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Dec 22, 1994 | Urinary tract blocked by a bladder stone.
Urethrostomy performed.
Analysis of stone: 100% ammonium acid urate |
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Feb 2, 1995 | Fluffy has allergic reaction to Amoxicillin/Penicillin
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| July 16. 1995 | "Fever of Unknown Origin" ("FUO") temp hits 105.4 |
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| Nov 29, 1995 | Cystotomy - Bladder wall scraped for embedded bladder stones |
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| various | Ongoing general problems with bladder stones, cystitis, blood in urine, and IBD. |
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| various | On and off Baytril over the last few years. |
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| March 3,1997 | Gastroenteritis - small intestines were larger than large intestines; 104 temp. |
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| Oct 24 | blood in urine, diarrhea and vomiting:
X-ray: enlarged intestines
resumed Baytril 2x day, 1 Pred, 1/4 Flagyl |
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| Oct 25 - Nov 6 | Baytril and Flagyl daily |
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| Oct 25 - Nov 12 | Pred every other day |
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| Nov 7 | Blood test shows high liver values, Ultrasound: liver is "mildly hyperechoic". |
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| Nov 15 - Dec 16 | Flagyl every other day |
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| Nov 21 | repeated blood work and everything is normal. |
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| Dec 15 | Urine is very dark with yellow staining, he looks jaundiced |
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| Dec 16 | Urinalysis shows Bilirubin in urine; he vomited at night. |
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| Dec 17 | Wed - initial attack happened - vomiting all day long, jaundiced;
x-ray shows "something" pressing against stomach,
was given 1 mg dexamethasone
blood tests: Al Phos, ALT, AST, Bilirubin (7.4) all elevated,
WBC very low (2.9) |
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| Dec 19 | Fri - Ultrasound and Biopsy; but by now he is improving... eating, urine looks more normal. |
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| Dec 22 | Mon - More blood work. |
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| Dec 24 | Wed - Got biopsy report - diagnosis: 1) "mild to moderate, diffuse, chronic,
proliferative and suppurative cholangiohepatitis", and 2) "moderate, diffuse,
pericentral fibrosis and hepatocellular degeneration".
Blood test results - Bilirubin 2.8 (much improved),
ALT and AST slightly lower, Al Phos higher (408), and WBC normal (10)
started Flagyl 2x day |
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| Dec 26 | Fri - Started Forcefeeding.
Started looking more yellow.
Upped Actigall to 1/4 tab |
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| Dec 27 | Sat - Urine looked brown again, took sample to Dr.R.,
dipstick urine test says bilirubin is "large".
I asked him about taking Fluffy to the Animal Medical Center. He told me that it would just be a waste of money, that they wouldn't be able to do anything more than we were already doing. He suggested we up his sub-Q's to 300 cc/day.
Fluffy threw up food at noon (from/after feeding at 9am) |
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| Dec 29 | Mon - Fluffy is getting more jaundiced. We decided to take him to the AMC and made an appointment for a liver specialist for 4pm; tried to speak to our vet about it first thing in the morning, but he's too busy to speak to us personally, and had his receptionist tell us we're wasting our time, but if we wanted to go we should go, just take the results from the last biopsy, he didn't have time to write up a referral, but the biopsy report would be enough.
We took him to the AMC; showed them all our test results from the last 4 years; did blood tests, X-rays, even a cardiac ultrasound (no charge). AMC's Dr J says that the biopsy report doesn't explain his symptoms, that he is much worse than the biopsy says. He then examines Fluffy, and feels a "mass" in his abdomen. He wants to do exploratory surgery to put ALL the pieces together into one picture, and determine a course of treatment based on the results of the exploratory. We agree to do the surgery Wednesday, Dec. 31.
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| Dec 31 | Wed - Took him in at 7am for admission. Surgery started about 9:30am.
Dr. J called us repeatedly during the surgery to explain things as they happened.
When Dr. L (the surgeon) went in to operate she found 4 things wrong with Fluffy:
(1) They found a ruptured bile duct that had caused peritonitis inside him.
(2) they found 2 masses in Fluffy's abdomen. Dr. L removed one from his intestines. When Dr J examined it in order to do a biopsy of it, he saw cloth inside. It turned out to be a surgical sponge! Dr L tried to get the other "mass" out, it was lodged in an
area of Fluffy's intestines that was very difficult to remove.
It turned out to be a surgical sponge too. She had to remove it thread by thread.
Apparently when our vet operated on Fluffy 2 or 3 years ago to do a bladder scraping,
he left these sponges in by mistake, and they caused infection and inflammation,
So as it turns out, THEY have been the cause of Fluffy's Inflammatory Bowel Disease for the past few years.
(3) Fluffy had a liver shunt.
Diane had talked to our vet about the possibility of this before,
because Fluffy made weird ammonium acid urate stones, and she knew that they are known to be caused by liver shunts.
Our vet said he didn't have a liver shunt, because it didn't show up on the ultrasound.
I guess our vet never put this together (see Dec. 22, 1994 above).
(4) There were "lumps" in his liver. He explained that these were either tumor masses, or just
the liver trying to regenerate itself.
Once it was determined that the 2 "masses" in the abdomen were NOT tumors, that there was no signs of cancer in him, and that the liver "lumps" were most likely regeneration, they attempted to surgically repair what they could.
They fixed all his problems. They even called in a third Dr. to repair the shunt with an amoride constrictor (sp?), while Dr L repaired his bile duct rupture by doing a cholecystojeujunostomy.
Fluffy made it through the surgery, and started to wake up.
He went into cardiac arrest a few minutes later, and he died. They tried to revive him,
but couldn't. Apparently, this was all more then our sweet, big, brave boy could
take.
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