Sunday, February 3, 2013

MRI Shows the Damage

Painted on Art Rage while I waited for the neurologist to call after her first seizure..


Lily's condition has worsened over the last month, and after seeing specialist DM at the Melbourne Veterinary Specialist Centre on the 11th of January, she continued to decline. The anti-convulsants she was prescribed made no difference, so he upped the dose.

I took her to have a trial acupuncture at Prahran Vet Hospital in the hope of settling the facial twitching, and we took home herbal tablets as well.

The next day, Thursday 31st January, she had two grand mal seizures, her back legs were no longer co-ordinated so she fell heavily over and over, and her facial twitching was almost non-stop. The specialist was contacted immediately and we made plans for her to see her neurologist when he returned on Wednesday.

The next morning, she had deteriorated so much I believed she would die if we didn't do something immediately, and after a desperate call, the Specialist Centre said to bring her straight down.

She went in for a CSF test and a MRI of her head, which showed a white flare over the optic nerve for her removed eye, indicating inflammation/ infection from the surgery. She has been so brave considering that she has had this simmering away since last July. Dogs are.....

Specialist Kate Heading is getting a radiologist in Sydney to view them to get a more definitive idea on Lily's condition.

She has been put on antibiotics and cortisone and we have decided to put her to sleep if we can't get her some stress and pain free life ahead of her.

We are getting some heartening results so far, her seizures have stopped, the twitching lessened, and she has regained the use of her hind legs, though she dropped like she had been shot after a big jolt this morning, poor dear girl.

The financial cost to us this past week is mounting fast, not counting numerous long trips from West Gippsland to Melbourne, but I am really pleased we decided to go the extra mile, and hopefully given her another chance.

This past week has been the most horrifying to me for a long time, watching my dog suffering the way she has. I never knew I had so many tears in me.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You have to judge by pain factor, perhaps low, but more importantly quality of life.

Robyn Rinehart Art said...

That's the curly one Andrew. She's tuned back into the world, and is functioning well apart from these awful jolts that happen regularly throughout the day. Euthanasia would be very difficult now she is 80% OK.