Erica & Justice

[admin]

PS – Vally’s medicine charts save the day!!!! Awesome! Linda

[Erica and Justice]

The medicine chart is a lifesaver. I was killing myself with the schedule I was on prior to Valley making me one for Justice! I have been able to sleep through the night for the first time in the past couple of weeks. Justice seems to be sleeping better too. Also she’s more herself during the day, not sleeping as much, a little more strength and personality.
Justice’s incontinence seems to happen after she goes outside and pee-pee’s. I don’t think she voids herself completely and when she comes inside and lays down will have incontinence after about 10 minutes. It’s usually just a little bit and I give her a sponge bath because she hates getting a bath and I don’t want to stress her out anymore then she already is.
She goes tomorrow to the vet. I am hoping that she’s up in numbers. Her gums look good and again, even under the side effects of these drugs – I see her spirits up the past couple of day.

[admin]

Good to hear Justice is feeling more like her usual self – always a good sign, Erica. The incontinence will improve when you can safely reduce the pred, I’m sure – it’s awful for them & they feel bad about it, even though us Mums just deal with it.

Good luck with the next tests – please send them to us when you have time so we can see how well she’s doing !

Sleep is so precious when our babies have this awful disease & you really need to do some catching up – Vally does the best charts in the world so we can get more shut eye!

Love Sheena & the boys xxxxx

[Vally]

I’m glad you like the chart. I love to make them up.

I agree with Sheena, if Justice is feeling a bit better, then that’s a very good sign.

Waiting to see what the numbers say.

Vally & Bingo
xxx

[Erica and Justice]

47!!! Yes her PCV was 47 today! Her vet was so surprised he had them redo the test and the second run was 45! These results were wonderful news to our ears. Her vet wants to start reducing the prednisone from 40mg in the morning and 40 mg at night to 40mg in the morning and 20 mg at night.
He spent nearly 40 minutes with us today – really he’s so dedicated – I love him each time we go. He noticed she is having numerous side effects from the prednisone that he wants to try to back it down and see how shes’ doing. Today they had a difficult day trying to get blood – it took 3 different techs and numerous attempts. Plus she’s been so weak in the past 24 hours – much more then this new normal the past 2 weeks! She will lay down in one spot for 6 hours at a time and just wants nothing to do with getting up. She can barely walk and needs lots of breaks – just standing. He was also concerned with her edemas and breathing – using her adominimal muscles. So, on Monday (4 days from now) he wants to reduce the prednisone once again if she’s doing better – to 20mg in the morning and 20 mg in the evening.
Honestly, the prednisone side effects have been my biggest concern since the beginning. And the past 24 hours have been her weakest since the onset. I am happy to start reducing them a little.
Thoughts? Do their PCV usually get that high again in only 2 weeks? It was just 13 days ago that she was at 15% and needed the blood transfusion! I am happy her number is up – thrilled actually! She’s always been my strong girl – I just need her to start showing signs of life again and not be so weak.

[Patrice]

Erica,
Excellent News! This is a perfectly normal PCV HCT percentage.

Yes, the side effects of prednisone are very discouraging. Just keep saying to yourself, “this has saved his life.” I promise they will go away and he will return to normal. I have seen it with Chance. He went from near death to normal in about 6 months.

Yes it is very possible for the body to regenerate this quickly when it is healthy. The body likes something called homeostasis, this simply means that every little thing is monitored constantly and many different body systems attempt to get everything back to normal as quickly as possible. So really, Justice healed himself, with your help. Make sense?

Take some Mommy time for yourself. You deserve a little break, even if it just a hot bath with a good book, ok? Very important to reward yourself. Good job Mommy.
my best
patrice

[admin]

Erica – this is so GOOD to hear! Justice you are one amazing girl! I’m so happy for you.

Normally, the pred should be reduced more slowly, but if their are good clinical reasons to reduce more quickly (she is obviously really suffering) & her PCV is excellent, that reduction should be fine. The only thing I would say is to reduce once a week from then on, so you can do PCV check 4-5 days after each reduction just in case she drops too much. Fingers, crossed, she won’t as she’s already made such a quick recovery!

We also did a VERY fast & terrifying pred reduction due to Worzel’s skeletal state & his horrendous muscle loss – he could not have tolerated the high dose much longer – he was near total collapse, but the pred did save his life. It was not pleasant for Worzel for the first couple of weeks – he suffered from withdrawal symptoms & I think you may see this too – let us know if you are concerned. The main thing was he didn’t want to be touched at all – fast pred withdrawal is painful for them & for us humans – we had to be very gentle. He was also pretty lethargic, but no worse than on high dose pred. He did get grumpy! A few weeks later, he was feeling much, much better & getting back to his old self, slowly. I would never normally recommend doing this kind of reduction to anyone else, but sometimes, it is necessary & I am wishing you all the luck in the world.

Love & congratulations on this fantastic news
Sheena, Worzel & Ollie xxxxx

[admin]

Erica,
I think that Justice is still pretty weak because there is lots of healing to be done in her body. The prednisone is taking it’s toll but like Patrice said it saved her life! It will take time but Justice will be back to her old self, you have to believe that. I have heard of prednisone reductions that were done this fast and it all went well. 40mg per day is still a fairly high dose so Justice will be fine next week and hopefully not feel the side effects quite as much. It sounds that your vet is very passionate and very knowledgeable, that is very important.
Best wishes,
Brigitte