This morning, I called to see how Syd was doing. The intern said they didn't put him into a cage, but put him into a large room on a padded bed and a blanket. They said the first time they checked on him, he had gotten up and was standing by the door waiting to leave. He was wobbly, but had gotten up on his own. They put him back on his bed and the next time they checked on him, he had done the same thing to where they ended up having to put a leash on him to prevent him from getting up. So I was encouraged slightly that he still had that spirit and was trying to walk on his own. Knowing I had to make a decision when I met later with the oncologist once all the test results were back, I began checking into arrangements on the weekend, should we need to do so. I called my vet (the other vet is on vacation this and next week) and asked the receptionist to ask him if he could come out to our home to euthanize Syd if he got worse Saturday night or Sunday. He said that the other vet was on vacation, that they didn't make house calls on the weekends and because he's so swamped, he couldn't guarantee he could come out next week either! I hung up on the gal and called one of Syd's daughter's vets. I talked with her, explaining my situation and she said she would gladly come over and gave me her phone number. I jokingly asked if she was accepting new patients and she laughed and said yes. I told her I might give her 6 more new patients because I know she's not afraid of rotties and that's a plus.
I decided to check my messages on my machine and found Jodi's number and called her. While on the phone, the oncologist called and said she suspected brain or spine metastisis. Based on the fact that he cannot get up without being wobbly and with the fact that one leg was sort of rigid or not working right, she thought it might involve either place. She said that yes, she could do the CT or MRI, but basically that would only confirm what we probably already know. She suggested we forego the tests and treat the symptoms in hopes of helping the tumor swelling (if that's what it was causing the seizures) be reduced. She told me she was taking him off the arte and piroxicam, but I could continue with the doxycycline if I wished. She wanted to give him prednizone (steroid), which would help reduce any swelling in the brain. She also wanted to give him phenobarbitol to help relax him and help reduce any swelling to prevent any more seizures. She said he hadn't had any seizures since the last one at 5pm Thursday, but she was still concerned he couldn't walk. I told her that the decision to euthanize him based all on his quality of life and that I just wanted to make sure the seizure thing wasn't treatable or that the leg mobility problem wouldn't get better. I told her he was still wagging his tail and eating for me and had spirit. She said she was encouraging me not to do the expensive tests, but in her opinion, because of his attitude and how good he looks despite having 2 seizures (minus the leg problem), that if it were her dog, she would hold off on making that decision and give the meds a try first. She said she has seen dogs recover from mobility problems before after seizures, although the seizures normally in these cases were an hour long and not just a few minutes. She said they had tried to feed Syd Thursday night and Friday morning and he refused to eat for them. She also said they had done the lung x-rays and while there WERE more lung mets visible and the original lung mets had grown slightly, the majority of his lung fields were clear, that the mets were not growing very fast. She said she expected to see a "white out" on the xrays (meaning there would be so many mets it would be like snow and white in color in the entire lungs), but was surprised to not see this. So his lung mets were the least of his worries right now. Good news on that aspect. I asked if we could come visit him when my husband got done with his 53 miles since we would now be 85 miles away from K-State. SHe said yes and we headed that way.
Upon arriving, she put us into a comfort room complete with couches and a rug. They went to get Syd and brought him into the room on a gurney. He was quiet up until he saw my husband and I. He then started a whimper/whine/scream and the student vet commented "Look at his tail going 90 miles a minute". Syd was SO excited to see us he started trying to get up, but we held him and told him to calm down. He did this for a few minutes and they then put him onto the floor to see if he would try and stand up on his own. He didn't, but would scoot forward to try and reach my husband, who was sitting on the floor. The oncologist and student vet sat on the couch and discussed Syd with us. The oncologist asked if we could try and feed him, that maybe he was just a social eater only wanting to eat around us. We had brought some jars of baby food with us and upon feeding him, he was attacking the spoon with fervor in order to get his food! He ate two junior size jars of baby food. The oncologist said he would be hungrier and thirstier from the prednizone, but she wanted him to get some nutrients. She had the student vet go get some canned dog food high in protein and some high protein baby food they had tried to give him. They handed me the bowl and I gave it to Syd and he heartily ate every morsel! The senior student vet jokingly called him a brat, for eating the same food she had tried several times to get him to eat. The oncologist said the phenobarbitol would make him sleepy, but they could adjust it accordingly if it seemed to hold the seizures at bay. She said from what she had seen that day, she said he obviously was VERY excited to see his humans, was eating heartily and she said if we could manage making sure we could get him outside to try and potty several times a day, then she would feel comfortable sending him home so we could have some more time with him before making that decision to euthanize. She also said she didn't want to ask, but if something were to happen tonight and he went into full arrest, would we want resusitation. I told her if he went, to let him go. She said normally in large dogs with cancer, those who arrest do so for a reason and they normally have a difficult time bringing them back, so that was a good decision on my part. Because my husband was finishing up his event tomorrow around noon, I asked if Syd could stay one more night in ICU for constant monitoring. She said absolutely. I told her that I wanted K-State to do the necropsy (which was included as part of the study he was in). If we decided not to euthanize him that day, but instead do it at home, that means we would have to transport him back to K-State after he was gone. She said because it's a 3 hour drive, she wouldn't require us to do that, not only for the decomposition aspect, but for the emotional aspect of transporting your pet's body for that long. I told her that once he has left his body, his spirit is no longer there, but all around and that if making that sacrifice to help them learn so they could help other future dogs, that what better legacy could Syd have? She reassured me by saying if I changed my mind, I could forego driving clear up there. I also said that I would like to know what he died from or what was causing the seizures. She said a necropsy could be a good or bad thing, depending on what they found when doing it. I told her that the main thing I was looking for was quality of life. If we gave the meds time to work and they stopped working or didn't help, then we would make that decision. She also was very curious about the nasty looking tumor in his mouth. She said it didn't look like a blocked sweatgland and would be very interested to see what the samples of that tumor show, since OS usually doesn't spread to the mouth that she has ever heard of. Another night of knowing Syd was well taken care of, but knowing it was one more day closer to the end. Mom's intuition again kicking in....... |
