From:
Marie Schatz
Date: 2002-11-13 23:46:18 UTC
Subject: Need help trying to figure this one out
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-Id: <1B0A5B13-F762-11D6-B461-000393AB6D96@attbi.com>
A few months ago I reported that my 7 yr old sprite was limping on a
rear leg.
The vet didn't see anything in the x-ray (taken approx Oct 10) Last
week a different vet reviewed the x-ray and said her liver was huge. A
new x-ray had a huge growth coming out of the liver - looked like a
whole new blob laying there. Her lymphnodes behind her legs are
somewhat swollen. A liver biopsy was done with the suspected prognosis
being Lymphsarcoma. Today the biopsy said they didn't see any signs of
cancer. The pathologist suggested to the vet to take a good look at
the heart.
Apparently they see dead liver cells - they think the liver is being
crowded (well since its grown to be gargatuan i would guess it might!)
and is dying and regenerating cells. That doesnt really explain the
lymphnodes though.
Friday I'm taking her in for an ultrasound.
A few other remnants of memory. Recently she was sleeping way too much
- antiobiotics pepped her right up - so there was an infection but the
limp and first x-ray preceeded that by a month+. About the time the
limp was showing up I noticed that she would have trouble in the yard
running - she would just fall over. I put that up to insulinoma which
I now wonder if she really has much of. Thinking back it looked more
like a clumsy episode or something quit working episode (not a staring
out of or seizure type thing) I wonder if something was going on?
Could there been/be some sort of episode, bacterial or viral that could
have caused this or be causing this?
Here is her blood work from the day of the x-ray last week.
ALKP 170 u/l
ALT 209
BUN 27.7 mg/dl
CREA 1.37 m/dl
GLU 108.2 m/dl
TP 6.92 g/dl
HCT 18.3%
HGB 6.3 g/dl
MCHC 34.4 g/dl
WBC 11.4 x 10 to the 9th /l
%GRANS 55%
L/M 5.1 x 10 to the 9 /l
%L/M 45 %
PLT 445 x 10 to the 9th /l
Retics 0.3%
Results based on adult canine cell size
So she's anemic, her nose is pale
My vet says the clinical signs tell him its lymphosarcoma, the
pathologist says its not.
Please think about this - there is so much experience out there. I
don't want to miss anything more. I feel like time is critical and I
really want to make the most of the ultrasound.
Mary
P.S. This has been a hard lesson learned twice - the more I know about
an animals health problems the more I miss because so many symptoms
seem to be similar and progressive but are actually something new.
Case in point - my elderly dog was having a tough ttime with the heat -
well I knew he had a mild heart murmur so that made sense - wrong - he
had a large hemangiosaroma mass growing on his heart.