Sue,

I really understand where you are right now.  I have not posted much in the last few days because of some of the same problems.  We lost Bonnie 2 weeks ago today.   I called my vet the following week and asked her to indulge me and do CBC's on Bonnie's mom, Saydie, and her brother, Clyde.   I knew I had problems when my vet called me back herself.  Saydie, her mom, is fine.  Clyde, Bonnie's brother, had an elevated liver enzyme that worried my vet.   She said that it could indicate Cushing's but could not be sure.   She was trying her best not to scare me, but could not.  Let's face it, one dog sick at a time is enough and it is really hard to wait and not overreact.  

Our prayers are with you and your furry babies.  

Just a quick update.  I just got in to find a message from my vet regarding Emmy's malignancy profile.  It is apparently a parathyroid tumor.  She said she was going to get with the oncologist on Monday and check to see what the next step should be. Of course I have a gazillion questions that I can't get answered because she has patients right now, then they close at noon.  I just googled it and it said it's rare for a parathyroid tumor to be malignant. Maybe is isn't, but I really don't know anything until I talk to her. If it's benign, it looks like it might be something that can be cured or dealt with. If not, I have no clue.

It's been a rough week with Emmy. Excessive thirst and she's urinating constantly, all over the house. She hasn't done stuff like that in years.  I've tried to cut her water intake but she went for the toilets, sinks, water cooler, etc. I have 4 boys in my house so it's been a chore trying to make sure the toilet seats are all down. When I let her outside she knocks over all my potted plants to drink the water from them, and even ripped the downspout off the side of the house so that she could "drink" the contents.

Nova, on the other hand, is happy, healthy, perfectly well-behaved, and does her business outside when she's supposed to.

I will check in again once I find out more.

Sue and Nova

Thanks, Pam.  I agree that there has to be more to the story. Before my vet said the platelet abnormalities made her worry about lymphoma. And from what I read online, excessive thirst and urination are also symptoms of lymphoma.  Her bruises are all gone now, so the prednisone did something.  On Saturday the vet told me to cut back the pred to 1 twice a day rather than 3 twice a day. Now she is very, very lethargic, constipated, not eating much, and is LIMPING on her left front leg. I have felt the leg all over for lumps and found nothing.  She is holding the leg up and looks like she is in pain, although I can't seem to find an area on the leg that she flinches at when I touch it.

My vet is supposed to call the oncologist this morning to try to get her recommendation on a next step.  I am going to call when they open at 9 to tell her about Emmy's other symptoms. I have to meet with the Assisted Living/Memory Care people today regarding my Mom with Alzheimer's so it is a really bad day for another dog emergency. Hopefully they can get me in at the vet later today.

The limping has thrown me for a loop. It is exactly the same leg as Nova's was.

We'll see what happens.

Sue

Thank you all so much for your kind words and support.  My vet spoke with the oncologist this morning and she wanted us to come in ASAP, so we are all set to see Nova's oncologist tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm.  I am going to stop in at my vet tomorrow on the way there to get a new CBC ($45 LESS than the oncologist charges) so we can see what has changed since last week. I am also going to bring along all the x-rays and test results, just like I did with Nova way back when. I am sure she will want to do even more tests, or x-rays. I am hoping though that she will be able to put her finger on the problem right away just like she did with Nova.

I think I figured out why she was limping.  I was gone all day with my Dad dealing with all this Assisted Living stuff for my Mom that has been consuming our time, but when I got back I noticed Emmy's front left paw was swollen, like one of the toes. To me it looked like maybe she was stung by a bee or something, one of the toes was all puffed up and red and she was licking it. Of course I will have it looked at tomorrow, but it didn't seem like it warranted a trip to the Emergency Clinic and didn't seem cancer-related since it was soft and puffy, not hard.

It's so cute, Nova's been nudging Emmy to get up and play. You can tell she is wondering what's wrong.

I'll check in again once we see the Oncologist tomorrow.

Sue

I took Emmy to Nova's oncologist today. The good news is that there is a small parathyroid tumor that is curable with surgery. The onco is going to watch her calcium levels for the next week or two since it has gone up a bit in the past week. She doesn't want to put Emmy through surgery until the platelet count is up within normal ranges. Right now it is up to 140 (was 49 last Friday) so it is moving in the right direction. The prednisone must be working. The other good news is that the onco feels pretty confident that we are not dealing with any sort of cancer. They did an ultrasound of Emmy's liver and spleen, and everything looked good. The bad news is they are still trying to figure out why the platelets shot way down, it appears to be totally unrelated to the parathyroid tumor. She took some blood for some sort of parasite or tick-borne illness, and has to send that off somewhere. So we'll see.

This morning the foot she had been limping on had one toe that swelled up to the size of a plum. Yuck. By then it was rubbing against her toenail (which are too long, but I've been advised not to cut them until we get the platelet thing under control) so it was raw and bleeding. The x-rayed the paw, nothing was broken, it was suspected that she must have caught the nail on something and bent it back, causing trauma to the toe. Vet prescribed antibiotics, so we just got going on those. Thank Dog for $4 prescriptions at Walmart! And Thank Dog it was not osteosarcoma, it is really hard to see a limping dog and not think the worst, after what I went through with Nova.

All this meant that my poor sweet hunk of tail-waggin' love Nova was left alone all day, so by the time we got home she was a big old drama queen, licking Emmy all over, while Emmy just wanted to plunk down on her bed and sleep. It was fun to go to the oncologist and be able to tell them how well Nova was doing. And I was looking through their collection of brochures, and they decided to use a few pictures of Nova in them, so that was kinda cool. Nova the Covergirl! Even today they were all still talking about this amazing Great Dane who gets around beautifully even though she is both blind AND a Tripawd.  I am so proud!

Sue, Nova, and Emmy

How relieving to know that it's not anything worse than a "nuisance tumor"!!!  Best of luck!