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First things first.... a bath! She reeks of incense and her fur is falling out in clumps!
Thank you PetValu Marwood for donating a big cuddly Lambchop for Lucy Ann. She LOVES it!
August 25, 2017
Lucy started the beginning treatment for Heartworm disease. She's on antibiotics, steroids, and monthly preventative. So far she's doing well, but the hard part of treatment is yet to come. The injections are extremely hard on the body and she will need to gain some weight and boost her immune system before that.
Thank you again Pet Valu Marwood! They donated a supply of Honest Kitchen for Lucy! Adequate nutrition is essential for our bulldogs! This is beyond amazing!
As we were powdering LucyAnn's belly last night (a daily necessity as her boobs are so long they trap moisture!), we noticed a strange discharge coming from her! This was not normal discharge like you would see during heat, this was thick and brownish colored. We immediately knew we were in trouble - she had pyometra.
Pyometra is an infection of the uterus common in unspayed females. Closed pyometra is when the infection stays inside and is not able to be discharged from the body. This is quickly fatal. Luckily Lucy Ann had an open pyometra, which meant the infection was exiting the body. It could still be fatal, but we knew we had a little more time to get her to the vet. First thing in the morning, we packed up and met the Good Dr Busch outside her clinic where she performed an emergency spay. She also removed the mass on her side while she was under.
Pyometra is an infection of the uterus common in unspayed females. Closed pyometra is when the infection stays inside and is not able to be discharged from the body. This is quickly fatal. Luckily Lucy Ann had an open pyometra, which meant the infection was exiting the body. It could still be fatal, but we knew we had a little more time to get her to the vet. First thing in the morning, we packed up and met the Good Dr Busch outside her clinic where she performed an emergency spay. She also removed the mass on her side while she was under.
10/27/2017
Lucy Ann has been recovering from her emergency spay very well! However, we decided to push back her scheduled Heartworm Treatment another week just to be safe. On Wednesday 10/25/2017 Lucy Ann got her next dose of Heartgard. She had a bit of a reaction though...she seemed to become disoriented and agitated. She snapped twice at us when we touched her. She looked very confused at the time, so we don't think she really knew what was going on. We knew something was very wrong, so we reached out to our animal communicator and metaphysical consultant Coryelle Kramer. Not only did we want to check in with Lucy Ann, let her know what was happening, and make sure she was OK, but Jen and I also just had this strange feeling of being connected to Lucy Ann, perhaps in a past life. Well, just listen to her session with Coryelle... it's quite something!
Lucy Ann has been recovering from her emergency spay very well! However, we decided to push back her scheduled Heartworm Treatment another week just to be safe. On Wednesday 10/25/2017 Lucy Ann got her next dose of Heartgard. She had a bit of a reaction though...she seemed to become disoriented and agitated. She snapped twice at us when we touched her. She looked very confused at the time, so we don't think she really knew what was going on. We knew something was very wrong, so we reached out to our animal communicator and metaphysical consultant Coryelle Kramer. Not only did we want to check in with Lucy Ann, let her know what was happening, and make sure she was OK, but Jen and I also just had this strange feeling of being connected to Lucy Ann, perhaps in a past life. Well, just listen to her session with Coryelle... it's quite something!
August 2019
She is still having almost constant muscle spasms. We went ahead and did a trial of steroids and antibiotics as if it was meningitis. No change. She’s still on Gabapentin and tramadol, but we’re backing downfrom 3x/day to 2x/day. We’re awaiting another consult.
September 21, 2019
Lucy had a consult with Dr. Morgan last week as well. So for those of you who don’t know Lucy’s story, she came to us two years ago from Kentucky. We believe she was used for breeding in a puppy mill and kept outside in a crate. She was positive for two tickborne diseases (Lyme and Erlichiosis) as well as Heartworms. She also developed pyometra (infected uterus) and underwent and emergency spay. She has several mammary masses that we keep a close eye on. She also has severe allergies and after doing allergy testing we put her on a very strict homemade diet. There was a brief time where she actually looked amazing. We had eliminated all of her skin issues solely through a homemade diet. And then autumn came. The leaves fell and she broke out in a rash. Despite our best efforts, she was miserable. After a month of trying, we finally gave in and did a cytopoint injection to provide her with some relief. She began having subtle tremors but we didn’t make a connection at that time. Jump ahead to March of this year. We had switched holistic vets to be closer to home. I brought up the concern about her tremors and while it was notice during the exam nothing really indicated a cause for them. It was suggested we do one more cytopoint injection to get her through the spring and we would start some new Chinese herbs that would take the place of any allergy medications. The following day she began having muscle spasms quite violently. Well this isn’t a common side effect of the injection, it was clear that the symptoms occurred after both injections. We gave her muscle relaxers, but they did not help. Skip ahead several months and she still having these symptoms. It’s clear she’s becoming exhausted from shaking continually. They are not episodes like seizures, it’s constant. Our vet became concerned that it was potentially something like meningitis. She referred us to a new neurologist. When we called to make the appointment they encouraged us to come in through the ER for immediate evaluation. It was at that point that Lucy was hospitalized. She could barely lift her head let alone walk. She seemed completely disoriented. Her body spasmed in my arms as we waited in the ER. She was hospitalized and started on fluids but given no medication at the time. Multiple doctors/staff came in and stated that they didn’t see a problem, I was told that she was just a bulldog breathing. This is not a normal bulldog breath. Her arms contract with every breath in and spasm three times with every breath out. Furthermore she did not to do this before. All of this began in December of last year and has progressively gotten worse. Despite being told, “we don’t see what you’re reporting “I was also told that she was not stable enough to undergo anesthesia for an MRI. They ended up doing two ultrasounds, but could find nothing blatantly abnormal (stomach lining may be a little thick but not concerning, adrenal glands slightly enlarged but again not concerning).Nothing to explain why she was spasming. Needless to say that hospitalization was an emotional roller coaster. We ended up requesting for her to be discharged, as no treatment was really being done. We went back-and-forth about going to another neurologist, but the neurologist at the hospital was adamant that this was not a neurological problem. So that’s when we set up a consult for Dr. Morgan. She was booked out for two months, so we continue treatment with our regular vet until then. Although many of the symptoms with meningitis, it also didn’t seem possible that it could be continuing this long and not getting much worse. Nonetheless we decided to take a chance and just try treating for that. We started her on a very high dose of antibiotics as well as steroids. We saw no change. We tried a higher dose of gabapentin, but again I’m unsure if there was any change at all. Maybe a little bit?
After speaking with Dr. Morgan here’s where our thoughts are....
The injection triggered something. Perhaps it hit a nerve bundle that set this off. Perhaps she has a brachial plexus injury. Maybe she has a brain or spinal cord tumor and this was just a trigger for the symptoms. We sent off a BioScent test last week and got the results today. This test has been around for awhile with humans , and now you can do with pets as well. We will post more info about this in another post. But the results came back today and they were positive. This does not mean 100% that she has cancer, but The test has been shown to be over 90% accurate.
Long story short (not really short sorry) , we don’t for sure know what’s wrong. What we do know is her quality of life has drastically gone downhill and we are trying anything and everything to make her better. I don’t know what the next steps are right now.
We’re trying a new form of therapy that sends energy to the cells to speed healing. Will it work? I have no idea but we’re going to try it. Yes she’s on CBD oil. We use the neuro boost in neuro balance oils from animalEO. She receives reiki healing (it stops when energy work is sent to the bracheal chakra!) We need to reach out to our regular vet and come up with a new game plan now. We will continue to post as we try new things and have more information. Thank you all for your support.
September 27, 2019
Look who’s up and moving around!!!
We stopped Lucy’s Gabapentin. She’s been on animalEO neuro oils and the Cura Patch for a week now. Paws crossed for continued improvement.
