Wednesday, December 30, 2009

A great relief


Mandy


That pretty girl had us very worried over the past several days.

The story starts a few weeks ago. Mandy, who has had digestive issues over the years, once again was having diarrhea and other related issues (a fever, etc.). This has happened in the past, and a course of antibiotics and Lomotil always took care of it. So the vet put her on those, but the problems didn't go away.

When she went back to the vet last week, just before Christmas, he x-rayed her abdomen, and there was something there the size of a grown man's fist. He couldn't say conclusively without an ultrasound, but it looked like a large mass (just holding up the x-ray film to the light, I could see it clearly, and I normally can't make out anything on an x-ray). If it turned out to be solid, they'd need to biopsy it, but there was a good chance that a solid mass would mean... well, it would mean we'd soon be losing our little girl. I wanted to vent about it last week and thought of blogging about it, but I didn't want to bring anyone down right before Christmas (particularly since I know some of you know Mandy from visits here).

On Monday, she went back to the vet and had her ultrasound done. It took until today to get the results. It's NOT cancer. I'm so relieved that I'm nearly in tears now, just typing that. Amazingly, it's not any kind of mass. It's her stomach. Not where it should be and quite distended, so she needs some help with that, but it looks like it's a completely treatable problem.

It seems she has some kind of issue causing her stomach to back up, so we're doing smaller meals (and have been for several days) and spreading them out through the day as much as we can. Also, the vet had us pick up Pepcid from the drug store. It seems dogs can take the same medicine we do, so she's going to take half a pill twice a day to help her stomach be more comfortable and settle down.

Next week, we'll touch base with him. He may do another x-ray then to see where things are. She has a small nodule on her spleen, but he's not too concerned about that. We just have to help her get her digestion straightened out. If it doesn't resolve on its own, they may do endoscopy or (and I really hope this isn't needed) exploratory surgery to try to fix what ails her. So she may have some unpleasant (and expensive, of course) things ahead, but at least it looks like she'll be okay in the end. Considering that I was literally in tears last week, thinking she might be dying, this isn't so bad!

5 comments:

Todd HellsKitchen said...

You're a good parent! Happy New Year!!!

Greg said...

Thank goodness it's something treatable. I'd hate for Mandy to have to undergo surgery of any kind!!!

Will said...

There have been a number of rises among animal companions of bloggers lately but it's good to hear that this one seems headed to a happy ending. Big New Years hugs to you, Marc and Mandy.

Pua; Bakin' and Tendin' Bar said...

Oh gosh..thank goodness. Like Will said, there seems to be many of us whose fur babies are having some issues of late. I'm so happy our baby girl Mandy is doing better. She is not alone in the Pepcid department. Ellie is taking an anti-ulcer med as well as Pepcid. She's doing much better and I'm glad to hear that Mandy is going to be ok. Love you both and give her an ear tickle from Aunty Pua. ;)

A DC said...

Thank goodness she's doing well!
I still hope to meet her in person someday...