I have not been able to post for a long time now. Unfortunately, right before the holidays, our little dog Sundae started getting very sick. Nothing we did seemed to help - she was diagnosed with whip worms the Wednesday before Christmas, and we treated, but she was still getting worse. We got to a point that she was having to be force fed baby food and water. It was awful. We took her to several vets trying to get her well again.
On New Year's Eve morning, our little girl had a seizure while we were asleep. Her jerking movements woke me up, and I was truly distraught - I thought we were losing her. She was still breathing, so we rushed her to the emergency veterinary hospital 22 miles up the freeway. Her blood sugar was just 38 (should be around 120). We knew she would have to be given IV fluids and monitored for at least 24 hours. A few hours after we left her there, we got a very scary phone call - Sundae's blood work revealed she was in renal (kidney) failure, and we did not have a cause. The vet told me it was going to be a very touch and go 48 hours. We visited her 2 times a day, and cleaned the house because one of the possibilities was a very contagious bacterial infection called leptospirosis. She had been vaccinated, but that won't protect against ALL possible strains (like the flu).
Fortunately, her little body responded well to the fluids, and she fought very hard. 4 days later she was released, but we were supposed to take her to our regular vet for further fluids and testing. She was no longer considered a possible leptospirosis case, so thank goodness that fear was gone! Monday we took her to our regular vet, and based on her lab results during those four days in the hospital and what online research we could find, we asked them to test her for Addison's Disease. The vet told us it was a long shot, because she didn't really fit the profile, but we really didn't think she was too far off. Sure enough, she tested positive for Addison's Disease - as our vet says, "This case gets stranger every day."
Addison's Disease is fatal if not treated. If we had not found it, she probably would have done well for a couple weeks after getting all these fluids, but she would have eventually slipped back into her sick state and could have died. Basically, our kidneys each have a little gland called the Adrenal gland on them. The adrenal gland is responsible for producing cortisol for our bodies to cope with stress (physical, as in illness or injury, and emotional, as in changes in life, surroundings, etc.) Sundae's adrenals do not produce hardly ANY cortisol, so when she got sick with the whip worms, her body couldn't handle it - her electrolytes were dangerously off balance, her blood potassium was dangerously high (can interfere with the heart) and her kidneys just stopped working. This is called an Addison's Crisis. Fortunately, Addison's disease is totally treatable and manageable (not curable) - Sundae will receive an injection every 25 days and a small pill every single day for the rest of her life to make up for the cortisol that her body cannot produce on its own.
She is already so much better. She lost a lot of weight, but she should make a complete recovery, and the kidney's should not be permanently damaged. We are so thankful to still have her with us - at only a year and a half old, she was just too young to give up on! It was anything but an ideal way to spend the holidays, but every time she barks or wags her tail or gives kisses, we're reminded of why we will do anything for these two creatures. You may remember we started this blog right when we were in the process of adding Ms. Sundae to our family, a little over a year ago.
In all the hustle and bustle, I left my camera at my parents' house the weekend after Christmas (I went up for a day to celebrate with mom, dad, both brothers and their wives and of course my cutie of a nephew, Tyler!) - pictures to come soon!
In other, less than awesome news, this arctic blast that has plunged even our coastal community into a "deep" freeze seems to have caused some damage to a couple pipes under our house... I mean, I'll usually take any excuse not to do laundry... but it's pretty incredible that after everything we went through with Sundae these past few weeks, we still can't catch a break! (no pun intended) Hopefully the repair will be minor. Since we will freeze again tonight, the plumber said there was no use in trying to fix it today... it'll have to wait until tomorrow or Monday (and for financial reasons, we will probably wait until Monday!)
Hope everyone else had a nice holiday, and hopefully we've sucked all the "bad" out of 2010 already!
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