From:
Mary R. Shefferman
Date: 2001-04-18 13:32:00 UTC
Subject: More on Knuks
Knuks is more stable today according to our vet. She doesn't really
want to eat on her own, but I'm guessing that's at least partly
because she doesn't like being there (though obviously she is quite
sick).
Her WBC was normal. The vet did analyze the fluid from her abdomen --
no neoplasm. He had also mentioned some sort of test that showed that
Knuks is making red blood cells (so that's not where the anemia came
from). Now that her abdomen is free of fluid, he does feel a mass in
her abdomen -- it is where it had previously been, but is now larger
and more nodular. This was the area that had been biopsied at the end
of February during the exploratory surgery. The biopsy report said
peritonitis & pancreatitis, no cancer. I suppose it could have been
wrong; it wouldn't be the first time. Though I don't know how likely
cancer could be at this point with the negative biopsy and the fluid
turning up negative as well.
The vet will be doing another x-ray and checking rbcs again today --
we should hear from him later today. He's not inclined to do surgery
right now, since he still doesn't really know what's going on. I
asked about her heart, and he wants to look at the x-ray first --
also considering the mass in her abdomen, it looks like we may well
have the culprit. But an ultrasound is on the list of diagnostics
once he sees what's up on the x-ray.
So what we seem to know now is that it's not cancer, it's not
infection, but what the heck is this nodule? This is the same nodule
that was just biopsied in February (as far as we can tell right now --
until or unless he does surgery I doubt we can know for sure if this
is the same exact area or a new one right next to it). Hopefully the
new x-ray and blood work will show something more definitive. If not,
I'm going to ask him to go ahead and do the ultrasound to see if that
turns up something.
--Mary & the Fuzzies