I had posted a response in a post a few weeks ago mentioning the fact that Chaos is getting old too and had suffered a neurological event.
We still do not know what caused it or if it really was some type of seizure. She was put on Keppra and there have been no further events. We did get to see our regular vet this week for her senior exam and to have him take a look at all the notes and tests from our ER visit. I LOVE my vet but sadly he is semi-retired and over a year ago moved to another state but has been coming back to help out when they need it, sort of fill in when another of the clinics vets is gone, thus we were lucky to see him and so glad we did.
He spent 50 minutes talking to me including his exam of Chaos. His exam did find her grade 2 heart murmur is indeed now a grade 4. He did not feel it was bad heart disease as her heart rate was 80 and if the murmur was causing her heart any stress her heart rate would be fast. He said the neurological event could be heart related either a syncopal episode or even a small clot from the heart breaking off being too small to lodge in the lungs so ended up in the brain causing sort of a slight mini stroke before it quickly dissolved.
He said I could go see a neurologist and spend thousands of dollars doing tests like MRI's and Spinal taps yet still not find and answer. He felt the tests I should consider as not only could they perhaps show a reason for the event, but they would shed some light on why that heart murmur is now a grade 4, were a cardiac ultrasound (ECHO) and an abdominal ultrasound. He also thought I should try weaning her off the Keppra and see if we get anymore neurological events. We ran a home catch Urine as the ER found protein in her urine and he felt it was from stress as dogs drop protein when stressed. He would call me the next day with the urine results and to find out what I decided to do.
The next day he called just as we got home from our morning walk and I was getting ready to feed the dogs. Her urine was fine. I told him I would do the ultrasounds and he said sadly he is the only one in his clinic that can do the cardiac echo and he was only in town for two more days so gave me the name of two cardiologists. Then he says but if you go to one of them you will have to have someone else do the abdomen. I said OK. Then he said let me take a look at my schedule and said he has lunch from 1-2 then 2-3 is open for emergencies so told me to bring her in as he could give up lunch and then use some of that open time too to do them. There are a lot of measurements and calculations involved so it takes time to do two ultrasounds.
I told him he does not have to give up his lunch as we can see a cardiologist and one of the other clinic vets, but he insisted it was Ok and he would do it. He claimed most lunches are used to squeeze in things that they could not fit in the schedule. He did warn me he has never done an abdominal ultrasound in a geriatric dog and not found anything wrong. So, I dropped Chaos off. Luckly, I had not put her breakfast down yet so doing both tests was possible. Chaos was mad she did not get her breakfast!
The echo showed she does have a mild leak in her mitral valve and a slight leak in her tricuspid valve, but her heart size, function and everything else is normal. No growths on the heart or the heart valves. Noral sinus rhythm the whole time. Based on that he does not feel she has serious heart disease so says it is Stage B and it is just degenerative changes of aging, so no cardiac medications needed. He now feels this makes the heart being responsible for the neurological event less likely but not impossible.
The abdominal ultrasound showed a small nodule in the liver, but it does not look like cancer, so he is not concerned. He said her liver looks grainy which he also is not worried about, there is a slight amount of sludge in her gall bladder, the texture of her spleen is a bit mottled, and her adrenal gland are 1mm larger than you would expect in a dog her size, which could be Cushing's disease but being she has no outward signs of that, it could just be a variant in size. He said you would not give any medicine for Cushing's unless you see signs of it. So over all he says everything that was off is most likely normal degenerative changes you tend to see in the geriatric population of dogs. Everything else in there looked good with no signs of cancer and normal sized lymph nodes.
I guess you might say both tests just confirmed that she is an older dog and has wear and tear on the organs of her body. We will try to wean her off the Keppra and if she has neurological events put her back on it and either just keep her on it or consider seeing a neurologist. Keeping my finger crossed that it was a onetime event. Hopefully she will hang around a few more years as she is such a good girl.
I love my vet and am going to miss him big time. You can tell he loves his job and takes great satisfaction in it so much that I think giving it up is much harder than he thought it would be. Having him all these years makes me cringe when people make statements like all vet's care about is money and all the other complaints people have about vets. Too many people get too abusive and rude towards the vet and staff because they do not like hearing what they are being told despite it being true. It is not an easy job and often has long hours and missed lunch breaks, so I am thankful there are people willing to do it as most vets do not make a ton of money like too many think they do. Yup I will miss him big time but do wish him well in the next chapter of his life.
Having gone through the life cycles of multiple dogs I can say the years do pass much too fast, but each dog does teach you something new so knowing each one is worth it. If you have an older dog enjoy each day with it and accept, they will not be with you forever no matter how much you want that.
Where is my breakfast?
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
