About 10 days ago now Fancy started having an odd soft huffing cough or respiration. It was of course the weekend so we did not see the vet until Monday. He thought it was most likely Kennel Cough ( although I didn’t agree) but in any case we treated with antibiotics. By end of week there was no change and I was seeing some other disturbing changed mostly related to exertion, for example out for a walk she would drag behind instead of walking ahead and look at me as if to say I can't go any faster!
So we saw the vet again on Monday and did X-rays and find some odd patchy areas in her lungs one of which is sitting on the trachea and compressing it about 1/3. So that is the answer to the breathing difficulties. Possibilities of what is was ranged from Bronchial infection to cancer.
This afternoon an ultrasound was done and showing involvement of kidney, liver, spleen and gall bladder. Did do a biopsy of spleen ( as that was an easy area for vet to reach) and will see what the pathology is.
That of course won’t really make any difference in treatment. I will not do chemo - she is 13 years old now – so we are giving her a heavy duty antibiotic and steroids in hope it will reduce some inflammation and in particular that tumor that is sitting on her trachea. That we hope will ease her breathing which seems to be the only thing giving her discomfort at the moment. She does not like to put her head down to eat the past day or two so I am hand feeding her moist food and will do whatever is necessary to keep her comfortable.
I know some of you have used holistic remedies in these situations and I would be interested to hear of anything that would help keep her comfortable.
Here's Fancy doing one of her favorite things - eating a carrot she just dug up from the veggie garden!
carolvan
