Split: Split: For Hope and Steve

[Hope]

Hey all!!

Guess what — we may be crazy but I heard hubs saying to Steve this morning “come get your antioxidants!! And here’s some for Jeffrey” lol! So ha! I would rather be bat stinking crazy with my Steve then sane without him so I’ll take it any day lol

Vally – I think me threatening to come in more with Steve might be just what the doctor (ahem) didn’t order — I can just “feel” the “ooo crap” looks when I come running in the door! lol!

Sheena – thank you much for that link! i’m going to take a look at it now.. I know what you mean about you and your husband not getting to go out together for months. Matt and I have been doing that since Steve got sick. One of us generally always has to be with him.. we’ve only done this about twice but we did leave him for like an hour one day for something we both had to do together. And I was panicking the whole time — I’m going to have to get one of those nanny cams or something lol!
Linda – Steve is such a fan of the happy pills himself lol — he knows he gets a treat with it. That may be contributing ever so slightly to the 11.5 lb weight gain since his diagnosis… oops. I’m not worried about it, even though my general vet says I need to be. I’m very content with a little more to love. I guess it would make sense to wean off the rest of the Pred first — that would probably help with the skin issues, though its not nearly as bad as Chance’s or Hector’s. And the Clindamycin did a fairly good job of drying the bumps out — there’s still a few raised spots but it looks way better. Do y’all know how come more vets don’t prescribe MMF? I was just wondering — I saw patrice’s post about all of the drugs in Maura and Sunny’s thread and was just curious. Steve’s internist said he liked MMF over the others because in his previous cases, they (I think he meant the cyclo?) have caused nasty fungal infections that are hard to treat . Do y’all know what he’s talking about? I’m just curious.. I am so excited Steve’s doing so well on the 10mg Pred.. then I remember the 375mg MMF and I feel worried as usual. He’s still got a LONG way to go with weaning.. is the protocol the same for that? No more than 25-30% at a time reductions?

Thanks to all!
xoxo Hope, Super Steve and Mr. Bean

[Hope]

Hey again everyone!

Quick question — how do I know if Steve is getting a uti? He’s been drinking a lot more the last 2-3 days.. I’m practically laying under him when he tinkles bc I watch for blood as well as straining (bc of the stone issue). His streams are good, long and “strong”, though he’s also peed more than once while outside the last 2-3 days which he normally doesn’t do. What else should I be looking for? I keep checking to see if he’s warm but I haven’t gotten that either.

Thanks all!
Xoxo hope and the violated

[Brigitte]

Hi Hope,
I think that the only conclusive way to say if it is a UTI is by having it analyzed at the vet. They should be able to do it right there. Last time I had it checked it was about $35, without even taking the dog in. You don’t necessarily see blood. They feel uncomfortable and not themselves though. I know that in people it can be very serious with confusion and high fever. I would look for straining. Of course Steve’s stones complicate the whole thing.
Best wishes,
Brigitte

[Hope]

Hey Brigitte!

Thank you much! The straining is definitely what I’m looking for — I did a urine catch last night and used urinalysis at home strips to see if he has any leukocytes in his urine. I think they would show up if he had an infection right? I have them to monitor his urine pH — dal’s need theirs monitored. It came back clean but I’m still going to bring him in.

Thanks and many hugs!
Xoxo hope and Steve

[admin]

Hi Hope

How is the lovely Mr Steve doing? I love your sentence above: ” I would rather be bat stinking crazy with my Steve then sane without him so I’ll take it any day lol”. I love your spirit and I am sure it is helping you all to get through this.

Molly used to suffer with idiopathic cystitis and it was pretty awful. Now I know dogs and cats are somewhat different, but I’d imagine it’s similar signs – straining, passing blood, frequent urination. In Molly’s case, it was not infected, but yes you would usually expect some white cells in the urine if there is infection present, as well as often some protein and possibly blood. I’m glad it was clear!

Lots of belly rubs to your boys,

Mary and Mable x

[hope]

Hey Mary!

I’ve missed you! :) Mr. Steve is good — he’s due back for a THREE week checkup this coming Monday. That’s right… yours truly has gotten to where she can go three weeks between visits.. not by choice lol. I’d still bring him in for daily visits if the pocket book allowed for it. Though its a source of jokes to the receptionists that I don’t always have Steve with me because they got very used to my every other day/daily visits.. I”m pretty sure we’ve paid enough to them for our own Stinkers wing. His PCV last checkup was 44%, which it’s been steady at for a good while, so thankful.
I SO mean what I said — if sanity means no steve, sanity can stay away from me.. that’s what I’ve really really taken from this whole thing and that I’m SO cognizant of now. I really feel like we are getting a second chance to give Steve the life he deserves..and for me to learn from him. His life certainly isn’t bad by any stretch.. hes currently laying on five pillows on a down comforter duvet on my queen size bed lol.. but I want to take him on trips, more walks, more swims, etc..we used to do that before stinker bean came along. Then we started leaving them home together because stinker bean would get into lots of trouble when left alone. But steve is just so happy to see me and sit with me while I study and talk to myself.. I feel like I’m learning about the important things in life from him because it’ so easy to get caught up in extraneous crap.

The reason I was/am still kind of honing in on UTI’s is because like Tamara and Mr. Ash, I’m wondering if maybe Steve’s crappy diagnosis was the result of infections.. he had an ear infection for sure at the time, we’ve since learned from Dr. Dodds that he’s hypothyroid (so he’s on Thyroxine 0.4mg BID now) and he had 2 big ole’ bladder stones which the vet said were probably causing irritation –> he’s actually still got those and I cringe at the thought of him having to have surgery right now. I’m just wondering if all of that kind of made a cascade effect that may have been tipped when I made him throw up the chicken bones that night he got into them. What got me started on it was that he seems to be drinking a bit more now than he has since we started tapering down the Pred. He does wee more but that’s because when I’m not at school, he’s taken out every 2 hours and I sing “pee pee” and stand in the grass until he does..again, the crazy right?! They said that was best for both the bladder stones and a possible UTI — keep them pottying. I’ve been doing the urinalysis strips at night because I try to track his urine pH (LOL … WHAT NOW?!?!) for the stone issue. It has protein indicator, blood indicator and leukocyte indicator. The first 2 have been consistently definitely negative. The last one may be a SLIGHT positive but I’m not sure… the negative color is white. The slightly positive is like off-white. My eyes do not differentiate that well lol!

Hugs to you and the girls!
xoxo Hope and the Stinkers

[Hope]

I’m really mad right now — Steve went in today for a checkup .. Which turned out to be just a PCV check. He’s at 48% — yay! However.. I don’t know what’s going on but they completely screwed up his meds. They didn’t know how much pred he was on, they had been refilling his Flagyl for 2 months!!! (We put him on it bc he was having pale soft serve stool) and decided to tell us today he was only supposed to be on it for 1 week. “Oops I’m sorry”. Then they said we should have been giving him sucralfate this whole time when they had told me to just give it if he was having the GI issues. “Again, were sorry.” My question is.. Is it bad that he was on Flagyl that long and wasn’t supposed to be?

Sorry I’m in class but I’m so pissed off!!
Hugs everyone!

[Tamara]

Hope I would be furious, that is inexcusable. I can’t remember, but I think Patrice told me that too much flagyl can affect the liver. I’m hoping she sees this and comments.

I’m really happy about the 48!! Go Super Steve!!

hugs–
tamara and ashki xoxox