Our Dobie is home!

[ChiBears]

Just wanted to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers regarding our Doberman, Leisel, who had surgery yesterday to remove her right adrenal gland, in the hopes that an enlargement on that gland was a pheochromocytoma tumor responsible for her intermittant and extraordinarily high blood pressure. (Apparently, in dogs, high blood pressure is not an issue unless caused by another problem. They don't get stress related pressure issues or athrosclerosis disease. Please forgive any spelling errors...moving quickly, here...)

The surgery was risky, especially since it was the right adrenal gland that was involved. Also, the spikes in blood pressure would be very dangerous if they happened during the course of the surgery. A further complication they were worried about was that the tumor, which lies close to the major vein of the body, would have actually invaded the vena cava in search of a good blood supply.

According to the veterinary surgeon, the operation went much better than expected. There was no involvement of the vena cava and her blood pressure stayed low and constant throughout the procedure. The tumor was smaller than she imagined it would be, considering the dog's symptoms. This can be a negative or a positive, we won't know until pathology returns their results.

However, she did so well with recovery that she is back home and doing quite well. She has a pain patch on, so she's feeling QUITE good!

Challenge now will be to limit her activity and to keep the beagles separated from her. As anyone with beags knows, there really isn't much chance of keeping them "calm" around her.

Anyway, thanks again, all. If you're a dog lover, you know what it's like to have a member of your family counting on you to make the right decision for them...

chibears

ps. Angel Song, my partner said if there's an opportunity later, she'll post a pic of our girl.

[BearLady]

Thanks for sharing your update! That's great news, and we'll keep thinking positively!

Yes, now comes the challenge of trying to keep everybody calm. Been there, done that. Good luck!

[TTU79]

Great news to read. Thanks for updating us.

[LadyBuff]

I remember after spaying a cat being told to not let her jump. It was the first thing she did when I let her out of her carrier when we got him. She didn't listen to doctors orders.

I liked it better when Humane Societies started having animals spayed or neutered before adopting them.

Glad the dog is doing so well.

I got myself a new fur baby today. She is (they think) about 4 1/2 years old and a calico cat. She exploring a lot and quite affectionate. I'm her second adopter since she was first relinquished. Last one had a Rottweiler and a Beagle and intake paper say she is terrified of dogs. Well, here it will be just the two of us.

[TTU79]

I love calico cats. We had one "Miss Calico" who was the most affectionate cat I've ever had. Each night she would scoot under my bed covers and sleep against my leg. She died from kidney failure at age 20 and I still miss her (particularly in the winter).

[Gator]

Took me a long time to see this - was about to ask about your gal.

Hope future news is just as good.

[ChiBears]

First, thanks to everyone for their kind thoughts and words and for sharing your stories of your own "furry family members."

I love cats, too, and Calicos and stripped "Tiger" cats are my favorite, but unfortunately, I am very allergic to them...sadness.

I am kind of in limbo at the moment, with respect to our Dobie. She is healing up quite well from her surgery, but we got a call from the surgeon yesterday. She had received the report back from pathology, and as far as they can tell, there were no pheochromocytoma cells present on or in the adrenal gland they removed! :eek: !!!

Sooooo, we put this dog through surgery and removed a body part for no reason?!!!! Now, I'm not mad at them, because all the vets and we ourselves thought this had to be a pheo tumor. But since it's not, we have a dog with a compromised adrenal system (with medication, a dog can live without both) and still don't know what caused the high blood pressure, which is starting to reappear as the blood pressure medicine she took prior to surgery begins to clear her system.

On the other hand, the fact that they can't find any pheo cells is a plus, as that would indicate an aggressive cancer that would eventually reassert its malignant effects after migrating elsewhere in the body. We were only buying time with the adrenalectomy.

It's amazing, other than the high blood pressure, how really good the Dobie is doing. Appetite, bodily functions, coat, activity level, mobility, etc. Just want to do right by her... :confused:

[LadyBuff]

So you still don't know what is wrong with your fur baby? You don't know what is causing her high blood pressure?

[ChiBears]

No, Lady Buff, sadly we don't...we are back to square one. We just put her back on blood pressure meds last night, and she was responding to those prior to surgery, at least to some degree. The problem is as I noted earlier--they say dogs don't JUST get high blood pressure...some other disease or serious condition is causing it. We need to find out the origin of her high pressure.

One other possibility is that she has Cushing's disease, which we thought we had eliminated through one of her tests prior to surgery, but apparently there is another test that is also a Cushing's test. Seems the two tests don't really tell you your dog DOESN'T have Cushing's with a negative result, just that a positive test result tells you that they DO have it.

Interestingly enough, Cushing's is sort of the opposite disease of Addison's, which one of our "kiddos" who has already passed on had. Our vet said God must send all the special medical kids our way, because everytime our dogs have something, she says it's the first time she's ever treated a patient with that conditon.

We're going to keep digging though, until we get it solved.

[Gator]

...
We're going to keep digging though, until we get it solved.

SO frustrating! I can plot my life by the fur baby which has shared each part of it with me., I almost didn't get my current monster (OK - semi monster) because I didn't want to go through loosing another one and I didn't want to leave her behind if I went first. She is 3 and a half now we are stuck with each other :D She doesn't seem to mind though.

All of that to say I empathize with what you guys are going through and wish there were something more positive to do than just send a virtual hug but at least I can do that! HUGS

[TTU79]

Chi Bears, Have they done a complete check of her thyroid gland?Hyperthryoidism can cause hypertension.

[ChiBears]

Yes, she is currently on Levothyroxine for previously slightly elevated thyroid readings, but the medication seems to be controlling it well. That is one of those "very good test results," we keep getting back on everything BUT her blood pressure!

But, thank you for the suggestion...any shared ideas or previous experiences with this that someone else has had might be the key to getting this thing solved!