Beth & Atlas
Member Since 2010
Yesterday's Condo
Long night for us. About midnight Attie had some vomiting. I am thinking that was due to mucus buildup triggering the gagging? He didn't vomit again after that and was immediately drinking lots of water and tried to eat. He kept gagging at the food so we tried something different ...no go either. He has had FF fish all week and I think in some respects he is tired of it. I have not seen him use the litter box either, although he could be doing that when I am not home or sleeping.
I anticipate dashing off to the vet this morning for our first steroid treatment. Not sure what that will entail but sort of thinking he may get a shot.
Been thinking about the lantus and how to handle dosing for the next few weeks of treatment. The lack of flexibility in dosing vs. other insulins is frustrating. This is one time that quarter unit dose increases, building sheds, and the slow action of lantus is detrimental to overall critical care involving other health issues. As the vet said yesterday he is less concerned right now with Attie being out of regulation for several weeks than with getting this fluid build-up in his lungs under control. I on the other hand have both as a first priority.
We have not ruled asthma out or in as that is what some of testing was for. There is no actual test for asthma and asthma is treated with steroids in either pill, shot, or puffer forms. I have reviewed all the information I could find in regards to symptoms and I saw none of those in leading up to this event. That doesn't mean it is not, it just means I did not see and indications. All this testing we did was to rule things out that held a potential to be compounded by starting steroids and making matters worse. If the last two tests come back negative, then we're looking at two things....
A sterile bronchial inflammatory response/disease...asthma
or
Metastic lung cancer (which means Attie has days left to live).
We could go for a BLA at that point or not. We're already in a deep financial stiuation from this week alone between the x-rays and extensive bloodwork tests, plus it looks like we'll be starting steroid treatment today which I still don't know what that will be...we're approaching a thousand dollars. The rainy day funds and holiday funds are tapped out.
So paws are crossed the steroids work for a lot of reasons.
Long night for us. About midnight Attie had some vomiting. I am thinking that was due to mucus buildup triggering the gagging? He didn't vomit again after that and was immediately drinking lots of water and tried to eat. He kept gagging at the food so we tried something different ...no go either. He has had FF fish all week and I think in some respects he is tired of it. I have not seen him use the litter box either, although he could be doing that when I am not home or sleeping.
I anticipate dashing off to the vet this morning for our first steroid treatment. Not sure what that will entail but sort of thinking he may get a shot.
Been thinking about the lantus and how to handle dosing for the next few weeks of treatment. The lack of flexibility in dosing vs. other insulins is frustrating. This is one time that quarter unit dose increases, building sheds, and the slow action of lantus is detrimental to overall critical care involving other health issues. As the vet said yesterday he is less concerned right now with Attie being out of regulation for several weeks than with getting this fluid build-up in his lungs under control. I on the other hand have both as a first priority.
Karrie & Maverick asked about asthma.
We have not ruled asthma out or in as that is what some of testing was for. There is no actual test for asthma and asthma is treated with steroids in either pill, shot, or puffer forms. I have reviewed all the information I could find in regards to symptoms and I saw none of those in leading up to this event. That doesn't mean it is not, it just means I did not see and indications. All this testing we did was to rule things out that held a potential to be compounded by starting steroids and making matters worse. If the last two tests come back negative, then we're looking at two things....
A sterile bronchial inflammatory response/disease...asthma
or
Metastic lung cancer (which means Attie has days left to live).
We could go for a BLA at that point or not. We're already in a deep financial stiuation from this week alone between the x-rays and extensive bloodwork tests, plus it looks like we'll be starting steroid treatment today which I still don't know what that will be...we're approaching a thousand dollars. The rainy day funds and holiday funds are tapped out.
So paws are crossed the steroids work for a lot of reasons.