Off Phenobarbital and doing well

Well we have been off Phenobarbital for a week now. And Fuzzy is doing just fine. Really, she is almost back to her old self completely. She is still blind in her right eye. But she has tons of energy. She seems happy. She has even started playing with her toys again! She is down to 7.5 mg of Prednisone and 25mg of Zonisamide in the morning and 10 mg of Leflunomide and 25mg of Zonisamide in the evening. She even loves taking her meds because she gets it in a small bite of cheese and then she gets food after. So she comes running when she hears the pill bottle noise. :)

Changes in Meds

We are now trying to get Fuzzy of the Phenobarbital because it cases liver damage. So she is being switched slowly to Zonisamide. She is taking that now twice a day and the Pheno only in the morning. Soon she will be off it all together but the doctor said it does not work quite as well so I am crossing my fingers hoping we will not have any trouble. He is also working on reducing her Prednisone which is the drug with the nastiest side effects but that is the most effective in treating the disease. She has been taking 15mg a day in the mornings and yesterday she dropped down to 7.5mg. She will be on this dosage for 2 months and then go to that same amount every other day instead of every day.

So far she is doing good. A happy but still hungry puppy.

Hungry Fuzz

Well we just got back from our trip to Yosemite this week. Fuzzy was well taken care of by Eric (and my mom for the last 3 days) while we were away. She came back home looking better than ever... full of energy. I think she had a great time on her little vacation. :)

The only thing is... she has gained more than a full pound since I dropped her off at Eric's. She has weighed 10lbs her whole life until recently... she weighed 11.4 lbs when I took her to the vet both the first day she got sick and also when we were in Boston. My mom weighed her when Eric dropped her off because I thought she looked a little fat in the photos... and she weighed 12.6lbs. Ugh! Chubby puppy! Dr. Sisson told me to be sure not to overfeed her.... the steroids make her hungry all the time. So Fuzzy is now on a strict diet. When I weighed her yesterday she was 12.4lbs. I want to get her down to 11.5lbs at the most.

She is so hungry all the time though... she cries and cries in the kitchen... and she growls too when we ignore her. But she is getting plenty of food... it is just the steroids growling. :( I feel bad for her but I have to take care of her health first.

Photos from Sunday on the boat

Cytosine treatment at home

Today and yesterday are Fuzzy's days for her injections that I have to give her at home now. She has been a very good girl.... she didn't squirm at all. I do think that is having an effect on her though... after the first injection yesterday she starting having to pee A LOT and having accidents in the house which has never been a problem before. I bought a little steam cleaner for the carpet and hopefully it is a temporary problem because of the injections... it seems to coincidental that it only started after her first injection...? Hm...

Besides that she is good. We are getting ready for a trip to Yosemite with family... for several reasons the trip really cannot be cancelled. Originally Fuzzy was going to go with us but now that she is sick I am not going to take her. Someone I trust will be watching her and taking care of her. She will need to go in Tuesday (a week after her injections) to get a CBC done and sent to Dr. Sisson. I have already arranged it with a vet near Eric's home. Hopefully she will have a fun vacation with him and it will be uneventful as far as her GME goes.

My mom's Bichon Riley

This post isn't really about Fuzzy. She is doing good on her new meds. Pretty much the same. She is still having panting fits about 2 hours after getting her meds at night too even though she only is getting the Prednisone in the morning. I am surprised about that. But she is doing good. I am preparing to go out of town to something that is unfortunately unavoidable and will write about that later.

For now, this post is about Riley, my mom's Bichon that she adopted from a rescue facility several years ago... he had cancer about a month and a half ago... a tumor that they removed but warned the cancer was likely to come back. Well he was very ill and they took him in and it turns out the cancer had returned and it was bad... they had to put him down today. :( Riley was an awesome dog. Full of fun and life... he loved to chase balls and play... but lately he's been doing a lot of snuggling. My parents are very sad of course. Please keep them in your thoughts. He will be missed so much.

Back from Boston

Wow today I am exhausted. Yesterday was so long. We got up at 5 but after almost no sleep because Fuzzy was really restless on her new, higher-dose of Prednisone that Dr. Sisson had me start her on. So with almost no sleep we headed to the airport. The flight was 3 hours to Boston. Then we got on the train which dropped us a half a mile from Angell where Dr. Sisson works. Fuzzy was cramped up in her carrier for the past 6 hours so I let her walk from the train stop and she was able to walk all the way there! Good job Fuzz!

Dr. Sisson ended up spending about 2 1/2 hours with us, which was awesome. He checked her over, they took blood, and he took down a detailed account of everything that has happened so far with Fuzzy. He also showed me how to mix and give her the chemo drugs that I will have to inject her with once a month. He also explained the differences between the different possible drugs for GME and why he uses the ones he does. He seemed to have a LOT of experience with GME dogs... I was very impressed and satisfied when we left. We got 2 months worth of drugs for Fuzzy and left. One of the blood tests was for infectious disease... just to rule out 10 or so other diseases that she could, although probably does not have. Doesn't make sense to treat a dog for a disease that she doesn't have of course!

Actually, I just got an email from Dr. Sisson a few minutes ago that let me know that the infectious disease test that he gave her came back negative for all diseases except two they are still waiting for the results for. (they are sent to a bunch of different labs that specialize in testing for the different diseases)

By the time we got checked out of the hospital and took the train back into town, I had just over an hour to spend with my friend Daryush (from high school) who lives in the area. He took us into his work and showed us around... and then we got back on the train and headed to the airport. Unfortunately, when we got there we found out that our flight was delayed and in the end, it ended up being 3 hours late. We finally took off at 11pm and arrived back in Orlando at 2am. By the time I got back home to Saint Cloud it was 3am and Fuzzy and I were pooped, as was Danny who had been up as long as us since he took us to and from the airport. It was probably close to 4 when we finally got to sleep... and again, Fuzzy was quite restless all night.

Today has been rough for me and Fuzzy. I feel like I got hit by a truck. The days of being able to stay up until 4am with no consequences is long past it seems. :) And Fuzzy looks as bad as I feel so I bet she feels the same. It was a long long rough day.... and longer than we thought it would be because of the long delay at the airport. But she was a good little pup... only barked at one little girl and some birds, all day. I wonder if it would have been better to stay the night? But I was afraid sleeping in a strange place would stress her out and be a lot more complicated.

Tonight was her first night on her new drug, Leflunomide (10mg, once a day at night) so we will see if she has any reaction... so far she seems the same. And tomorrow Dr. Sisson is dropping us down to 15mg of Prednisone once a day instead of the 15 twice a day she had today and 20 twice a day she had the previous two days. Looking forward to maybe not having her not quite so restless at night.

Going to Boston to see Dr. Sisson

So it is all arranged. I am flying out in the morning early to go to Boston for a 1pm appoint for Dr. Sisson to see Fuzzy. Then I will hang out in Boston with my friend Daryush (from high school) until my flight leaves in the evening.

Her neurologist was not happy at all, which I hate to see since I have liked them so much but Dr. Sisson has a program that is proven that in most cases can get the dogs off all medications in a year. And this is important to me. The place that has been working for her has told me that I most likely will give her medications forever. But there are people in this Yahoo group I recently joined that have had their dogs off medications for years using Dr. Sisson's approach.

Not only that but I hate that there is no one here for me to even email about something in the case of an emergency on the weekends or at night. Dr. Sisson has email that I can at least ask questions about things like her possible skin infection that she had this weekend... and he will get back with me relatively soon. At AVS they have told me I am just out of luck until the next business day which in the case of this weekend was Tuesday when the thing happened Saturday. Not cool. :( Not for an over-protective and somewhat paranoid "parent" like me.

Also, Dr. Sisson can prescribe the drugs Fuzzy needs and I can give them to her myself instead of having to take her to the hospital for two days every three weeks. That is a benefit for me and Fuzz.

All in all it is a huge step obviously and I am completely terrified about doing the wrong thing. But all I can do at this point is go with my gut and my gut feeling is that he knows a little more about the disease and has done more research and that I will be more informed and better equipped to deal with her with his information guiding me. Also, that Fuzzy will be happier not being in the hospital so much and that she will likely be able to be off drugs sooner this way. So I have to do it and hope I am right and that this is the better thing for her.

Tomorrow is going to be a long and probably stressful day for both of us but it needs to be done. I hope everything goes well.

Contacting a GME expert

Fuzzy is doing ok today. The scab and puss on her back are pretty much the same but she does not have a fever. I called the neurologist today but of course no one is there since it is a holiday. I was just hoping.

I did just send an email to a doctor in Boston who is supposed to be the biggest expert on this disease. I am really hoping he will write back and that I can get Fuzzy on his program. I have been in contact with other GME dog owners through this online group and the consensus is that is what I need to do in order to have the best chance of Fuzzy going into remission and ultimately getting Fuzzy off the drugs which are harmful to her system long-term.

For now, I wait and see if he contacts me back... I call tomorrow and see what her doctor says about the scab on her back... and go from there.

Weird cut and green puss

I came home today and noticed a small scab on Fuzzy's back and some green snot-like looking puss around it. :( I was told to be very careful of infection because of her depressed immune system. So I ran right out and got a thermometer. Two actually. The ear one read 102 and the rectal one read 100. Normal for dogs is 100.5 to 102.5 so I guess she is ok but it is annoying and weird that they read two different numbers. Grrr...

I put some Neosporin on it too... I will take her temperature again in the morning. Poor pup. I might take it again in the middle of the night. I am a paranoid momma. Luckily she puts up with me.

Medications and New Yahoo Group

I found this wonderful Yahoo group for owners of dogs with GME:
NewGMEDogs

So I will be reading all of those posts... getting as much information as I can.

I also wanted to post Fuzzy's medications on here so people can compare to what their dogs are on. Currently, a week and a half out of the hospital, she is on 10mg of Prednisone and 8.1mg of Phenobarbital, twice a day with breakfast and dinner. That is all she is on daily. Two weeks ago she was given a Cytosine Arabinoside drip for 2 days and she will have another one on June 1 and 2nd. After that, she will be going in for that same drug in an injection morning and night two days in a row, every three weeks.

The doctors have told me that depending on how she looks they would like to slowly start reducing her Prednisone starting either at her 3 week appointment on June 1 or at the next appointment around June 22. They have told me that ideally they would like to have her eventually off the steroids completely and having the Cytosine every 12 weeks instead of every 3 weeks. They said some dogs could probably go off all drugs completely eventually but many of their patients are too scared of a relapse to do that and opt to continue Cytosine treatments every 12 weeks or so.

I welcome all comments and suggestions on Fuzzy and her GME. I want to do everything I can for my baby.

Edit: People have been asking me how much Fuzzy weighs, and the answer is 11 lbs. And they are having me give her the medications above twice a day. So 10mg of Prednisone and 8.1 mg of Phenobarbital in the morning and again at night.

More improvements

Fuzzy has been improving every day. She seems more and more back to her normal self. Her back legs are still weak and she has trouble jumping but she did jump off the sofa the other day when she saw the pool guy in "her" back yard:
Fuzzy jumps off the sofa

Also, last night, although I don't have a video of it, she jumped up onto the bed for the first time. She has been able to jump OFF for a few days but not onto it. Last night I was trying to coax her up with a treat like I do most nights and she looked like she was trying but couldn't do it. Finally I laid back on the bed and I think she saw her treat opportunity slipping away... and she just jumped right up! I put her back down and she did it again! Yay Fuzz!

The steroids she is on make her pant and have to drink and pee a LOT and during the night this has been problematic. I have been up every 2 hours with her taking her out... doesn't make for a good sleep for me or her. So we got one of those sliding glass door doggy doors and I am going to be attempting to teach her to go out and use it in the night when she needs to go so she doesn't keep waking me up so often. We will see how that goes... I reeeeeeally hope it works. ;) Normally I wouldn't want her walking around the yard at night even with the fenced yard but at this point I need some sleep and it is what we really have to do.

A couple more videos... here is one of her walking around the pool a week after coming home from the hospital. Look how much better she walks!
Fuzzy walking after one week being home

And this one is just her sitting in her favorite place on the sofa, watching the back yard and waggin' her tail. What a cute pup.
Fuzzy being happy

Blood test is back

I took Fuzzy in on Monday for her exam and blood work to make sure that the Cytosine was not destroying her bone marrow. It had to be sent away so I didn't get the results until last night. The doctor said that it came back normal so that is great! They said it was a rare side effect anyway but they always check just in case. Both of the doctors that saw Fuzzy Monday seemed very pleased at how much better she is doing. :) She is such a good girl!

In the past few days she has gotten better at jumping off things... she can easily jump off the bed and even the sofa. She still can't jump up onto anything, even if it is pretty low and I am bribing her with treats. :) But hopefully that will come.

Also, they told me that it is likely she will not regain sight in her right eye. I wish that weren't the case, but I know she will learn to compensate for it. At least she can see out of the other one.

Our next trip to the specialist should be in about another week and a half for her to get her next Cytosine treatment.

Fuzzy jumps off the bed

Well this morning Fuzzy saw lizard on the bedroom sliding glass door and she leaped right off the bed to run over to it. She did fall down kind of but it was the first time her attempt to jump off ended in anything better than a total wipe out. :)

She is walking better these days... she only drags her back right foot about every 10th step so that is good. She is back to barking at kids and dogs and UPS men. She is eating good... back to eating dry food. I only give her her medicine in a bite or two of wet food and the rest is the dry stuff she has always eaten. All in all, pretty good!

I am nervous about tomorrow because I have an appointment at 11:00am for her checkup. A possible side-effect of the Cytosine is that her bone marrow could stop producing red blood cells, which would of course be bad. So they are going to do some blood work to make sure everything is going ok with her treatment and that things like that are not happening. I know she seems like she is making a lot of improvements on the outside.... I just hope she is also making improvements on the inside.

First day of The Fuzz Report

I am beginning this blog today, May 16, so all previous posts are/will be backdated to give an idea of how things have progressed over the past two weeks to bring us to this point. 2 weeks ago today was the first day my poor little Fuzz gave me any indication that anything was wrong at all.

A few days later when she was diagnosed with GME, I ran frantically to the internet to read everything I could. Of course, I completely freaked out. Everything on the internet about GME is bad. Very bad. And of course I was reading all of this at night after the Vet's office was closed. In the morning, her doctor told me not to believe everything I read on the internet, and that there were a lot of new treatments out there that could lead to a much better outcome than you can find anywhere on the internet, late at night, with tears in your eyes.

I don't know how Fuzzy's outcome will be. Ultimately, we may lose her. But the improvements that she has made even over the past week and a half have made me very optimistic. And since in those first days I searched high and low for some amount of hope... some information from a real person with a real dog with GME that could tell me anything at all about their experience and their progress... and I came up empty-handed, I decided to make this page to tell our experiences to others that might be looking.

I will try to go cover all aspects, such as Fuzzy's symptoms, her medical care received, the cost of treatment, her progress and setbacks, as well as how we are overcoming those setbacks. I will also be posting photos and video clips of my sweet little girl. :)

I hope this has a happy ending. For now, we are taking it one day at a time.

Cost of treatment

I probably will just leave this post open and just add to it as costs come up. I must say that every penny spent on my baby girl has been worth it and I believe that particularly at the specialist she is seeing, she is receiving the best care I could ever hope for... this is mostly for people who are curious or who need to know what treatment like this can cost (I am sure each case is different).

$357 - First visit to Vet on 5/4/09 (when symptoms first begin to appear) -includes exam, various tests, compete blood work, fluids via IV, vitamin injection
$322 - Emergency Pet Hospital on the night she first had seizures
$225 - Second vet visit - included exam, more blood work, x-rays, etc.
$3170 - AVS (specialist) - includes cost of MRI, hospital stay for 5 days, anesthesia, medications, IV fluids and other costs incurred during hospital stay and treatment
$30 - Prednisone and Phenobarbital medications for me to give her at home
$10 - Valium which I have not given her as of yet
$52 - Blood test 7 days after coming home from the hospital
$598 - Plane tickets for Fuzz and I to get to Boston and back to see Dr. Sisson
$920 - Total cost of first visit to hospital in Boston, blood tests (the most expensive being the test for infectious disease), and 2 months of drugs

Total cost of diagnosis and treatment to date (as of 5/29/09): $5684

Yay! Sleep at last

Ahh... it worked. Fuzzy stayed in her carrier all night, going in and out to get water when needed, and Danny and I were finally able to catch some of those ZZZZ's we'd lost. :P Yay! And no Valium needed!

Another sleepless night

Thursday night was just as bad. Same as the night before. So this morning I called Dr. Knight at the hospital and asked her what to do. She told me that the side effects of the steroids is the panting and need for water and that for some reason it is commonly bad in the middle of the night while "parents" are trying to get some rest. She prescribed some Valium and suggested I give her a small amount before bed or that I put her in a cage or in another room if necessary. I picked up the prescription at my local CVS but only want to give it to her if absolutely necessary. I hate to put any more drugs in her... poor baby already has so many drugs going through her little body. :(

Before we do that, we are going to try getting her a little larger car carrier that she can turn around in a little easier. She always loved sitting and sleeping in hers during the day but it is a little small for her to easily get in and out of now that her coordination and movement ability is impaired. So my mom brought over a larger one that she had and Fuzzy seems to LOVE it. She hung out in it most of the day and so we are going to try to get her to sleep in there so she can at least get out and get her own water whenever she wants and also so she isn't panting in our ears all night. We will see...

No sleep and side effects

Wow. Well Wednesday night did not result in much sleep for us or for Fuzzy. One of the side effects of the Prednisone is that Fuzzy had to drink a TON of water and she pants really hard on and off throughout the day and night. During the night she will drink at least a whole bowl of water, but in lots of tiny spurts. Also, her panting is very loud and keeps me awake if she is close to me. Plus she has to go outside to pee several times during the night. Also, she has slept on my bed with me since she was a tiny puppy... and so she cries to get on the bed. But then she needs to get off the bed dozens of times for water... and she either cries to get down or more often just tries to get down on her own which ends in her tumbling to the floor. Luckily I have a platform bed that is only inches from the floor but still... And then when done drinking she cries to be let back up again.

So our night went like this... panting, panting, off the bed, water, on the bed, panting, off the bed, water, on the bed, panting, panting, off the bed, bathroom, water, on the bed, panting... repeat. Over and over. :)

Ahhh.... I am so happy that I lucky enough to still have her here, of course... I feel bad complaining about something like this. I am so tired though.

In other news. Every day Fuzzy seems a little more steady on her feet. As far as I can tell she is still blind in her right eye. But she is getting around a lot better!

Fuzzy barks

Everyday it is something else... another small improvement. Well I don't know if this is an improvement exactly but it is at least in the direction of getting things back to the way they were. :) We hadn't been sure if Fuzzy could still bark because we hadn't seen her bark once in the past week. Even last night on her walk in the neighborhood she saw kids and normally would always bark at kids and she didn't make a peep.

Well today I had a delivery from UPS. She had been sleeping in the back room where I was working and when the doorbell rang she had her same old "someone's at the door bark" back! She is still not moving so fast so by the time she made it to the door he was long gone but it was encouraging to hear that bark again!

Really all day today she seemed happier and a little more on her way back to her old self. Made me happy to see as I had been getting a little sad for her. She seemed to be walking around a little better (we took her for a few more walks around the block) and she even smiled and wagged her tail some today!

Fuzzy walks again

Well technically Fuzzy started walking last night around 10:30pm. But this was her first full day at home and her first full day walking around again. She does seem to get tired after her walks but she can walk pretty far without falling over. In the morning we took this video of her walking around the pool:
Fuzzy walks around the pool

She did a lot of resting today but did still walk around about the same as yesterday. We wanted to get her to walk a little bit longer distances and also give her something to look forward to as a reward for walking... so we put her on her leash and took her out for a little walk in the neighborhood this evening. She did great! We walked down about 8 houses and then back home and she really seemed to enjoy it. She is dragging her right foot on the ground some but hopefully that will start to go away.

Fuzzy does seem sad a lot of the time. Well at least not the happy pup she was. I am hoping that will change as she gets better and can do the things she loves to do again. But it is pretty depressing sometimes. Danny keeps reminding me she has only been home a day and I need to give it more time.

Fuzzy comes home

Today was wonderful because Fuzzy came home from the hospital. They said that at this point they couldn't do anything there that we couldn't do at home, so that we should come get her around 5pm. Unfortunately, our call in the morning told us that she was still not really improving, but not getting worse. I hoped that when she got home in her own house she would have some motivation to get moving around more. So, after we visited with Fuzz for a few minutes, they gave us Prednisone (steroids) and Phenobarbital (anti-seizure drug) to give her each day and each night with her breakfast and her dinner. And they sent us on our way....

We got home around 6:30 and between then and 10:30 it was a little rough. They had told us that she was kind of standing on her own now and going to the bathroom outside on her own... but that wasn't what we were experiencing. We actually weren't able to get her to stand outside on the grass at all... she just laid down out there. They said she hadn't peed all day so I was starting to get very concerned. We tried holding her up but it really wasn't working. Inside where she was more stable, she tried to take a couple of steps but would always fall to the right after a step or two. And she couldn't stand up on her own to drink from her water bowl or to eat. We had to hold her up. She looked so miserable and it was so sad to see her struggling so much. Here is a video of her trying to take a couple of steps toward me:
Fuzzy first attempts at walking

Then, all the sudden at around 10:30pm, she just got up and started walking around! We were so happy and walked all over the house with her. We took her outside, she used the bathroom, I even got her to break into a little trot while chasing after a treat. :) It was like one minute she couldn't do it and one minute she could! She was a little wobbly and fell over a few times but she did awesome. Here is the video of that:
Fuzzy learns to walk again

We went to bed pretty happy that night.

Fuzz learns to sit up

This morning they called and said that Fuzz could now sit and kind of stand up on her own. This was great news and we had hoped she would progress throughout the day... however, our call in the evening told us that she was still just the same. :( So we wait to see if there is any new progress in the morning...

Second visit in the hospital

Saturday around noon we went back to see Fuzz again. This time she was looking a little better. She could move her neck around more. She still couldn't sit up on her own, but when we first got there, she was so excited that she tried to scramble off the little bed they had her in, to get into my arms. They had us try to take her outside and hold her up so she could pee, but we were unsuccessful. She did have fun laying on the grass though! Again, we stayed with her about an hour and by the time we left, she was ready for a nap! We were sad to go because we knew we wouldn't be able to see her again until Monday when the hospital was back open for visits. So we kissed her goodbye and told her to get better for us over the weekend.

First visit to see Fuzz in the hospital

Friday was the first day they would let us visit Fuzzy in the hospital. I admit she looked pretty awful. She couldn't even lift her head... we had to hold it up for her. She did wag her tail once or twice when we first got there but that was about it. She really couldn't move and her neck seemed to still be causing her a lot of pain. It was very stiff in an abnormal position and she didn't seem to want to move it. We stayed with her about an hour, just petting her and talking to her and letting her know we love her. It was sad but they told us it would take a few days to see if the treatment would help her. 30% of dogs don't respond to treatment at all... so we were holding our breath for her.

They told us we could come back in the morning and see her again if we wanted. And we did want to, of course!

Big MRI day

This morning the doctor called around 8:30 and told me that Fuzzy was ok but that she had worsened a little overnight. She had some neck pain that was not there the day before, which also made her suspicion of an inflammatory disease rather than a brain tumor more likely. She told me that she was going to give her some Mannitol to help reduce the swelling and that they were going to get her under anesthesia and in to do the MRI and also get some spinal fluid as soon as possible.

A few hours later I got a call saying that the MRI was done and there was no evidence of a tumor. She did have swelling in the left side of her brain, but they still wanted to get some spinal fluid to better determine the cause. I was told there was a little more risk than yesterday because of the increased swelling but that it was still an important procedure to do. I told them to go ahead.

A little while later, she called and said that they tried but were really not able to get enough fluid to get the information she needed. A drop or two was all they got without having to put her in a lot of danger. But the doctor told me that she was still fairly certain that what she had was an inflammatory disease, most likely GME, and that they would like to start her on some drugs to suppress her immune system. She did warn me that there was a small chance that she was wrong and of course if she was, and it was something else, then Fuzzy would get worse with the treatment because her immune system would no longer be helping out. But she did seem confidant that she was correct about the diagnosis, and really we didn't have a lot of other options. Fuzzy was getting sicker quickly and we had to do something.

So the doctor said they were going to start her on a Cytosine Arabinoside drip for two days and then she would be on a Cytosine/Prednisone combination treatment for a while to see how that worked.

No much sleep tonight either. *sigh*

Vet visit #2 and trip to the Neurologist

The emergency pet hospital is only open at night when regular vets are closed. So I had to pick Fuzzy up at 7am. They told me she had had another seizure at around 3am. They gave her an anti-seizure medication, Phenobarbital, and she hadn't had any since.

I drove her to the same vet she had seen two days before, which was about 30 minutes away. She screamed the first 15 minutes we were in the car... broke my heart. She wanted to tell me something. But she eventually did calm down. We waited outside until they opened around 8:30. Today she was still walking a little slow and bumping into things. This, along with the seizures were new symptoms. At least we had something to work with. The vet recommended more blood work and an x-ray. Both of those things came back normal. However, she did realize that Fuzzy could not see out of her right eye. When you covered her right eye and moved your finger toward her left, eye, she closed it, but when covering her left eye and doing the same thing, her right eye stayed open... she didn't even see your finger coming toward her eye. She told us that there was a reasonable chance that she had a brain tumor behind her eye. She said she was referring us to a specialist, a neurologist, where they would do an MRI to see if that was the case. We left there at 9:30 with an 11:30 appointment at the neurologist (http://www.avsspecialists.com) an hour away. We had time to go home for an hour, so we did, and Fuzzy was hungry and thirsty from her ordeal so we let her eat and drink.

When we got to AVS, we were immediately impressed. The place was clean and had high-tech equipment and friendly, knowledgeable staff. Dr. Knight examined Fuzzy and gave us the various possible causes for her condition. She seemed to think it was likely an inflammatory disease of some kind, possibly GME, but could also be a tumor but she didn't think it was as likely because of her age. They informed us of the cost ($2500-$3500 including the hospital stay and other treatment) and risks associated with getting an MRI and taking spinal fluid but suggested both of these in order to be able to diagnose and hopefully treat her. Unfortunately, our vet did not inform us not to let her eat before taking her in for the MRI, but since they were going to have to put her under anesthesia for both of those procedures, she was going to have to stay overnight and have the tests the next day.

To be honest I was angry that the vet did not tell us not to let her eat. Simply mentioning that would have meant we could do the MRI a whole day earlier. But at this point there was nothing we could do about this but wait. And Dr. Knight said that the risks of doing it today when she had eaten were higher than the risks that she would get significantly worse overnight.

She told us we would receive a call each night around 6pm and each morning around 8am to let us know how our baby was doing. And so we said goodbye and left her there. I didn't feel good about anything that was happening, of course... it was pretty much the worse day of my life. But I was confidant at that moment that we took her to the best place we could. They seemed very competent to take care of her. I still didn't sleep much that night.

Seizures

Tuesday went by much like the rest of Monday. Fuzzy seemed like she still wasn't feeling that good. A little tired but not new symptoms. I worked late that day (at home) but took a break in the evening to watch one of my DVR'd TV shows. Fuzzy was sleeping in the bedroom but came in the room suddenly looking a bit alarmed. She whined and cried but didn't seem to want anything in particular. She just seemed agitated about something. I tried to comfort her and a few minutes later she seemed to have calmed down. After the show, I went back to work and she walked around like she often does, wandering in and out of the room. About an hour later, I noticed I hadn't seen her in a few minutes and I went looking for her. I found her in a room at the back of the house, when I called her, she came stumbling out and started running into walls in the hallway.

My heart almost stopped. I knew this was very, very bad. She stepped onto the slick kitchen floor and her legs came right out from under her. She couldn't stand up at all. I ran over and put her on the carpet and dialed Danny, hysterical. I told him that she was bumping into walls and falling down and that we had to get her to an emergency vet. He said he would come get me (he was 10 min away) and that he would get directions on the way.

Then she started to have a seizure. I know some small dogs have seizures but she had never had one before. It was terrifying to watch. She fell over and her legs were jerking and her head was wrenched back and then jerking from side to side and her mouth was opening and closing so hard I was afraid she would bite her tongue. I called Danny back and told him and while he was on his way I tried dialing the vet but of course they were closed (this was 10:30 at night). They left the number for the only overnight emergency pet hospital in the area... 20-25 minutes away.

By the time that Danny arrived 10 minutes later, she had had 3 seizures. And she had another one in the car on the way to hospital. When we arrived she seemed to have calmed down a little. They put us in a waiting room where we waited, terrified, for more than an hour. They said to come get them if she had another seizure. She eventually did and they took her off to another room where they gave her some Valium. They told me I needed to leave her overnight and take her back to my regular vet in the morning. Of course I went home in tears and didn't sleep a wink of the 4 hours left before I had to go back and pick her up.

Vet visit #1

Sunday went by pretty much exactly the same at Saturday went. Same signs that something was wrong but we have no idea what exactly. My mom came over on Monday morning to work with me (we have an online family business and work out of my home) and we were very surprised an concerned about Fuzzy's reaction. Every time my mom comes over Fuzzy goes bonkers... she will squeal and jump up and leap all over her, licking her face everywhere. Every time. But this morning she came a few steps toward the door to see who it was and then went right back into her car carrier (where she loves to sleep). In this moment we both looked at each other, worried... she told me to go ahead and take her to the vet right away. She hadn't been to the vet since her shots last year and I was not impressed with that vet at all, so I decided I would take her somewhere else that was recommended by a friend.

When we arrived, I explained her symptoms, feeling a little silly that the biggest symptom was "she just isn't herself." But they were concerned as well. They did an exam, a fecal analysis, electrolyte panel, complete bloodwork, test for various conditions... everything coming up all good. I told them I didn't think she had been drinking much, but then again, she was never a dog that drank very often. So they gave her some fluid via IV and a vitamin shot and said we'd see if that perked her up a bit... maybe she was just a little dehydrated. I didn't think that was it, but the doctor said that there wasn't much else she could do at this point since they couldn't find out what was wrong. So I took her home. For the rest of the day she seemed pretty much the same. Not really worse but not better.

First small signs

*Note* Just a reminder that all posts May 2-May 15 are written after the fact, as my best recollection of the events of the day. If this is your first visit, you may want to read May 16 post first.



Today was the first day we saw anything strange at all. Yesterday, Fuzzy was her normal, happy, bouncy self. Today she was almost that, but there was one thing strange. She didn't seem to want to jump up on things. Our bed is a platform bed so it is very close to the floor, and normally Fuzzy jumps easily on and off it multiple times a day. She will also jump easily on and off the sofa where she loves to sit and look out the back window. But this weekend she didn't seem to be able to do either. She would be next to the bed, looking like she wanted very much to jump up... even rocking forward and backward a little like she was about to, but she wouldn't actually jump up. And once on the bed, she would cry for us to put her on the floor, only a few inches away, instead of jumping down herself. Also, when I give her treats, I often hold them up and she will jump up on her hind legs to get them. But today she won't do it. She just stares at me and won't make that effort to get it. She LOVES her treats. So these things were all very strange.

The first thing I thought was that maybe there was something wrong with her legs. I felt all around, putting pressure everywhere but nothing seemed to hurt her. We also start noticing today that she seems a little tired. Not too much but just a little not herself. She is normally full of energy but she seems to want to lay around just a little more than seems normal for her.

My boyfriend Danny and I are both concerned and decide that we should probably consider taking her to the Vet on Monday if this continues.