Sunday, March 16, 2008

Almost her spazzy old self!

Scout is down to .5 mg. of prednisone every other day. It took me a few tries to successfully get her to that dosage. One night (after I skipped the daily dose), she woke me up gasping for breath. I gave her a dose of prednisone and she quickly calmed down and went back to sleep. She was fine by morning.

So I let her recover for a day or two and then tried it again. She showed no distress at all this time. She continues to grow stronger each day--whirling in circles and jumping up on the bed. I took her for a 1 1/2 mile walk yesterday and she didn't limp or seem tired afterward.

I really think she is on the mend!

I've had a hard time shaking the depressing assessment given by the last vet we took Scout to. She briefly checked Scout over, glanced at her thick wad of lab reports and medical records and said, "I don't think she has polyarthritis/meningitis. I suspect lymphoma."

We rejected her suggestion to start another round of costly tests, choosing instead to keep on with our course of treatment. Everytime Scout would have a bad day, or start limping again, I would fret. Did she have cancer? I didn't think I could handle watching my dog go through that kind of suffering again.

But this week, after Scout's struggle for breath, I decided to do some research on lymphoma. Just in case. I found out that dogs left either untreated or treated just with prednisone to alleviate pain, usually survive only 8 weeks after the onset of symptoms. It has been 9 weeks since Scout got sick.

Boy, did I breathe a sigh of relief!

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