Sophie doesn't have cancer!!

hearts and roses

Mind Reader
It is with great pleasure that I tell you our little Sophie-girl does not have any cancer at all anywhere in her little body.

After the ultrasound confirmed this yesterday, the vet decided that he would treat her symptoms as an immuno-based disorder of some kind. He has deduced that her body, her ummune system, for some reason, is killing off new blood cells or has caused her red blood cell production to shut down. So, he's prescribed for her prednisone and some other immuno blocking drug. We will treat her this way for 3 months and then revisit. In the meantime, they will do a hematcrit check weekly to see if the medications are helping to enable her body to start red blood cells to produce again.

There is a chance that this treatment will not work and we may lose Sophie after all, but we've chosen to be hopefull that she will make a full recovery - taking it week by week for now. The vet did mention that another blood transfusion may be necessary, but H and I have already discussed how we're probably not going to do anymore than this current treatment. The vet kept saying things like "Buy us some time" with a transfusion while we continue treatment, but a part of me says that if it is Sophies 'time', then we need to let her go. I hate thinking that way, but for now I'm putting all those thoughts out of my head and believing she will get better.

Is this great? Fourteen hundred dollars later...but still. Thank you all so much for your prayers. They worked!
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
That's great news! I hope she responds well to the medication and has many more enjoyable years with your family :)
 
Jo,

This is excellent news!!!:D I'm going to keep on thinking positive thoughts and praying that the treatment works.

My "favorite sanity saver" has problems with her liver enzymes ( probably not Cushing's - Not certain because the vet advised us against the test for it - Basically we would have to poison her to determine whether or not she has Cushing's Disease. Also, my vet said even if it is Cushing's, there is not much we can do) and possible epilepsy.

She takes special vitamins to help with her liver function. I think it's been over three years since we found out about her liver problem. Overall, she is doing really well. She is happy, not in any pain, and healthy (?).

We love her more than anything and appreciate and enjoy her time with us. Hopefully she'll be with us for many more years... When it is her time to leave us, at least I know that her time with us was happy and that her quality of life was good. This is very important to me. I think I understand how you feel. Also, I think it is wise to concentrate on the fact that Sophie might fully recover.

Thanks again for the good news!!! Give Sophie a great big hug and kiss from me... WFEN
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
What do you know.
Awesome, Jo.
I know what you mean about the huge vet bill. I bought myself a $1,000 Christmas present 10 yrs ago, when my male borzoi had torsion (bloat) and I had to decide whether to put him down. It was Christmas Eve, my parents were at my house, we'd had an ice storm, the phones were out, and I couldn't get a hold of my husband, so I decided I just couldn't go home and tell everyone, "Merry Christmas! I just had the dog put to sleep!"

You are wise to create a stopping point for treatment, though. At a certain point, it gets ridiculous. You just want your dog to be happy and pain free.
 

Jena

New Member
Ah yay!! I haven't been around much lately but i remember your post being so concerned about this. I'm happy to see she's ok, pets play such an important role in our lives dont' they?
 

Fran

Former desparate mom
Great news about Sophie. I hope the new treatment works and she has years of being loved by you.
Our sweet puppy is almost to the year mark from her diagnosis. She's not 100% but she is close. If we couldn't see the tumor we wouldn't know. You just don't know what works and when it is their time to go. Everyone tells me I will know when it's time but for now she is loving us and we are loving her.

I keep talking about pet health insurance but haven't gotten around to it. I feel your pain about medical bills.

Yay for Sophie.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
Just an idel thought - is there any chance she got into a packet of snail bait or rat poison? They tend to work in ways that cause internal heamorrhage for various reasons. Standard rat poisonhas an agent that acts a bit like warfarin. And I remember when our corgi got into a packet of snail bait and ate a lot of it, she was very sick and anaemic for a while.

I'm thinking - if the cause was an acute poisoning then the transfusion would have bought you time and as long as she's n longer getting access to the poison, she should be OK.

it could be a long shot. Just a thought, to check your place for any old baits lying around, or even ones the neighbours may have left lying around.

Marg
 

hearts and roses

Mind Reader
Thanks everyone - we're so happy too and Sophie looks pretty good. I am hopeful that she will bounce back and be okay.

There wasn't really any way for her to get into anything at this time of year, unless someone deliberately gave her something. We don't put down poison and we have about a foot of snow covered in hard thick ice all over our yard so she's not out without a leash and/or supervision. I *suppose* there is the chance that she either rolled in something or ingested feces from a foreign animal - we do have wild animals around and our neighbor's cats regularly use the area around my garden and pool as their personal litterbox, however, again, everything is covered in snow/ice.

The vet asked if she'd ingested any coins, such as nickels or pennies, as apparently the metals can cause her symptoms. The main reason an ingested foreign material has been ruled out as part of her diagnosis is that she never had diarhhea or vomiting. Well, vomiting after she was given the iron supplements, but initially no vomiting.

She has been able to take her morning daily walk with H and our other dog Nala, so she has some of her energy back and she's barking up a storm at the puppy! The dogs can't stay out too long right now because it's too cold, but seeing her have some of her old energy level is nice. The vet said that is due to the transfusion, not necessarily because she's getting better, but in time.
 
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