Month: March 2016

Steroids start today

Just wanted to update everyone on Reign and her autoimmune disease.  She had her check up today to start the high dose round of steroids. Just in time too since yesterday we discovered another lump. These things pop up quick. Since she’s starting with a lump it will be easier to know if it is working since there are no tests to find out. We go back in a month to see where she’s at, have some blood work done to make sure the steroids aren’t hurting her and start a different medicine. This disease crazy to me. Most people here are trying to boost the pets immune system and here we are trying to lower Reign’s.

Thanks to a dachshund page on Facebook I was able to find 2 people that have dealto  with this also.   The story that really gave me hope was an 8 year old dachshund was attacked by a cat and ended up having his jaw broken and losing an eye. The disease showed up 2 months later. Same treatment as Reign is doing and he past away in his sleep at 18 YEARS OLD! He lived with this for 10 years with this disease  and they just watched for new lumps and made sure when he was on the steroids he didn’t put on too much weight.

Here’s a link about Sterile nodular panniculitis,  in Reign’s case hers is idiopathic since there was no infection of any kind

http://www.vetstreet.com/care/sterile-nodular-panniculitis-in-dogs-and-cats

Reign is still doing amazing, terrorizing the neighborhood and making sure the squirrels know she’s still the boss. She happy to be getting “special ” cheese again.

Thank you once again for this site and the support you give everyone.

Staples are out

Reign is running around terrorizing the house now! She has to feel so much better with those staples and stitches out. Our vet wrote down the name for me since my brain decided not to work lol

Idiopathic Sterile nodular panniculitis

We all know why there was zero chance for me to remember that! It’s rare but is seen in dachshunds more commonly. No one knows much about what causes it but but trauma  can trigger it. And we know she has had some trauma in the last 8 months! We are waiting 2 weeks for her to finish healing before starting treatment since we will be lowering her immune system. This will just be something we watch with her since this can go into remission and pop up again or she may never show any signs again. I just wanted to give an update and I will be posting in ask a vet. Thank you everyone for just being here and giving us emotional support!

Pathology report is back

THE LUMPS ARE NOT CANCER!! I had myself convinced that I didn’t care what the report said but when I heard the vet’s voice on the phone I realized I was lying. Usually one of the techs call to check on her so I knew the pathology had come back. He immediately said no cancer so a weight was lifted. What the pathology did show an autoimmune disease. He rattled off the name and there’s zero chance of me remembering it. He compared it to lupus in humans. Her immune system is working too good so it’s turning on itself so that is what caused the 2 lumps on her shoulder and her remaining hip. We go Monday for staple removal so I will have my list of questions ready for him ( if anyone has any suggestions please let me know) The big one is if this is the reason I’m here. It would be great to know what caused her to lose her leg. Of course I googled it and since I don’t have the name there’s quite a few but it looks like she will have a diet change and need medication. Of course it’s rare ( our vet can’t remember the last time he’s treated a patient with this) and from what I’ve read most vet’s will only see a couple cases in their careers. I haven’t been in the forums here yet but I will be! I’m very happy we decided to not breed her since she could’ve past it to her puppies. I will update once we go in and I can get the name

Reign is healing up beautifully. Shes back to being a crazy lady terrorizing the house. She feels it’s time for the staples to come out and has managed to remove 3 of them herself. I think she knows she can’t sleep in the big bed until they are out and she really loves amd misses her memory foam! She tried to jump on the couch and almost made it! She always uses her ramp so I was shocked she did it. That shows she doesn’t realize/care that the leg is gone.