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I’ve spoken with the vet. Crumbs you know I am always such a mess whenever I speak to him, at the clinic, at home. He’s such a lovely guy and very calming but I’m always in such a state. I’m expecting him to say, bring him in now, this sounds really bad.
Anyway he said that having checked his heart and blood pressure last visit for this reason, and there were no irregularities, he believes this is not life threatening – I repeated “NOT life threatening” and he said no. If there are signs of it progressing, and he doesn’t think it will, we can have a monitor put on him to register his blood pressure over a few days. He asked if I could film it, but I said no way as it (touch wood – hits self on head) it hasn’t lasted more than 1 or 2 seconds. He said that’s a good sign, as it seems to be self correcting (I don’t know what that means, but I heard “good sign”) and he doesn’t actually faint.
He said the tight collar is a possibility if the fact that it happened twice in a row the day before and nothing since his collar was loosened. Let’s hope that’s all it was.
I’m to keep an eye on him and keep a note of any future episodes and ring him if it’s starting to happen and we’ll go from there.
Okay I’ll probably start to calm down in a week or two – in your dreams Vally!!!
Love to all.
Vally & Bingo.
Hope, sorry I don’t remember. What dosage is Steve on and when did he start it? I’ve never reduced dosages any sooner than monthly, I think actually 6 weeks was more normal after a few good blood results. Since being on the low doses and worrying about a relapse (only because we’ve had a few relapses whenever we got to every second day pred dosing), we’ve been reducing even slower, over 2 months and never more than 20%. Bingo is most likely going to stay on a small dose and we’re just trying to test the waters with how low we can go.
Okay, that’s really interesting. Some of this does sound very familiar. Last time he was at the vets and I mentioned what had happened (a week earlier) and they did check his blood pressure (so perhaps they’re thinking along these lines as well) and did full CBC again – all came out fine.
I called the specialist yesterday, but I missed his call last night, he’s going to call me today. I’ll put this to him. Bingo’s been fine the last 2 days since loosening the collar and I’m really hoping that’s what has caused all this – that’s the easy no-worries solution but is it ever that simple? He went through the usual “I’m starving” barking and carrying on last night, with me watching him and watching him and watching him (etc) but thank goodness, nothing happened.
I’ll let you know what he vet says.
Love Vally & Bingo.
Hope, 40 is a brilliant PCV. They always go up and down, so that’s really really nothing. I’m really proud of myself that I no long throw myself on the floor crying at the vets whenever Bingo’s PCV drops . Not really, I just go really pale, hot and sweaty and the vet, obviously suspecting an oncoming heart attack, says, “No, it’s okay Vally, it’s a good result”.
Did you mention the sleep thing to the vet again?
Love Vally & Bingo
Oh I’m so glad to hear about your other dogs and your vet. It makes a difference. My specialist was supposed to hand Bingo’s care back to the local vets after he became stable, but because there were some problems with him relapsing, he kept looking after him – I also didn’t want to go back to the local vets. I know there are policitical issues because by not sending him back to the local vets, he risked them not referring other dogs in the worry of the local vets losing their business. He’s such a good guy.
Have a look at The Bridge page too, it’s beautifully written and I have no doubts will help a lot.
Julie, truly, if you feel up to it, please stay around. Your experience would truly help others.
Love Vally and Bingo.
Julie, you were relying on what you were told by the experts. Don’t feel guilty. I think there are still so many vets that just don’t know a lot about this disease.
As you say, hindsight. The money factor is a very real factor unfortunately. It’s a huge expense especially if you’re told there isn’t much hope. I was lucky in that I had pet insurance which made it easier in the early days.
I didn’t truly trust the vets. I thought they were just stringing me along to make some money out of my distress, but having the insurance meant that I could go ahead with all the scans and stuff knowing I was covered for it. Without the insurance, I’m not sure what I would done. It was the vet who convinced me to give them a few days, I had already given up. I was sure Bingo wasn’t going to make it. I hadn’t found Vetnet. All I read was doom and gloom stuff.
I was lucky that Bingo did respond quite quickly. I know it’s not always like that.
Really Julie, please don’t blame yourself.
Love Vally & Bingo