Ok so we have had a rollercoaster week of emotions here......
It all started on Saturday morning with a unwell canine by the name of Wolfie, he was listless, panting and coughing. My immediate thoughts rolled towards heart failure as he is 13 after all. Off to the vets we march, and leave him for them to look at. No sooner were we home and the phone rings with basically an affirmation in sorts that he was indeed presenting with congestive heart failure, however they wish to carry out some chest xrays to confirm this.
Later in the afternoon another phone call, the xrays are non conclusive, he has a mass in the chest area, unsure if this is an enlarged heart or a cancerous tumour. The vet prescribes diuretics and ACE inhibitors (standard cardiac drugs) and recommends we take him home and review options on Monday and the consideration of a referral to another clinic for an ECG to determine the state of the heart. Well we had a restless night as we had wolf sleep with us so if he was in distress we could comfort him, and he was coughing most of the night, however pitiful this was and he sounded like a 60 a day smoker with chronic bronchitis, he still had fight in him and we had to let the drugs start to work. Sunday was a hard day listening to him cough, but he still wanted to do things. We started to prepare for the fact that he was going to go downhill.
Monday came and no improvement, but the more we saw the more it just didn't seem totally conclusive of a tumour, too many factors were not clear. We looked even down to the possibility of salt water from the sea in his lungs, collisions with Simba and falling out of the car even. I was still holding onto the hope that it is heart failure or as he was presenting, a severe chest infection rather than a tumour. Having talked to the vets they also agreed that too many factors just didn't add up and he was booked in for an ultra sound ECG on Tuesday. Monday evening he came out into the garden and seemed quite bright even going for the ball as we played with Simba, however his breathing was still terrible and lungs full of fluid.
Well he was like a weak old man who could hardly move on Tuesday, it broke my heart taking him in, i really had a feeling we were at the end of the road.
An agonising 2 hours went by and i got the dreaded phone call from the vet, basically confirming that the heart was A1 but the mass was there and was most likely cancer. However he said could Wolfie have been involved in any trauma? I said i couldn't rule it out as 50kg of Simba regularly bowls him over and he fell out of the car the other day. Ok says the vet, i will do further scans to see if there is the possibility of a rupture.
Another 2 hours go by and the result is again inconclusive, but is leading more likely towards a Lung Lobe Torsion rather than a tumour as the shape is not tumour shaped but the consequent draining of fluid from the lung indicated more of a trauma related injury than a cancer.
OK what are the options......
Yep you guessed it a specialist hospital 4 hours away who can do surgery to removed the damaged lung. They will make the referral and come back with time scales and costs if required.
So anyway we go home and Wolf is given some heavy duty anti inflammatories to help. He was the best he had been for days, wasn't coughing or panting and managed to have a good sleep too, he was pretty knackered from all the coughing.
And so that leads me to today
I had a job interview, so as i didn't want to leave wolf for too long i went and Paul popped home to babysit and then i rang to say when finished and he went back to work.
I come back home.....
HORRORS!
In the time of Paul leaving and me getting home (about 15 mins)Merlin has eaten 5 of Wolfies medications of the anti inflamatories (they are meat flavoured chewables!!) (not used to children and keeping this sort of thing safe!!!)
I ring Paul and Paul rings the vet
This is like a major emergency as this is the equivalent to a human taking 1500 paracetamol, this can cause kidney failure. A cat would be prescribed 2mg, Merlin devoured 500mg!! do the maths yourself!!!
So Merlin is in hospital having had his stomach pumped. I hope we can pick him up tomorrow morning as we miss him like mad. Amazing that a kitten of 4 months old can literally take your heart hostage!
We however will not know the long term damage to his kidneys for a week. Fingers crossed we got to him in time.
Wolf however is like a new dog in relation to his mobility, the drugs he was given are the sort used for hip and joint problems in dogs (carprofen/Rimadyl) He can walk around with no discomfort. So even though these are like mega expensive once he recovers from the lung surgery (fingers crossed it is the torsion and not an unusual tumour) we will see about having him put on these because it really is amazing the improvement in his mobility.
So yes you have guessed it we have discussed Wolfs options and we are going to take the chance and have the surgery done in Christchurch next week. We feel we owe him that, as his heart is good, his mobility can be improved, and if it is the torsion then he can make a full recovery. We are not ready for him to leave us yet, he loves life here and he should stick around to enjoy more of it.
Please keep all fingers and toes crossed for both Wolfie and Merlin.
I will of course keep you posted.
Wolfie at the moment is sprawled out sleeping and quite happy, the fluid hasnt returned to his lungs and his joints dont hurt, thats got to be good as he has a long road ahead of him he needs to be strong to recover.
Pics of Merlin helping with our golf practice yesterday... you can just tell he is trouble!
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