April
Our happy bouncy 5 year old Jack russel x foxy has been through hell the last month or so. Completely different dog. So sick ???? I’ve spent thousands on repeat vet visits, when they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him or why he was so sick. First they said he must have eaten trash… X-ray fine… nothing. Keep an eye on him, he should improve in a few days. Nope. Vomiting, fever, went lame in his back leg, MISERABLE!! Totally off his food (VERY out of character)… lethargic. Sleeping in every day… avoiding games. Sleeping on couch all day. Not barking at passing cars. He didn’t even run outside to greet me when I returned from the shops and couldn’t jump up on his couch or my bed.. we had to lift him. So sick! Took him back, they kept him for the weekend, put him on fluids and did tests. His stool had blood in it.. vet says “stomach ulcer”… out on meds to reduce stomach acid, pain killers and antibiotics. Diet of chicken and rice only. Well, he wouldn’t eat or drink and just got worse. If he ate, he vomited. He wasn’t pooping. Another week had passed, he was not better… instead he was worse again. Back fur further investigations. They decide to operate, as we all thought he was a goner… maybe he had swollowed something after all, that couldn’t be seen on the X-ray?! They call me after the surgery. They say they didn’t even go into his stomach or digestive tract at all… because when they opened him up, they found his speed was tumorous. They removed it. They said the rest of his organs looked “clean”, so they stitched him up and froze the spleen in case I decide to send it for testing. They say, it doesn’t explain the gastrointestinal issues or the lame back leg… but hopefully, when he recovers, all his symptoms will resolve. Unfortunately, we have not been that lucky! He is defined a lot better than the deathly ill little guy who went for surgery… but he is far from his youthful, perky and happy self! It’s been 2 weeks! He is still off his food, very skinny, sad looking, seems to shy away from bright light, sleeps a lot, won’t play, wants to come for walks but tires out and can’t go far then wants to be picked up and carried home… still having trouble pooping, still burping and having odd loud grumblings of the time, his eyes (though better than before) still look a bit dull. He hold his ear funny and shakes it from time to time, he gets the trembles and shakes, he still goes weak in his back legs and you can see the quiver in his leg muscles. He’s itchy again… and I feel so badly for him… but he will never have another Cytopoint injection, ever again! If he makes it through this, I worry that he will never be himself again and that he will live his life out being sick and miserable and itchy ???? He’s only had Cytopoint twice. The first time, it lasts 4 months… the second time, he was scratching within a week, but that resolved and then he had made it through til now, without too much of an itch… it’s been roughly 2 month and for most of that time, I had not connected the injection, to his symptoms.. but now I realise, he was off colour and not himself for a few weeks before he became very sick. Poor little guy. I feel horribly guilty for ever letting the vet give him those shots.