProBNP won’t be until Monday or so. So that’s where we are now and we will see what surgeon says. Again we will NOT do surgery unless this lump returns. I expect it to return sooner or later but…in the meantime..PLEASE pray these dizzy spells go away, her blood pressure straightens out if thats what it is and that the lump NEVER returns.
I took Diamond into see my vet. He checked her heart and her lungs. Both sounded good. No signs of any fluid in her lungs. So he isn’t sure why she had a dizzy spell. He talked about when waking the blood pressure may be low and upon waking..being an old dog and all like people..that she just got up too fast to go out. So we will be slowly going out now instead of dashing right out. He read the report from specialist on her heart results. He put it in laymans terms..and said her heart is in good shape for her age. He said skipping all those long fancy words that what this means. I said oh good to know. We did blood work. Also we are doing a ProBNP again. That is a heart test that gives you numbers. I got some Clavamox (human form med is Augmentin) for back up on her neck. IF her lump on her neck returns, then we will proceed with surgery. At this time we will watch it and see. I know last time it was 2 ½ months that it was gone and came back. BUT when/if it returns that’s when we will do surgery. My vet said Diamond was in good shape really for her age…and that I was such a wonderful doggie mom and I go above and beyond. When we were discussing the $5000 for her surgery, he mentioned that someone spent $22,000 on their dog. It wasn’t there but someone he knew. We didn’t do any x-rays nor sonogram as he felt it wasn’t needed since everything sounded good to him. He said he has had good results with the Clindamycin and has even given it in very very high doses before with no issues BUT every dog is different and since Diamond has gotten older, has had a lot of issues with taking medication. So she didn’t need to take that anymore. So I will continue giving her Nattokinase which breaks up blood clots and acts as sort of a blood thinner but no medications. We will see what blood work shows. I will get most of it back tomorrow but most likely the ProBNP won’t be until Monday or so. So that’s where we are now and we will see what surgeon says. Again we will NOT do surgery unless this lump returns. I expect it to return sooner or later but…in the meantime..PLEASE pray these dizzy spells go away, her blood pressure straightens out if thats what it is and that the lump NEVER returns.
4-28-2023
OMG….... I got Diamonds bloodwork back….Diamonds heart test is off the charts. It was those drugs. I am furious. Not one doctor can convince me otherwise. The drugs WERE killing her. Otherwise her ALT was up 31 points from November. Her ALP is the same, the Creatine Kinase is way down..from 276 to 206. BUN up to 59 from 34 (kidneys). These antibiotics work on the damaging the kidneys. Borderline low potassium level. Everything else looks great especially for an old gal. Her ProBNP heart test went from 2232 way up to 5541. I am furious. I don’t know if this can be reduced. Will do everything I can to try to get that down. THIS IS WHY she is having issues. IT WAS THE MEDS! SCREAM!
OMG….... I got Diamonds bloodwork back….Diamonds heart test is off the charts. It was those drugs. I am furious. Not one doctor can convince me otherwise. The drugs WERE killing her. Otherwise her ALT was up 31 points from November. Her ALP is the same, the Creatine Kinase is way down..from 276 to 206. BUN up to 59 from 34 (kidneys). These antibiotics work on the damaging the kidneys. Borderline low potassium level. Everything else looks great especially for an old gal. Her ProBNP heart test went from 2232 way up to 5541. I am furious. I don’t know if this can be reduced. Will do everything I can to try to get that down. THIS IS WHY she is having issues. IT WAS THE MEDS! SCREAM!
So from all the ProBNP tests we have done, here it is all together:
2013 ---- 853
2018 ---- 1775
2019 ---- 1667
2020 ---- 2039
2021 ---- 2113
2022 ---- 2232
2023 ---- 5541
2013 ---- 853
2018 ---- 1775
2019 ---- 1667
2020 ---- 2039
2021 ---- 2113
2022 ---- 2232
2023 ---- 5541
5-1-2023
Both pictures are of Diamond in 2012. I got her the middle of 2011.
It is with much sadness that I even have to post this. Last night Diamond wet the bed. She has never done that and I don’t know why it happened. It also looks like we might finally be past the diarrhea. She has not pooped in over 24 hours so waiting for that. Her morning meals are not of much interest for her but in the evening she is spunky, tail wagging and eats really good. She is tired I can tell but doing ok. It looks like her nausea may have subsided as well. So thank goodness for all of that. I have cancelled her appt with surgeon now…and all I can do is make the rest of her days as comfortable as possible until I can’t anymore. I have ordered an oxygenator for her to help her with breathing when she is having the dizzy spells. She is experiencing that still on a daily basis. I feel pretty certain that I will not be able to reverse the damage done to her heart although I will keep trying. Right now with her being sick from diarrhea, I have not been able to give her anything..but when giving supplements it usually takes a couple months to start seeing any changes. I have gone over Diamonds ProBNP numbers since we began testing her in 2013. Her EKG in February was showing ”MILD” heart damage. So from February till today, all she has had was the Clindamycin. That’s it. So I am 1000% sure this is what did her in. There is absolutely no question about this. So in trying to save her, we have killed her instead. Now it’s a slow death at this point. I am angry. Big Pharma MUST come down. They don’t make any safe drugs and it’s horrible that life means nothing to them. The evil greed they spew is obvious. So this is where we are now…….Sigh! Keep praying and most of all..pray for a miracle that her heart will be healed. That’s all I have left.
Both pictures are of Diamond in 2012. I got her the middle of 2011.
It is with much sadness that I even have to post this. Last night Diamond wet the bed. She has never done that and I don’t know why it happened. It also looks like we might finally be past the diarrhea. She has not pooped in over 24 hours so waiting for that. Her morning meals are not of much interest for her but in the evening she is spunky, tail wagging and eats really good. She is tired I can tell but doing ok. It looks like her nausea may have subsided as well. So thank goodness for all of that. I have cancelled her appt with surgeon now…and all I can do is make the rest of her days as comfortable as possible until I can’t anymore. I have ordered an oxygenator for her to help her with breathing when she is having the dizzy spells. She is experiencing that still on a daily basis. I feel pretty certain that I will not be able to reverse the damage done to her heart although I will keep trying. Right now with her being sick from diarrhea, I have not been able to give her anything..but when giving supplements it usually takes a couple months to start seeing any changes. I have gone over Diamonds ProBNP numbers since we began testing her in 2013. Her EKG in February was showing ”MILD” heart damage. So from February till today, all she has had was the Clindamycin. That’s it. So I am 1000% sure this is what did her in. There is absolutely no question about this. So in trying to save her, we have killed her instead. Now it’s a slow death at this point. I am angry. Big Pharma MUST come down. They don’t make any safe drugs and it’s horrible that life means nothing to them. The evil greed they spew is obvious. So this is where we are now…….Sigh! Keep praying and most of all..pray for a miracle that her heart will be healed. That’s all I have left.
5-6-2023
This is long but it is our FINAL RESULTS. Well yesterday was a huge mess. First off..it wasn't until midnight when my truck finally got going fix Thursday night. Friday we had an appt with the older vet. I called him asking a few questions before going. He told me I probably needed a cardiologist that he didn’t think he could help me. SO, that spun me off into rushing to find a vet as Diamond was not doing good at all. I was able to get her in to a vet close by. Well what a shitshow that was. This idiot took x-rays, put a ecg/02 monitor on her. Well he came walking in telling me the radiologist read her ecg/02 report and said she had heartworms. I said..ugh…don’t think so. She was tested in August. He said, “ Oh those tests don’t work. I said well she was treated for heartworms in 2011-2012 using doxy and ivermectin. He said oh that doesn’t work either. You need the injections. I said…noooo those will never be used in my home and I have treated many dogs using slow kill. He said well she might have a little bit of a heartworm in there. I was like whatever. He gave us Prednisone (not giving to her) and one heart med all while saying he didn't have anything to help her. I thought..I am getting out of this damn place. So we left and I drove straight down to my old vet clinic and requested Dr G., the one that helped her in the beginning of this infection mess at first of yr. WE WILL NOT BE SEEING DR B anymore at this same clinic..the one we saw last week. So Dr G covered Diamonds mess and I said..Look, All I want to do is make her comfortable. This falling over fainting isn’t good and we just need something to make her have less of that and more comfortable. I also asked for a B12 injection just for a boost and to help her get a restart in energy. I also got an appetite stimulator for her as well. I asked Dr G, how accurate are the HW tests. He said they after pretty accurate that only on occasion do they give a false positive. I said sooo a dog that’s been tested every year for heartworms since 2011 and has been negative, isn’t going to still have heartworms. He said no. I told him what that idiot said and he laughed. He said I don’t know where he got that from. I said well maybe what his ecg/02 machine showed was her damage done from the heartworms when she was younger. Dr B pretty much agreed. Also if she had heartworms, they would be so far advanced to cause this type of damage and they would show on x-ray. (How many pets is the idiot vet stealing and killing from his fraudulent diagnosis?) We discussed the slow kill but that’s pretty much irrelevant right now. But Big Pharma is saying oh..the ivermectin and doxy doesn’t work that well anymore. LMAO, Yep big pharma would say that..instead of those $1000 of dollars of deadly and harmful shots. Yep gotcha. I mentioned the Clindamycin maybe doing this and Dr G said he didn’t think so. I asked if CHF could come on quickly. He said yes sometimes. All articles I read with acceptation of one from a blogger..said it was slow progression and they could live 6 months to 2 yrs, if they do well on these meds. OH that idiot vet said he thought he saw a spot on her heart. Well I have now requested his x-rays and I will forward them to Dr G. Also Dr G said, Diamond might have a spell and die right there. I told him, I was totally ok with that. It is her body letting go. He said ok. I gave him my lecture about how vets shouldn’t bring up the word Euthanasia unless it is along with other options. Let the people decide. Hopefully he will learn going forward. He’s only been a vet for 4 yrs. You know what..WHY did my old vet NOT give her these meds last week? WHY? He would have saved me a ton of money. YET he cost me more….even though he feels I shouldn’t spent anymore on an old dog. GGRR. He is fired. I am so angry. I called on Tuesday and left a message asking for meds from him and he never called. ASSHOLE. I go to that clinic because it is the ONLY vet in this area that takes walkins. Its old, run down, and kind of a dirty building but..its busy and they have multiple vets. They also take emergencies after hours up until 11pm except weekends are earlier. This clinic is the only one around like this…so that’s why I go. I called several other vets before we made it into the idiots vet and they all told me to go to ER. NOPE not happening and why I made the choices I made yesterday.
Anyway Diamond sleeps a lot and takes a lot of naps…you know she’s old..but yesterday she even was pretty perky when we were at my vet clinic. Not one time did she have a spell. BUT I had most all the vet techs carrying her instead of her walking. (I had Carley with me too and I will post on her in another post.) It was just too far for Diamond to walk in scorching heat and high humidity. Anyway we left there will all three heart meds (Enalapril, Vetmedin and Lasix). Also some ENTYCE for appetite stimulant and a B-12 injection. When we got home..no more than did we get out the back door and she had a spell. It was light but she ended up pooping on herself. She was headed out the door to poop I think and just didn’t make it. Sooo got her back in, gave her all three meds at same time. BAD IDEA. Won’t do that again. The rest of the night was horrible. She was staggering, couldn’t hardly walk, peeing and drinking every 5 minutes, couldn’t breathe. She had her head in the mask of the oxygen machine all night. She really likes that thing..I guess it is making her feel better. Never thought she would like it much. The mask comes up to her eyeballs and if she puts her muzzle all the way in, it hides her eyes. She seems ok with that. Today I carried her outside, she peed and back in we came. She ate a few bites. I just gave her a tiny bit more of appetite stimulator so she will eat because her morning meal is the one she doesn’t care for. Last night after I gave her some….she gobbled up all her food. So today, I am dropping back a tiny bit on med doses and spreading them out. I need to find out which one did a number on her last night or if it was all at one time thing. So I did give her one med a little bit ago. Oh those meds also made her restless last night and she just wouldn’t go to sleep. I gave her CBD oil and after an hour or so, she finally started sleeping some. So bottom line, she doesn’t have much time left. There is nothing more I can do. And unless there is some underlying hidden disease going on inside we don’t know about, I still believe those meds had something to do with it and will always think that unless proven otherwise. But this is our fate now…..and now it’s just try to make her comfortable..hopefully the meds will help and maybe she can stop these fainting spells..mostly and be comfortable for her last days. I have done and am doing everything I know possible until then. She will know that she had the best life and I was always there to protect her, take care of her and give her everything she needed and to know..just how much she was loved. You know..in 2012 they told me to put her down for her severe spondylosis. I didn’t. NEVER! I never gave up on her. I found what helped her and she has lived most of her life with no pain meds and also pain free. I hope after reading this, now you know why I HATE drs and the medical system cause it truly sucks. No cardiologists around. One place that has an oncologist..ZERO facilities that use Hyperbaric Oxygen chambers ..for pets. It’s horrible. NO medical care for our pets. Diamond has been with me since July 2011 and I deemed that day her birthday. So on this coming July she will be 15 yrs old..if she makes it. I say that’s a pretty darn good life for a dog that had heartworms and severe spondylosis when I got her. She is my best friend and I just don’t know how I will make it without her in my life. She has made me laugh with her quirky ways. She is a social butterfly and just loves people. She’s the sweetest dog. She has always talked to me flapping her jowls and squeaking. She would slap her tail on something to wake me or get my attention. That tail was her way of getting my attention. Her eyes stare deep into mine and we talk to each other that way. We are connected. We are one. How do I let that go?
X-RAYS from idiot vet:
5-6-2023 Saturday evening (Full story)
Grim Update for Diamond
Well alot has unfolded in the past month. Around the beginning of April, Diamond would cough on occasion. As each day came, it seemed to be getting worse. After about 2 weeks of this, I stopped her Clindamycin (antibiotic) that she's been on for 2 1/2 months until we were able to raise the money for surgery on her neck. Her cough kept getting worse. The only thing that I could think of that she was getting was the new antibiotic. So on April 19th, I gave her last ones that morning. The next day, when we woke that morning, we always head straight out the door to potty. Well as soon as she hit the door and walked outside...she staggered, all fours went out, her head dropped and was wavering side to side. I thought OMG the vestibular disease is back or she's dying. I grabbed her and laid her down on her side, looked at her eyes and they were not shaking so I knew it wasn't the vestibular disease.. and she was limp but breathing. She laid there for a few minutes then I carried her inside on a bed here in the living room. She didn't move. Her breathing was heavy as well. I immediately gave her a baby aspirin as I thought..it's her heart. She is dying right here. After about 20 minutes or so, she lifted her head. I made her stay there a few more minutes then she was able to get up and walked around fine. I immediately thought..well she fainted. I started giving her half a tablet of my diuretic that I take. I knew it was safe for dogs although it isn't used in vet medicine. Five days later, it happened again. I knew then something wasn't right. I started her on the diuretic, gave her a baby aspirin and added Nattokinase into her food. Its like baby aspirin; it breaks up clots and thins the blood. I knew this was a heart thing. Her breathing after just walking then laying down was labored. Otherwise she was acting ok. So 2 days later I took her into see my vet. He listened to her heart and lungs and they were clear. I didn't need to give her any meds so he said. To only continue the supplements. I asked for a complete full blood work up and a ProBNP test. During this visit, me and my vet did not see eye to eye and he really pissed me off with what he said to me. I told him in February we had gotten an EKG at the specialist office and I didnt know that they did those. And I asked.....did he know about them and that you had to have a referral to get in? He said yes he knew. I said "You should have told me about them..why didn't you say anything?" He said, "You had already spent enough money." I said "Its Diamond..I don't care what it cost." SMH! I told him we were to meet the surgeon next week to discuss surgery and the cost was $5000. He said "You want to spend $5000 on a nearly 15 yr old dog?" I said "Yes, I don't care if I get only 6 more months with her..you bet I do. ITS DIAMOND.!!! He thought I was nuts. Anyway again I asked..why didn't you tell me about them? He said "I didn't think you needed to spend anymore money." WHAT? SCREAM! Do you hear what he just said to me? He basically gave me ZERO options and deemed my dog for dead. What a POS vet! It is not his call to make. IT IS MINE! He should give me ALL options, refer me to someone that might can help and NEVER EVER make that decision for me and NEVER assume anything. Do you see why I HATE vets? This is why. He was playing God with my dog. After I told him you bet I would. He then began to tell me he knew someone that just spent $22,000 on their dog. Then he proceeded to tell me what a good doggie mom I was and that I go above and beyond and she was lucky to have me. So looks like I will be looking for a new vet. NOONE SHOULD EVER make THOSE decisions for me. I spent over $2000 in his clinic then he told me he didn't know what it was with the neck. SO WHY did he not refer me out then to a specialist? WHY? I had to go to another vet and he referred me out.
Anyway the bloodwork came back the next day. I looked it over thoroughly. Her blood work looked really good for an old dog. All the vets and specialists said, she was in good shape for her age including my own vet back in November. Anyway I showed him the EKG results from February and he put it in laymans terms and said..."All this is saying is..she has mild heart damage." The specialist cleared her for surgery. Again this EKG was done in February. We did a ProBNP at the beginning of when she became ill in August of 2022. Her numbers were in her usual range. Each yr it goes up about 100 points. We have been doing ProBNPs since 2013. One year it even dropped 100 points. Anyway her heart damage was from when she was young and had heartworms. So she has lived with her heart damage and was still deemed MILD in February. So anyway her ProBNP test this past week went up over 3300 points. I FREAKED OUT. While THIS antibiotic doesn't have info on it..Cipro and Azithromycin should not be given to heart patients. It can cause sudden death. This one didn't have that warning but I found articles that said..antibiotics in general can cause heart failure or even sudden death in heart patients. Well we know they don't do many studies on drugs and when they do, they are short term studies and most are fabricated. ALL MEDICATIONS ARE DANGEROUS ok?
I mentioned this to my vet and of course he disagreed that it had anything to do with it..but then he said.."Well Diamond is sensitive to alot of drugs now that she's older." Did you just hear what he said? He denied yet also said it was possible. You gotta pay attention to the words and if they backtrack. So think about this, Aug 2022, her numbers were average..went up 100 points like normal. February EKG, everything looked pretty good and only mild damage to heart and no medications were recommended. She was doing well. Specialist put her on Clindamycin..one she had not really taken in the past..maybe the first few days and that's it. We switched to Convenia (Cephalexin) shot and Clavamox before. YES those have bad side effects as well but she did fine on them. So specialist gave her a higher dose. 450 mg twice a day until surgery or in a couple months come back for a bacterial culture. So the day we did the EKG, she sent us home with these meds and to be given until surgery or live out her life taking them to keep infection away. So connecting the dots...you do the math...Aug 2022...normal average numbers for her as always. February, mild heart damage with zero issues and good for surgery. 2 1/2 months on Clindamycin and the cough begins. Then all of this happened. Coincidental? Maybe but I doubt it.
The cough is gone now. It took a week or so to stop after I stopped the antibiotics. Strange it stopped huh after stopping the meds. She is still struggling to breathe when exerting herself..and that's just walking...then laying down. No outdoors during the summer and no more walks it looks like. This passing out lasts for about 10-20 minutes then she is better. When I brought up all of this on Facebook, a friend of mine said she almost died from taking this exact same antibiotic. WELL, now...that's odd right? No it isn't. The drs will deny, deny, deny. I am pretty fed up with this corrupt medical system if you ask me. NOW to be clear I am not blaming the specialist. She was doing what she knew best and probably most do well on the drug. BUT there are some it will do harm to. Convenia has killed dogs. There is a FB page that is fighting against Convenia and vets giving it to dogs with kidney disease. Yep it will kill them and has. SO my point is..no medication is safe and all are a crapshoot. One dog may do well on it..others won't. Others may die. I am blaming big pharma for making such dangerous drugs and no warning labels on them. YOU KNOW THEY KNOW these medications are dangerous.
To jump over to another quick story...after getting home from my vets office, the next day Diamond got sick. VERY nauseated and runny diarrhea. It took about 48 hours to get it to stop. After giving her antidiarrheal medicine and some (Zofran) medication..also not safe for heart patients....I gave her half a pill....to help her for nausea, also given to me by the specialist. It took a couple days. She is still not back to eating her food yet..but getting better. No poop in nearly 48 hours. Only eating boiled chicken and some treats. I assume she caught a bug at the clinic. Sigh. Her immune system is weak so it's easy for her to get sick. I have been giving her Colostrum and probiotics as well for months.
Anyway now..back to the heart....I bought a bunch of heart supplements and will TRY to undo some of the damage done...and I also purchased an oxygenator to help her breathe. I hope it makes her feel better. I think these units are only on Amazon so I hear and they do make portables but you gotta buy containers. This one I bought works off of water. I bought a doggie mask to use with it. Well, each day she started having these spells. I called my vet to ask for meds. He never returned my call. That was on Tuesday. I found an older vet in the city for both Diamond and Carley. I was taking Diamond again cause she was really getting worse. Well I called ahead to ask a question and the Vet answered. I talked to him about Diamond fainting and he told me he really couldn't do much for me. REALLY? okayyyy....This was on Friday of this week. My truck was broke down since my last vet visit the week before and I finally got it fixed late Thursday night. So I knew Friday this week was my only day to get Diamond help. She was slowing dying in front of me. I took her to a vet not far from home...what a freaking idiot. OMG. He said Diamond had heartworms and that the HW tests don't work. He got this from a ecg/02 machine. He had her complete history. He knew the EKG in February showed damage from most likely heartworms. YET he says...oh she has heartworms and that the HW tests don't work. I said well she was treated for Heartworms in 2011-2012. He said well she might have a little one. I said she's been tested every single yr. He said again..tests don't work and neither does doxycycline and ivermectin doing slow kill. Only immiticide was the way to go. OK folks..fyi...Immiticide kills many dogs. The shots are in the thousands of dollar range. Doxy and ivermectin are cheap and easy and YES IT DOES WORK. This IDIOT didn't have a clue what he was talking about and he was arrogant. It sounded like nothing but a money thing to me. SO, if those HW tests don't work then..how does a vet know a dog has heartworms? Only one other way..bloodwork. In bloodwork you will get a high number that shows. Diamonds bloodwork was right in front of him, It was all good. This vet was so bad it was unbelievable. Well he sent us out with Vetmedin and Prednisone and said she would probably die next week. REALLY? He recommended euthanasia. What a low life scumbag. He doesn't know..that I know quite a bit. I left there and went straight back down to my old vet clinic but requested Dr G from before and he saved her from death when this initial infection started...not the jerk that wouldn't return my call for meds. My regular vet should have given her meds that very day and gave her nothing. Again..trying to kill my dog. He will NEVER see me again. He also gets upset when he spends too much time with my dog. All those things he said and also never gave her anything to help her.
So anyway I got her and one of my other dogs in to see Dr G. Dr G gave Diamond 3 heart meds. NO PREDNISONE..and I had no intentions of giving that to her from that idiot vet. That would probably kill her too. I asked for some ENTYCE and a B-12 shot as well. Diamond wasn't eating much, has lost more weight and couldnt even stand up without fainting. She was on death's doorstep big time. I asked him..how accurate are the heartworm tests? He said it was rare to get false positives and they were pretty accurate. I told him what the other idiot vet said and he just laughed and said, Well I don't know where he got that from. I said So, a dog that's been heartworm tested every year and has been negative is all of a sudden now has heartworms? He said no anddd if she had of had heartworms all this time, you would see them on xray. That idiot vet did x-rays. SIGH! You just can't make this stuff up. It's unbelievable. OH this idiot vet also said he saw a spot on her heart in the xrays. I requested the xrays, have forwarded them to Dr G and I looked myself. I cant see anything.
Grim Update for Diamond
Well alot has unfolded in the past month. Around the beginning of April, Diamond would cough on occasion. As each day came, it seemed to be getting worse. After about 2 weeks of this, I stopped her Clindamycin (antibiotic) that she's been on for 2 1/2 months until we were able to raise the money for surgery on her neck. Her cough kept getting worse. The only thing that I could think of that she was getting was the new antibiotic. So on April 19th, I gave her last ones that morning. The next day, when we woke that morning, we always head straight out the door to potty. Well as soon as she hit the door and walked outside...she staggered, all fours went out, her head dropped and was wavering side to side. I thought OMG the vestibular disease is back or she's dying. I grabbed her and laid her down on her side, looked at her eyes and they were not shaking so I knew it wasn't the vestibular disease.. and she was limp but breathing. She laid there for a few minutes then I carried her inside on a bed here in the living room. She didn't move. Her breathing was heavy as well. I immediately gave her a baby aspirin as I thought..it's her heart. She is dying right here. After about 20 minutes or so, she lifted her head. I made her stay there a few more minutes then she was able to get up and walked around fine. I immediately thought..well she fainted. I started giving her half a tablet of my diuretic that I take. I knew it was safe for dogs although it isn't used in vet medicine. Five days later, it happened again. I knew then something wasn't right. I started her on the diuretic, gave her a baby aspirin and added Nattokinase into her food. Its like baby aspirin; it breaks up clots and thins the blood. I knew this was a heart thing. Her breathing after just walking then laying down was labored. Otherwise she was acting ok. So 2 days later I took her into see my vet. He listened to her heart and lungs and they were clear. I didn't need to give her any meds so he said. To only continue the supplements. I asked for a complete full blood work up and a ProBNP test. During this visit, me and my vet did not see eye to eye and he really pissed me off with what he said to me. I told him in February we had gotten an EKG at the specialist office and I didnt know that they did those. And I asked.....did he know about them and that you had to have a referral to get in? He said yes he knew. I said "You should have told me about them..why didn't you say anything?" He said, "You had already spent enough money." I said "Its Diamond..I don't care what it cost." SMH! I told him we were to meet the surgeon next week to discuss surgery and the cost was $5000. He said "You want to spend $5000 on a nearly 15 yr old dog?" I said "Yes, I don't care if I get only 6 more months with her..you bet I do. ITS DIAMOND.!!! He thought I was nuts. Anyway again I asked..why didn't you tell me about them? He said "I didn't think you needed to spend anymore money." WHAT? SCREAM! Do you hear what he just said to me? He basically gave me ZERO options and deemed my dog for dead. What a POS vet! It is not his call to make. IT IS MINE! He should give me ALL options, refer me to someone that might can help and NEVER EVER make that decision for me and NEVER assume anything. Do you see why I HATE vets? This is why. He was playing God with my dog. After I told him you bet I would. He then began to tell me he knew someone that just spent $22,000 on their dog. Then he proceeded to tell me what a good doggie mom I was and that I go above and beyond and she was lucky to have me. So looks like I will be looking for a new vet. NOONE SHOULD EVER make THOSE decisions for me. I spent over $2000 in his clinic then he told me he didn't know what it was with the neck. SO WHY did he not refer me out then to a specialist? WHY? I had to go to another vet and he referred me out.
Anyway the bloodwork came back the next day. I looked it over thoroughly. Her blood work looked really good for an old dog. All the vets and specialists said, she was in good shape for her age including my own vet back in November. Anyway I showed him the EKG results from February and he put it in laymans terms and said..."All this is saying is..she has mild heart damage." The specialist cleared her for surgery. Again this EKG was done in February. We did a ProBNP at the beginning of when she became ill in August of 2022. Her numbers were in her usual range. Each yr it goes up about 100 points. We have been doing ProBNPs since 2013. One year it even dropped 100 points. Anyway her heart damage was from when she was young and had heartworms. So she has lived with her heart damage and was still deemed MILD in February. So anyway her ProBNP test this past week went up over 3300 points. I FREAKED OUT. While THIS antibiotic doesn't have info on it..Cipro and Azithromycin should not be given to heart patients. It can cause sudden death. This one didn't have that warning but I found articles that said..antibiotics in general can cause heart failure or even sudden death in heart patients. Well we know they don't do many studies on drugs and when they do, they are short term studies and most are fabricated. ALL MEDICATIONS ARE DANGEROUS ok?
I mentioned this to my vet and of course he disagreed that it had anything to do with it..but then he said.."Well Diamond is sensitive to alot of drugs now that she's older." Did you just hear what he said? He denied yet also said it was possible. You gotta pay attention to the words and if they backtrack. So think about this, Aug 2022, her numbers were average..went up 100 points like normal. February EKG, everything looked pretty good and only mild damage to heart and no medications were recommended. She was doing well. Specialist put her on Clindamycin..one she had not really taken in the past..maybe the first few days and that's it. We switched to Convenia (Cephalexin) shot and Clavamox before. YES those have bad side effects as well but she did fine on them. So specialist gave her a higher dose. 450 mg twice a day until surgery or in a couple months come back for a bacterial culture. So the day we did the EKG, she sent us home with these meds and to be given until surgery or live out her life taking them to keep infection away. So connecting the dots...you do the math...Aug 2022...normal average numbers for her as always. February, mild heart damage with zero issues and good for surgery. 2 1/2 months on Clindamycin and the cough begins. Then all of this happened. Coincidental? Maybe but I doubt it.
The cough is gone now. It took a week or so to stop after I stopped the antibiotics. Strange it stopped huh after stopping the meds. She is still struggling to breathe when exerting herself..and that's just walking...then laying down. No outdoors during the summer and no more walks it looks like. This passing out lasts for about 10-20 minutes then she is better. When I brought up all of this on Facebook, a friend of mine said she almost died from taking this exact same antibiotic. WELL, now...that's odd right? No it isn't. The drs will deny, deny, deny. I am pretty fed up with this corrupt medical system if you ask me. NOW to be clear I am not blaming the specialist. She was doing what she knew best and probably most do well on the drug. BUT there are some it will do harm to. Convenia has killed dogs. There is a FB page that is fighting against Convenia and vets giving it to dogs with kidney disease. Yep it will kill them and has. SO my point is..no medication is safe and all are a crapshoot. One dog may do well on it..others won't. Others may die. I am blaming big pharma for making such dangerous drugs and no warning labels on them. YOU KNOW THEY KNOW these medications are dangerous.
To jump over to another quick story...after getting home from my vets office, the next day Diamond got sick. VERY nauseated and runny diarrhea. It took about 48 hours to get it to stop. After giving her antidiarrheal medicine and some (Zofran) medication..also not safe for heart patients....I gave her half a pill....to help her for nausea, also given to me by the specialist. It took a couple days. She is still not back to eating her food yet..but getting better. No poop in nearly 48 hours. Only eating boiled chicken and some treats. I assume she caught a bug at the clinic. Sigh. Her immune system is weak so it's easy for her to get sick. I have been giving her Colostrum and probiotics as well for months.
Anyway now..back to the heart....I bought a bunch of heart supplements and will TRY to undo some of the damage done...and I also purchased an oxygenator to help her breathe. I hope it makes her feel better. I think these units are only on Amazon so I hear and they do make portables but you gotta buy containers. This one I bought works off of water. I bought a doggie mask to use with it. Well, each day she started having these spells. I called my vet to ask for meds. He never returned my call. That was on Tuesday. I found an older vet in the city for both Diamond and Carley. I was taking Diamond again cause she was really getting worse. Well I called ahead to ask a question and the Vet answered. I talked to him about Diamond fainting and he told me he really couldn't do much for me. REALLY? okayyyy....This was on Friday of this week. My truck was broke down since my last vet visit the week before and I finally got it fixed late Thursday night. So I knew Friday this week was my only day to get Diamond help. She was slowing dying in front of me. I took her to a vet not far from home...what a freaking idiot. OMG. He said Diamond had heartworms and that the HW tests don't work. He got this from a ecg/02 machine. He had her complete history. He knew the EKG in February showed damage from most likely heartworms. YET he says...oh she has heartworms and that the HW tests don't work. I said well she was treated for Heartworms in 2011-2012. He said well she might have a little one. I said she's been tested every single yr. He said again..tests don't work and neither does doxycycline and ivermectin doing slow kill. Only immiticide was the way to go. OK folks..fyi...Immiticide kills many dogs. The shots are in the thousands of dollar range. Doxy and ivermectin are cheap and easy and YES IT DOES WORK. This IDIOT didn't have a clue what he was talking about and he was arrogant. It sounded like nothing but a money thing to me. SO, if those HW tests don't work then..how does a vet know a dog has heartworms? Only one other way..bloodwork. In bloodwork you will get a high number that shows. Diamonds bloodwork was right in front of him, It was all good. This vet was so bad it was unbelievable. Well he sent us out with Vetmedin and Prednisone and said she would probably die next week. REALLY? He recommended euthanasia. What a low life scumbag. He doesn't know..that I know quite a bit. I left there and went straight back down to my old vet clinic but requested Dr G from before and he saved her from death when this initial infection started...not the jerk that wouldn't return my call for meds. My regular vet should have given her meds that very day and gave her nothing. Again..trying to kill my dog. He will NEVER see me again. He also gets upset when he spends too much time with my dog. All those things he said and also never gave her anything to help her.
So anyway I got her and one of my other dogs in to see Dr G. Dr G gave Diamond 3 heart meds. NO PREDNISONE..and I had no intentions of giving that to her from that idiot vet. That would probably kill her too. I asked for some ENTYCE and a B-12 shot as well. Diamond wasn't eating much, has lost more weight and couldnt even stand up without fainting. She was on death's doorstep big time. I asked him..how accurate are the heartworm tests? He said it was rare to get false positives and they were pretty accurate. I told him what the other idiot vet said and he just laughed and said, Well I don't know where he got that from. I said So, a dog that's been heartworm tested every year and has been negative is all of a sudden now has heartworms? He said no anddd if she had of had heartworms all this time, you would see them on xray. That idiot vet did x-rays. SIGH! You just can't make this stuff up. It's unbelievable. OH this idiot vet also said he saw a spot on her heart in the xrays. I requested the xrays, have forwarded them to Dr G and I looked myself. I cant see anything.
So anyway surgery is off the table now and if her lump returns, I have some Clavamox. We are now in survival mode. I am completely baffled to see her go from mild heart damage in February to almost dead in 3 months time. It doesn't add up to me and I will be digging much deeper on this. Until I have more information and proof; at this time I think the antibiotic did it. Antibiotics are the second biggest drug to kill heart patients on the market. Yep read that myself on NCBI website. I was shocked. And for you who have followed this story about her neck, lump, and infection..I still do not believe this is cancer. I go with my gut and that's what my gut says. And yes sometimes it's wrong but most of the time it isn't. I been saying this from day one..it isn't cancer.
We finally got home around 6:30pm. It was a very long day of running everywhere trying to get meds for Diamond. Diamonds lungs had no sound of any fluid but we went ahead and put her on a low dose of Lasix. She also is now on Enalapril and Vetmedin. I gave her the ENTYCE and she gobbled up her food finally. Today (Saturday) she didn't eat much. One reason is we had storms but overall I think she just wanted to rest. Last night i gave her all three meds at same time. OMG bad idea. I was so eager to get meds in her..wasn't even thinking about any side effects. she was restless and couldn't sleep and drinking and peeing every 5 minutes. Wore me out. When she stands or walks, she is VERY out of breathe so this oxygen machine I put on her. she actually likes this. This tells me it's making her feel better. She even has fallen asleep with that thing up to her eyeballs breathing in oxygen. Anyway today I paced the meds and also cut them back half a tab. The dose on two of them were 1 and a 1/2 tablet. Well I am giving 1 tablet and going to work up to the 1 and 1/2 tab. The one tab is working. I gave one (Vetmedin) waited a couple hours, gave the other (Enalapril) and then a forth of a dose of Lasix. She was really peeing alot with half a tab. So I spread them out throughout the day. TODAY is the first day in a week she has NOT passed out. She's tired and weak from not eating and having a hard time breathing but today was better. I am still giving her the oxygen after walking. She's pretty out of breath. I hope the next few days we will see improvement. Have no clue how much time she has but hopefully the medications will make her more comfortable and give her a little more time.
ANYWAY, bottom line...all I can do is make her last days as comfortable as possible. Diamond is my best friend. The day she leaves me, it will rip my heart wide open. When that day comes, you may not see a newsletter from me for a month or so..I will need a lot of time to mourn. I am sorry. I just don't know how much time she has left now. It could be a week, it could be months or even a yr...but not counting on that. Her birthday is July 3rd and I hope she makes it till then. That will make her 15 years old.
THANK YOU for following her story. I hope you have gotten something out of this. One, the corruption even with veterinarians and how big pharma will kill you. Yep we need meds sometimes to survive but yet..it looks like the meds have killed her. That's my take but as I said, I will dig on this until I find my answers. I will not let this go. And my vet of 11 yrs became a huge POS. I am shocked at his actions..VERY shocked. I have seen him slide on a few things in the past but he has failed my dog and flat out told me, he didn't feel it necessary to refer me to a specialist when he could no longer help her. How selfish can one be? I am exhausted from fighting with these vets to keep my dog alive. Vets think we are stupid...and this is why we must learn and we must fight back...for the sake of our pets. Do not accept what they tell you. Do your research. Don't give any meds without researching them and weighing the odds. Oh these heart meds..well they have the exact same side effects as heart failure and can even cause sudden death. I am telling ya, they are killing us and our pets. When I read the side effects, I had to make a decision and then watch her very closely. You will need to do that as well..to save your pets life. We all die but we darn sure don't have to get there sooner than we should.
Note: Our last walk in the neighborhood was April 16th, 2023.
We finally got home around 6:30pm. It was a very long day of running everywhere trying to get meds for Diamond. Diamonds lungs had no sound of any fluid but we went ahead and put her on a low dose of Lasix. She also is now on Enalapril and Vetmedin. I gave her the ENTYCE and she gobbled up her food finally. Today (Saturday) she didn't eat much. One reason is we had storms but overall I think she just wanted to rest. Last night i gave her all three meds at same time. OMG bad idea. I was so eager to get meds in her..wasn't even thinking about any side effects. she was restless and couldn't sleep and drinking and peeing every 5 minutes. Wore me out. When she stands or walks, she is VERY out of breathe so this oxygen machine I put on her. she actually likes this. This tells me it's making her feel better. She even has fallen asleep with that thing up to her eyeballs breathing in oxygen. Anyway today I paced the meds and also cut them back half a tab. The dose on two of them were 1 and a 1/2 tablet. Well I am giving 1 tablet and going to work up to the 1 and 1/2 tab. The one tab is working. I gave one (Vetmedin) waited a couple hours, gave the other (Enalapril) and then a forth of a dose of Lasix. She was really peeing alot with half a tab. So I spread them out throughout the day. TODAY is the first day in a week she has NOT passed out. She's tired and weak from not eating and having a hard time breathing but today was better. I am still giving her the oxygen after walking. She's pretty out of breath. I hope the next few days we will see improvement. Have no clue how much time she has but hopefully the medications will make her more comfortable and give her a little more time.
ANYWAY, bottom line...all I can do is make her last days as comfortable as possible. Diamond is my best friend. The day she leaves me, it will rip my heart wide open. When that day comes, you may not see a newsletter from me for a month or so..I will need a lot of time to mourn. I am sorry. I just don't know how much time she has left now. It could be a week, it could be months or even a yr...but not counting on that. Her birthday is July 3rd and I hope she makes it till then. That will make her 15 years old.
THANK YOU for following her story. I hope you have gotten something out of this. One, the corruption even with veterinarians and how big pharma will kill you. Yep we need meds sometimes to survive but yet..it looks like the meds have killed her. That's my take but as I said, I will dig on this until I find my answers. I will not let this go. And my vet of 11 yrs became a huge POS. I am shocked at his actions..VERY shocked. I have seen him slide on a few things in the past but he has failed my dog and flat out told me, he didn't feel it necessary to refer me to a specialist when he could no longer help her. How selfish can one be? I am exhausted from fighting with these vets to keep my dog alive. Vets think we are stupid...and this is why we must learn and we must fight back...for the sake of our pets. Do not accept what they tell you. Do your research. Don't give any meds without researching them and weighing the odds. Oh these heart meds..well they have the exact same side effects as heart failure and can even cause sudden death. I am telling ya, they are killing us and our pets. When I read the side effects, I had to make a decision and then watch her very closely. You will need to do that as well..to save your pets life. We all die but we darn sure don't have to get there sooner than we should.
Note: Our last walk in the neighborhood was April 16th, 2023.
5-9-2023
Diamond showed a bit of feeling better. She was up walking around some and even went out to the garage to look out front for a bit. She went out the doggie doors on her own to go poop. Spoke with vet on phone and he said it takes a week for meds to kick in but she may be too far gone to save. It's been 4 days.
WHY didn't my regular vet from 4-27-2023 give her meds? He specifically said she didn't need meds even though she had 2 passing out spells and it as clear it was her heart. He didn't even want to do x-rays. What an Asshole! This is her vet of over 10 yrs. He turned into an evil POS!
Diamond showed a bit of feeling better. She was up walking around some and even went out to the garage to look out front for a bit. She went out the doggie doors on her own to go poop. Spoke with vet on phone and he said it takes a week for meds to kick in but she may be too far gone to save. It's been 4 days.
WHY didn't my regular vet from 4-27-2023 give her meds? He specifically said she didn't need meds even though she had 2 passing out spells and it as clear it was her heart. He didn't even want to do x-rays. What an Asshole! This is her vet of over 10 yrs. He turned into an evil POS!
5-10-2023 (Wednesday)
It is with a VERY VERY VERY torn apart heart that I have to say, Diamond will be crossing over on Friday May 12th, 2023. I am already losing my mind. How do I live without my best friend? I am falling apart. I can't bear this pain. I just can't. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭. I don't know if I can come back from this. My world has been ripped apart. God take me............ I want my best friend with me. We are connected. She is my everything.
We are doing in-home Euthanasia. The Vet that is coming..The name of the company has the word 'DIAMOND' in it. Wow. She will be cremated in a private communion as well. God help me!
We lost this battle. My world is shattered!
5-11-2023
Diamond didn't make it through the night. She passed away at 2 am.
Her journey has ended...
5-11-2023
There is more to this story but I can't talk about it leading up to this...just know she wasn't doing good but earlier she was sleeping very peacefully.... but Diamond was sleeping/resting with mask on. She took it off. She usually does when she is breathing a little better or tired of it. About 30 minutes later I heard the hissing of the cord on it crimped. I hadn't turned it off...the sound was keeping it from being so quiet. Anyway the hissing grabbed my attention..I turned and looked..seen her falling over off pillow..I jumped up, ran over there and her tongue was hanging out and she was breathing heavy. I was trying to put her tongue back in her mouth...then I started screaming...hold on Diamond hold on. I saw poop running out her butt..and that confirmed what was happening. I ran around trying to clean her up a bit really fast and load her in truck..like a wet noodle and was dropping her cause she was so heavy.....to drive her to ER for them to stop her breathing....and on the way I called them..asked them if they could run out to truck to inject her. They told me no they needed to bring her in.....and I reached over to feel her and in that moment..she wasn't moving..so I told the girl on the phone...I think she stopped breathing, I gotta pull over. So I hung up..pulled into a dry cleaners parking lot and jumped out..ran around to other side of my truck cause her face was pointing the door...and she was gone. I stood right there and screamed as loud as I could..screamed bloody murder..for about 10+ minutes with both doors open......then got back in truck..screamed a lot more as hard as I could scream, wanting my Diamond back.
I turned around and came back home. I had to unload her again..nearly dropping her..in the process twisted my elbow and shoulder and knee. I got her laid down in garage and covered her with a towel. I had towels all around her cause she kept pooping. I got back home and screamed a bunch more outside in the drive and inside the house. Carley didn't know what the hell was happening...I was trying to call friends of mine. A friend answered and I talked to her for a few hours. Diamond passed away at 2am in my truck. Glad it wasn't at ER. What a horrible night.
Cremation place picked her up at around 1:30pm. I will get her next week.
I shaved some of her fur off and have it in a baggie. Anyway I said my goodbyes earlier when she was still alive..just a few hours before. I even have it on video....ugh...but I told her to come see me in my dreams or give me a sign she is here with me and how I would miss her every single day for the rest of my life. She would be in my thoughts every moment of every day and I wished I was going where she was going.
My whole world just changed...EVERYTHING has been turned upside down. EVERYTHING makes me think of her. My entire life revolved around her. She was my soul dog. NEVER have I ever loved a dog so much in my entire life. The pain is so great...I dont know how I will get through this..I don't think I will. I think the pain will be daily till the day I die..not having her in my life. I don't even have the words to say how deep this is. I miss my Diamond...I miss my Diamond...
There is more to this story but I can't talk about it leading up to this...just know she wasn't doing good but earlier she was sleeping very peacefully.... but Diamond was sleeping/resting with mask on. She took it off. She usually does when she is breathing a little better or tired of it. About 30 minutes later I heard the hissing of the cord on it crimped. I hadn't turned it off...the sound was keeping it from being so quiet. Anyway the hissing grabbed my attention..I turned and looked..seen her falling over off pillow..I jumped up, ran over there and her tongue was hanging out and she was breathing heavy. I was trying to put her tongue back in her mouth...then I started screaming...hold on Diamond hold on. I saw poop running out her butt..and that confirmed what was happening. I ran around trying to clean her up a bit really fast and load her in truck..like a wet noodle and was dropping her cause she was so heavy.....to drive her to ER for them to stop her breathing....and on the way I called them..asked them if they could run out to truck to inject her. They told me no they needed to bring her in.....and I reached over to feel her and in that moment..she wasn't moving..so I told the girl on the phone...I think she stopped breathing, I gotta pull over. So I hung up..pulled into a dry cleaners parking lot and jumped out..ran around to other side of my truck cause her face was pointing the door...and she was gone. I stood right there and screamed as loud as I could..screamed bloody murder..for about 10+ minutes with both doors open......then got back in truck..screamed a lot more as hard as I could scream, wanting my Diamond back.
I turned around and came back home. I had to unload her again..nearly dropping her..in the process twisted my elbow and shoulder and knee. I got her laid down in garage and covered her with a towel. I had towels all around her cause she kept pooping. I got back home and screamed a bunch more outside in the drive and inside the house. Carley didn't know what the hell was happening...I was trying to call friends of mine. A friend answered and I talked to her for a few hours. Diamond passed away at 2am in my truck. Glad it wasn't at ER. What a horrible night.
Cremation place picked her up at around 1:30pm. I will get her next week.
I shaved some of her fur off and have it in a baggie. Anyway I said my goodbyes earlier when she was still alive..just a few hours before. I even have it on video....ugh...but I told her to come see me in my dreams or give me a sign she is here with me and how I would miss her every single day for the rest of my life. She would be in my thoughts every moment of every day and I wished I was going where she was going.
My whole world just changed...EVERYTHING has been turned upside down. EVERYTHING makes me think of her. My entire life revolved around her. She was my soul dog. NEVER have I ever loved a dog so much in my entire life. The pain is so great...I dont know how I will get through this..I don't think I will. I think the pain will be daily till the day I die..not having her in my life. I don't even have the words to say how deep this is. I miss my Diamond...I miss my Diamond...
I lost my soul/heart dog yesterday and I can't breathe without her. We were one, connected, knew each other's thoughts. She was with me for over 12 yrs. We did everything together. My world revolved around hers. My world has been ripped apart and turned upside down. How do I live without her? God help me. I want to be with her. I miss her so damn much. I hate this. She was it. My one true love.....I will grieve for her for the rest of my life. She changed my world..I am nothing without her. I have had other dogs that have passed..but she was different. She was THE ONE! There will never be another...
My last picture of my best friend...before she passed. She was sleeping peacefully here before things turned for the worst. I have no words. All I feel is devastating pain. I just want my Diamond back. I miss her so much.
I will put this nameplate on the front of URN
Diamond is home to stay....I put her fur I shaved off in with it.
Ordered one of these.
Video
Diamond
My Best Friend
The day we met,
I knew you were the one.
I couldn’t wait to bring you home.
Your quirky ways made me laugh.
Your intentional tail slapping
On the doors always got my attention.
Your days on the streets were over
And now you have a home full of love.
You were my one true love
Even though you had four feet.
My life was complete just being
With you every moment of every day.
I didn’t want to stay gone from home too long
Cause I missed you already.
I tried to give you a great life and I believe that I did.
You were happy and that made me happy.
You were my world, the light in my life.
The one thing that got me out of bed each day
No matter how bad I felt.
When your eyes looked at mine,
I could see and feel your thoughts.
I knew what you were thinking.
Even though you talked to me,
I didn’t understand your language
But I always knew what you were saying and
You always seemed to know what I was saying.
We were connected.
We were one.
Now you are gone and I feel so alone.
The house is quiet, and there are no hugs to give to you.
Your absence has turned my world upside down.
I don’t know how to carry on without you here.
I fought hard to save you and you fought hard to live.
I am so sorry your time was cut short.
Without you I have a hole in my heart that I can’t fill.
What do I do with me, without you in my world?
I lost my best friend that I truly loved more than life.
You will be in my thoughts every waking hour
For the rest of my life.
I hope to go where you are now.
I miss you so much.
See you in my dreams!
My Best Friend
The day we met,
I knew you were the one.
I couldn’t wait to bring you home.
Your quirky ways made me laugh.
Your intentional tail slapping
On the doors always got my attention.
Your days on the streets were over
And now you have a home full of love.
You were my one true love
Even though you had four feet.
My life was complete just being
With you every moment of every day.
I didn’t want to stay gone from home too long
Cause I missed you already.
I tried to give you a great life and I believe that I did.
You were happy and that made me happy.
You were my world, the light in my life.
The one thing that got me out of bed each day
No matter how bad I felt.
When your eyes looked at mine,
I could see and feel your thoughts.
I knew what you were thinking.
Even though you talked to me,
I didn’t understand your language
But I always knew what you were saying and
You always seemed to know what I was saying.
We were connected.
We were one.
Now you are gone and I feel so alone.
The house is quiet, and there are no hugs to give to you.
Your absence has turned my world upside down.
I don’t know how to carry on without you here.
I fought hard to save you and you fought hard to live.
I am so sorry your time was cut short.
Without you I have a hole in my heart that I can’t fill.
What do I do with me, without you in my world?
I lost my best friend that I truly loved more than life.
You will be in my thoughts every waking hour
For the rest of my life.
I hope to go where you are now.
I miss you so much.
See you in my dreams!
NEW BOOK and lots of pictures included
For high professional color photos in book click below. Cost is 'much' higher though.
When I met Diamond, we were at a dog show. After the dog show was done, a guy combined the entire event of videos into a DVD. The song he put on it was...Nickelback.. GOTTA BE SOMEBODY. I made that Diamonds song...cause I met her there and it speaks of finding the love of your life, a diamond in the ruff. Its HER song..our song. The love of my life!
11-27-2023
Sculpture I had made of her
Head shape is off
Sculpture I had made of her
Head shape is off
12-11-2023
Today it has been 7 months since Diamond passed away. I still feel the pain, the anger, and the regret. It is all still so fresh within my heart. I stare at her pictures all the time. I think of her all of the time. Anything I do, she is in my thoughts. I ask..what would Diamond be doing? Helping me, watching me. I miss her talking to me. She would wiggle that butt so hard and squeak and chomping her jaws talking to me. I cry often wishing she was still here. This world is dark without her in it. She was my guiding light. My soul dog. We were so connected. My love for her will live on forever and I will never stop wanting her here with me. I need her here with me. I am still going to try to get some answers somehow. I am stuck at this point but will find a way. I haven't been able to get to a point to write a letter to her asshole vet that conspired in her death. I will never forget what he did and what he said to me. What an evil POS. When the pain isn't so unbearable..I will write that letter to him. In the meantime, I will go on loving my girl and missing her so very much. How much pain can one heart feel every day? The day I die, I will die with a broken heart. PLEASE put my ashes with my girls. All of them. Its the only way I know to be with them again. I LOVE YOU DIAMOND. My heart breaks everyday without you being here with me.
Today it has been 7 months since Diamond passed away. I still feel the pain, the anger, and the regret. It is all still so fresh within my heart. I stare at her pictures all the time. I think of her all of the time. Anything I do, she is in my thoughts. I ask..what would Diamond be doing? Helping me, watching me. I miss her talking to me. She would wiggle that butt so hard and squeak and chomping her jaws talking to me. I cry often wishing she was still here. This world is dark without her in it. She was my guiding light. My soul dog. We were so connected. My love for her will live on forever and I will never stop wanting her here with me. I need her here with me. I am still going to try to get some answers somehow. I am stuck at this point but will find a way. I haven't been able to get to a point to write a letter to her asshole vet that conspired in her death. I will never forget what he did and what he said to me. What an evil POS. When the pain isn't so unbearable..I will write that letter to him. In the meantime, I will go on loving my girl and missing her so very much. How much pain can one heart feel every day? The day I die, I will die with a broken heart. PLEASE put my ashes with my girls. All of them. Its the only way I know to be with them again. I LOVE YOU DIAMOND. My heart breaks everyday without you being here with me.
A phone app - a friend made these for me.
Jan 11th, 2024
I lost my best friend 8 months ago today. I have never ever in my life loved a dog so much as much as I loved Diamond. Others were close but this was different. At random times out of nowhere, a thought hits me and I just break down bawling..wishing I could go be with Diamond. The pain is still very deep. She died without me ever finding answers to why she had that infection in her neck...and WHY did the meds take out her heart? WHY are both of those things...RARE but YET happened to her? WHY WHY WHY? She wasn't even close to death then BAM out of nowhere...she got a slight cough...and then breathing issues at night...then when the fainting spells started it was all down hill from there in a very short time. 8 months of being gone is short. 8 months feels like yesterday. My mind is still dealing with the shock that she actually died...and for what? What started this chain of events? what caused that infection in the first place? Why could the drs not figure out what it was? All I know is..her heart crapped out. 3 months prior...her heart was fine. These questions go through my mind daily...why? what was it? Why did her vet deem her a death wish? I miss my girl so much and damn it..I wished I had answers to some of that. It makes me furious how everything went. I swear Satan threw EVERYTHING at us right in the end....her having spells, my truck breaking down in the middle of her last 2 weeks alive and I couldnt go anywhere. I had nothing more I could think of to help her. It was all dependent on conventional medicine..and that conventional medicine KILLED MY DOG. I will forever HATE drs and the pharmaceutical industry. I even asked for information from the FDA on that drug. they wont reply. They have ignored me. I even agreed to pay $60 for information on that drug. Still nothing. I contacted about 10 labs..all refused to test the medication or did not answer my emails. I MISS MY BEST FRIEND. I want her here with me so bad. I miss her tail hitting the door. I miss her talking to me. I miss those gorgeous amber eyes staring at me. I miss her so so much.
I lost my best friend 8 months ago today. I have never ever in my life loved a dog so much as much as I loved Diamond. Others were close but this was different. At random times out of nowhere, a thought hits me and I just break down bawling..wishing I could go be with Diamond. The pain is still very deep. She died without me ever finding answers to why she had that infection in her neck...and WHY did the meds take out her heart? WHY are both of those things...RARE but YET happened to her? WHY WHY WHY? She wasn't even close to death then BAM out of nowhere...she got a slight cough...and then breathing issues at night...then when the fainting spells started it was all down hill from there in a very short time. 8 months of being gone is short. 8 months feels like yesterday. My mind is still dealing with the shock that she actually died...and for what? What started this chain of events? what caused that infection in the first place? Why could the drs not figure out what it was? All I know is..her heart crapped out. 3 months prior...her heart was fine. These questions go through my mind daily...why? what was it? Why did her vet deem her a death wish? I miss my girl so much and damn it..I wished I had answers to some of that. It makes me furious how everything went. I swear Satan threw EVERYTHING at us right in the end....her having spells, my truck breaking down in the middle of her last 2 weeks alive and I couldnt go anywhere. I had nothing more I could think of to help her. It was all dependent on conventional medicine..and that conventional medicine KILLED MY DOG. I will forever HATE drs and the pharmaceutical industry. I even asked for information from the FDA on that drug. they wont reply. They have ignored me. I even agreed to pay $60 for information on that drug. Still nothing. I contacted about 10 labs..all refused to test the medication or did not answer my emails. I MISS MY BEST FRIEND. I want her here with me so bad. I miss her tail hitting the door. I miss her talking to me. I miss those gorgeous amber eyes staring at me. I miss her so so much.
2-11-2024
Well today its been 9 months since Diamond left me. My God it seems like its only been a couple months at most.
I am going to try to send another request on the medicine from FDA. They wont answer me either and it is the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) that they must. When I am in the right frame of mind, I keep working on that letter to my former vet. I know he wont give a shit...but..I need to get it off my chest.
Diamond was such a laid back girl. She was clumsy, funny, a wiggle butt, a talker and a lover. She loved people. She would see a neighbor 2-3 houses down pull up in their drive and she would start whining to go see them. I had to tell her no. I still cannot believe she is gone. It just doesn't seem real. I would give anything to have her back. I miss you my love...I truly miss you. 💔
Well today its been 9 months since Diamond left me. My God it seems like its only been a couple months at most.
I am going to try to send another request on the medicine from FDA. They wont answer me either and it is the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) that they must. When I am in the right frame of mind, I keep working on that letter to my former vet. I know he wont give a shit...but..I need to get it off my chest.
Diamond was such a laid back girl. She was clumsy, funny, a wiggle butt, a talker and a lover. She loved people. She would see a neighbor 2-3 houses down pull up in their drive and she would start whining to go see them. I had to tell her no. I still cannot believe she is gone. It just doesn't seem real. I would give anything to have her back. I miss you my love...I truly miss you. 💔
2-22-2024
COMPLAINT FILED. This was the reply email....
Debbie
We have received your complaint filed against Dr. ************
Your Complaint has been assigned number **********
Typically, our investigative process takes 6 months to a year or more depending on a variety of factors. The second phase of the complaint process consists of a Medical Case Review and/or an Administrative (Non-Medical) Case Review which may take an additional 3-6 months. See Tex. Occ. Code § 801.206; 22 Tex. Admin. Code § 575.28(6).
You will be periodically notified of the status of this case. If at any time during this process you have questions, please feel free to call me at 512-***-****
Sincerely,
Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners
2-27-2024
Had this custom made. It's small..5-6 inches tall......but she did a great job. Oh and her fur has been added in that I sent to her. She put most of it around her heart area.
Had this custom made. It's small..5-6 inches tall......but she did a great job. Oh and her fur has been added in that I sent to her. She put most of it around her heart area.
3-11-2024
TODAY has been 10 months since Diamond left me. I swear it is all so very real and the pain still feels so new to me. I cry everyday at least for a few minutes and sometimes I just break down and bawl my eyes out as I feel that deep pain in my heart of missing her and wanting her here. How can one love a dog so much that they hurt more over them than any human that has passed away in their lifetime? My love for her was so deep; being without her everyday makes life almost unbearable on a daily basis. I struggle to get through life without my best friend here. I miss her more than anyone will ever know. I try to hide the pain but it’s all the time. I hurt for her. I cannot bear the thought of her not being with me anymore. It’s not fair damn it. The one thing that got me out of bed every day was her..and she is gone. I need my Diamond back so bad. God I love you Diamond. I miss you so damn much. My heart breaks everyday!
TODAY has been 10 months since Diamond left me. I swear it is all so very real and the pain still feels so new to me. I cry everyday at least for a few minutes and sometimes I just break down and bawl my eyes out as I feel that deep pain in my heart of missing her and wanting her here. How can one love a dog so much that they hurt more over them than any human that has passed away in their lifetime? My love for her was so deep; being without her everyday makes life almost unbearable on a daily basis. I struggle to get through life without my best friend here. I miss her more than anyone will ever know. I try to hide the pain but it’s all the time. I hurt for her. I cannot bear the thought of her not being with me anymore. It’s not fair damn it. The one thing that got me out of bed every day was her..and she is gone. I need my Diamond back so bad. God I love you Diamond. I miss you so damn much. My heart breaks everyday!
4-11-2024 - 11 months
To my most beautiful girl in the whole world that stole my heart forever.....I miss you and it still feels like just yesterday since you left. I still want to be wherever you are. I will live the rest of my life in pain..of losing you. I wished we could have went together so I wouldn't have to endure such pain everyday. 11 months today....I need you with me so bad.
To my most beautiful girl in the whole world that stole my heart forever.....I miss you and it still feels like just yesterday since you left. I still want to be wherever you are. I will live the rest of my life in pain..of losing you. I wished we could have went together so I wouldn't have to endure such pain everyday. 11 months today....I need you with me so bad.