 | mobile - desktop |
|
| mobile - desktop |
|
 |
 Contact Sales! |
News & Events:
|
Posted by RJ Mello on September 16, 2001 at 14:19:07:
Well, it's three weeks yesterday Shirley went in for the endoscopy and came home with a hysterectomy. I ‘ve dropped off all the boards. The first couple of weeks were touch and go and I just couldn’t share the story till I was sure she was out of the woods. Not to mention the fact I’ve been really busy taking care of her.
Some of you might remember my posts. The first vet diagnosed her symptoms as vitamin A deficiency (with no blood work, mind you). The second vet wasn't sure but the blood work X-Rays & her age (10 years) pointed to either kidney disease or being egg bound (which considering the time of year, the fact X-Rays showed no sign of it, combined w/the high likelihood of kidney disease at 10 years old, we weren't really expecting). Every day she was getting sicker & weaker . . .so I finally decided to skip the ultrasound and go straight to the endoscopy.
I made the right decision. Dr. S. called me while she was still asleep to tell me she was egg bound w/both egg sacs broken and yolk filling the abdomen and peritonitis. My only choices were euthanasia or the hysterectomy (after which, because of the peritonitis, he said her chances of recovery would be only “slim”). My first reaction was “Go ahead w/the surgery”. Then I thought, “But if she’s that likely not to recover, is it right to put her through this just cause I’m not ready to loose her?” Still on the phone w/the Doc, I was stuck. . .didn’t know which was the right answer. . .so I asked him what he’d do if she was his Ig.
He rinsed her abdominal cavity twice, with sterile solution & betadine, to combat the peritonitis and, had to remove a lot of tissue too (doing a hysterectomy when they’re NOT ovulating is allot easier on the animal). She came through the Friday surgery fine and was sent home w/3 days worth of injectable synthetic morphine and 7 days worth of BIG baytril injections. I took Monday off, to be able to administer all her pain meds when needed and sat out in the sun w/her each day. She was eating some on her own, I was helping out w/a baby food/ensure mix and being out in the sun induced healthy pooping. Everything was going really, really well. . . but Tuesday I had to go back to work.
The pain meds were done, and we could do the baytril in the evening, but once I went back to working during the day, I couldn’t get her out in the sun much at all. Neither was I supposed to soak her, because of the incision, for 2 whole weeks. She stopped pooping and stopped eating on her own. I continued feeding the baby food/ensure with pedialyte too.
After I her follow up bloodwork, the next Friday, Dr. S. called me Saturday morning & said her phosphorus & potassium levels were critically high and her calcium critically low. Phosphorus normal is 8ish. Calcium is close to that. Her’s were 45! and .06! respectively. (When I asked, he said the result of such a high phosphorus level, is her heart could stop beating.) He said, in an attempt to get her kidney’s working again, I could start soaking her (a week earlier than he’d intended) or find we’d need to push fluids directly into the abdomen or bone, to get her kidneys working again. Since and I couldn’t find an emergency vet to do it that day….I soaking her.
She pooped when I soaked her, but the first there were was little urine & no urates. The second day there was no urine or nitrates and the solid matter looked like undigested baby food . . . and when I shared this w/Dr. S., we were back to considering the fact that kidney problems might be part of what the original problem was after all. If that WAS the case, definitely didn’t want to flood her system w/abdominal or bone injections and said (what I already knew) that if her kidney’s really weren’t functioning all we could really do is just “keep her comfortable”. That was a really ruff weekend for me. I felt like I’d put her through all this pain for what was turning out to be nothing. She slept in the bed w/us that night and my boyfriend didn’t say a peep about it (not at all like him).
Determined not to give up, I it occurred to me to started adding hibiscus leaves to the baby food slurry and running it through the food processor (years ago I had good results adding hibiscus leaves to the diet of a rehab Ig w/ “gout”). By this time it was about the 3rd day after I’d begun soaking her again. On the 4th day. . . I saw urine again! On the 5th, she added some dirty urates! On the sixth, the urates were getting cleaning. Since then. . . it’s pretty much been all been good!
I didn’t get a Saturday call after her 2nd blood follow-up. Dr. S. called me Monday morning to say, in a pleasantly surprised tone, that her blood levels were back to normal.
She’s sick of living in the bathtub but she’s the most gentle Iggie girl and has been an angel through it all. Never trying to bite, never showing a single sign of aggression. Of course….with all the bad (shots, had feeding, etc…) stuff I’ve had to do to her, I’ve taken special care to spend extra non-treatment time w/her too. She’s feeling so good she’s trying to climb and I have to keep a close eye on her spend outside time w/her 3 Ig buddies in the outside cage. I can tell she really wants to be back out there w/them full time, but we’ve still got 3 more weeks before the stitches come out. . .so no climbing (or being climbed on) yet.
The Doc has suggested I consider getting the other two girls “spayed” too. . .and, although I’ve always recommended against elective hysterectomies. . .I’m considering it. If Shirley hadn’t had eggs in her, the surgery wouldn’t have been as difficult. If Shirley hadn’t had eggs in her, she wouldn’t have had peritonitis (which is what really made her recovery chances so slim). Then there’s always the. . .If I would have taken her to the doctor sooner. But she did such a good job of masking her symptoms, I evidently missed them for a long time.
Romeo (yes, a girl) is Shirley age, and her last clutch was irregularly shaped and laid over the space of a week (not normal). Lil’Girl’s last clutch was all normal….but there were 42 (no kidding!) of them and we ended up having to induce w/oxytocin. Once Shirley’s stitches are out, I’m thinking about taking both to Dr. S., to evaluate which is the best candidate to go next. Because of her age & the time it took her to lay her last clutch, I think it’ll be Romeo. I’ve still go 3 more weeks before Shirley’s stitches are out though. . .so won’t know for awhile.
So….I’m signing off now (about time, huh). Just thankful to finally be able to get back on board w/some good news to share.
Rebecca,
Shirleythe Ig, and
the rest of the gang
