Friday, October 5, 2012

Planning

Yesterday, after work, I was hanging out with the pugs enjoying the gorgeous evening. I asked them about their day, informed them about the status of their Halloween costumes and we tried to figure out something fun to do this weekend? What about you? Do you have anything fun planned for the weekend?

Monday, October 1, 2012

Thanks

Luna would like to personally thank everyone for their good thoughts, well wishes, prayers and positive vibes. She's sorry to have made everyone worry, but she wants you all to know that she is feeling much better and is back to being the boss at the OBP casa. Not that she ever wasn't in charge. She just had to take a few more potty breaks than normal

Thank you!

Friday, September 28, 2012

Good News

Luna had her second sonogram yesterday and we received very good news. The bump on her bladder that was suspicious has shrunk in size. It isn't completely gone, but it is smaller and less inflamed. Which is fantastic because tumors do not shrink from antibiotics.

We can't say 100% that it isn't cancer since we did not have a biopsy done. But, all signs point to it being cystitis in the bladder wall.

To be on the safe side and to make sure we get rid of all of the suspected infection, Luna will be on clavamox for a bit longer and will have another sonogram in two weeks to take another peak at her bladder to see if the lump has shrunk even more. Hopefully, on the next sonogram there will be no evidence of a bump on her bladder at all.

Thank you everyone for the well wishes and support. It must have worked because we are heading in the right direction.

Have a great weekend.

Monday, September 24, 2012

2nd Verse Same as the First

Over the weekend, we heard from the specialist. The specialist is of the same mind as our regular vet that a biopsy would be the next logical step. However, they are not in favor of the needle biopsy. Instead they would prefer to make a few small incisions similar to a spay and do a biopsy that way.

Before we proceed with the biopsy though, Luna is going to have another sonogram on Thursday to see if the spot on her bladder is still the same size.

In the meantime, we started Luna on a second dose of antibiotics. We are still hoping that this is some sort of crazy infection.

We will know more on Thursday.

For now Luna is doing well. She is acting like her normal alpha female self. And the best part is that we haven't seen any blood in her urine in the last few days.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Luna Update

We received the much anticipated lab work results for Luna. The results confirm that it is neither the worst case scenario, nor is it the best case scenario.

Essentially, there were no cell types generally associated with cancer in Luna's urine. However, that does not rule out cancer. It just means that she does not have a tumor that is shedding cells (worst case scenario).

Also, there was no bacteria found in Luna's urine. So that rules out the possibility that a high concentration of Clavamox resistant bacteria was causing the problem (best case scenario).

So we really don't have a diagnosis yet. It could still be an infection or it could be a bladder tumor.

Luna has been on Clavamox for about 6 days now and it is only in the last few days that we have noticed less blood in her urine. If it was an infection the Clavamox should have cleared up the blood in her urine sooner, but the fact that it is clearing up now is a encouraging sign to me at least. Better late than never, in my opinion.

So, where do we go from here? The lab work results have been sent to a specialist and they are going to read the results and offer their opinion on how we should proceed. After the first round of antibiotics are complete, Luna will have another sonogram to check out her bladder to see how it looks. A needle biopsy of the inflamed area is the best bet to figure out exactly what we are dealing with, but that is not without risks.

For now we are waiting to hear what the specialist has to say and invading Luna's privacy at her every potty break by examining her urine. I'll be sure to keep you updated.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Warm Fuzzies Requested

In the wee hours of Wednesday morning something weird happened - Luna got out of bed and went to the yard to go potty. For most dogs this would not be considered much of event, the boys go out in the middle of the night to go potty pretty regularly, but Luna never, ever needs to go out before her morning walk.

On her morning walk, when she went potty, I noticed blood in her urine. I was alarmed, but didn't flip out about the blood because I figured the likely culprit was a urinary track infection. The earliest vet appointment I could get was Thursday.

On Thursday, Luna and I made the trip to the vet. In addition to taking a urine sample, I also talked to the vet about her cough that Luna had developed a few months ago but had been treated as acid reflux. The cough was not only not getting better but was now getting worse especially over the last few days.

When they examined Luna's urine, they did not see any indications of a urinary track infection. Other than the fact that there was blood in the urine everything looked right.

Luna was prescribed antibiotics even though it didn't seem like she had a urinary tract infection, something is clearly wrong. We didn't want to waste time waiting to see if the antibiotics would work within the week. We chose for proactive investigation. Our vet suggested that if we were going to do everything, we should bring her back the next day to get a sonogram done on her bladder and a chest X-Ray done, too, to see what might be causing her cough.

Friday, Luna had her tests done. The chest X-Rays revealed some "consolidation" on her right lung. It could be pneumonia, but it did not look like what a typical case of pneumonia looks like on an X-Ray. The sonogram on her bladder revealed that one of the walls on her bladder showed some thickening. There was also sediment in the bladder. The most concerning part about the bladder is that thickening on the walls is concentrated on one side. In a typical bladder infection case, the walls of the entire bladder would be thickened rather than centralized in one area.

After the X-Ray and and the sonogram, we still didn't have anything definitive to worry about (but that never stopped us from worrying before), but things certainly were not looking good for real.

The main concern is that Luna might have a tumor on her bladder. But, we don't know for sure. It could just be that Luna's bladder infection is just not as conventional as a usual bladder infection. A blood test was also done and it revealed that Luna's white blood cell count was on the high side of normal, BUT it was still in the normal range.

So for the time being Luna is on antibiotics. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the antibiotics will clear up everything. But in the meantime, bloodwork was sent out for a full panel and cultures on her urine were sent out to find out more about the cells in her urine.

After her first course of antibiotics, Luna will have another sonogram to see how the walls of her bladder look. If still thickened only in the one spot, a biopsy will be in order. A downside of a biopsy on the bladder is that if tumor is cancerous, the needle prick will release the cancerous cells into the rest of her body. So, while we don't want to delay it, we also do not want to rush the biopsy.

The best case scenario is that the antibiotics clear everything up. I am hoping against all hope that this is the case. (We should have lab results by Wednesday or Thursday. Until then….holding our breath.)

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Fresh Water

The cat is super particular about her water. She used to only drink out of the swimming pool, but recently she has set her sights on the pugs' water bowl. That strikes me as odd because Cupid is the type of kitty to steer as far away from dog germs as possible.

However, Cupid will not drink out of the pugs' water bowl any old time. She will only drink from their bowl when we change the water. Only the freshest water for Cupid.

The other day she took it a step farther and started drinking from the bowl before I could even put it back on the mat.