Posts Tagged ‘Luther’

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Enjoy Them While You Hav’em

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Life can be a bitch sometimes no doubt about it, and just when you think that you’re having a bad day you hear of somebody else whose day seems just that little bit worse.

I recently had to let go of my own Luther and just the other day, heard that a friend of my brothers’ had to make the same tough decision I recently made.

If you can believe it, this is the second time that this woman has had to make the decision to end the life of an active service dog, and making this situation even more weird is the fact that both dogs were of a similar age.

Her dog just lost to her, developed lymphoma at the age of 7 and despite opting for chemotherapy, his health deteriorated very quickly.

He was still in full service to her, a fact that differs from my own situation a little bit.

Luther was retired, and I had already retrained with my current guide Lars, a beautiful svelt black lab.

Oh what to do?

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Lu’s on Juice

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

So Luther will be remaining on a large prednizone dose for another week, before being weened down in dosage.

He was supposed to be on his final large dose day today, but due to his tremors persisting, the vet wants to keep him on the drug at the current 20mg daily dose for another 7 days.

As for his stomach issues, they have all but disappeared, meaning that the prednizone is actually helping him, but the shaking is persisting.

According to his vet, the shaking is generally the last symptom to go away once a dog begins treatment so we’re hoping that another week of the higher prednizone dose will do the trick.

He appears to be having nausea also, a side effect of the prednizone because he is taking his sweet time eating, a teltail sign that the drug is making him feel a little off.

All said though, he is definitely doing better, and continues to regain muscle tone in his back legs.

His excessive drinking is gone, and he is begging more and more, a sure sign that the old Lu is somewhere not too far from the surface.

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Its Not a Broken Record: “Luther Update”

Friday, December 4th, 2009

So Lu went for blood work yesterday, and it appears that his pituitary gland is functioning far below the level that it should be.

This is a direct result of his lysodren overdose, but the hope was that by medicating him with prednizone that this would counteract that damaging effect of the drug.

He has been on prednizone for the last 3 weeks now, and although he did appear to perk up, the last few days have been more of a digression for him.

He has also begun shaking, ya know the kind of shaking that dogs do when they are scared of something, something I brought to the vet’s attention yesterday.

According to the vet, the shaking, and upset tummy Lu, and I have also been dealing with can be a direct result of a steroid deficiency in the body, meaning that now, his prednizone dose has been significantly bumped up.

He will be on the drug for the month of December, but in a larger dose, as the previous dose he was on did not result in any movement in his steroid levels at all.

He does appear to be a little more lively as of late though as I mentioned in my last post.

He goes up stairs, not willingly but he will do it, and he is a little more interested in what is going on around him, begging on a regular basis, lol.

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Luther Update

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

So Luther has been on prednizone for nearly 3 weeks and has noticably improved.

He is not shying away from going up stairs anymore, and although it takes him a while to climb a flight, he is doing so willingly.

He is also more active in general, seeking attention, and reverting back to his hoovering ways of old.

I never thought I’d ever miss having to keep an eye on him to make sure he stays out of trouble, but over the last little while, seeing him just lying down doing nothing, I’ve come to miss the lusifer side of Lu.

He goes back for a blood test at the end of the month, at which time I hope he can begin his maintinence phase of lysodren.

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Luther Update

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

So Lu is on his second medication since his Cushing’s diagnosis, the latter of which is to counteract the effect of the first one.

The most popular drug to treat Cushing’s in dogs is one called lysodren, a powerful drug used as a chemotherapy agent.

One of the side effects of this drug is that it can be overadministered, which is what happened in Luther’s case.

During induction phase, the dog is given a large dose of the drug, with that dose being reduced once it appears to be working and reducing symptoms of Cushing’s.

In Luther’s case, the drug began to work but it took a while for his symptoms to exhibit this change, thus he received too much of it.

Now he is on prednisone to counteract the lysodren, and appears to be doing a little better.

He goes into the vet for blood work tomorrow, and hopefully by then they can prescribe him a maintinence phase of lysodren, which he will be on for life.

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Lars Scores an A for First Year of Guide Work

Friday, November 6th, 2009

So lost in the last few months which have been marred by Luther’s deteriorating health crisis, is the fact that Lars, AKA Bar Bar has been, and continues to be a little fire cracker.

Monday was actually Lars and my 1-year anniversary, man its hard to believe that time has flown by as fast as it has.

Lars has matured in many ways since I brought him home, but one thing that has not changed is his incessant need to play and be the center of attention.

If Bar had his own way, he’d play 24 hours a day 7 days a week, skipping breakfast and dinner, in exchange for a game of tug of war or going for a good run.

Speaking of running, I have begun referring to Bar as my little Kenyan because of his love to run.

He is not the fastest dog, but has endurance superior to mine, a fact that makes it easy for him to come running with us no matter how far we go.

Lars’ guide work is, as it was when I got him, steller.

He has a tremendous pull in harness, and has, with some coaxing begun to show a better ability to slow down in “delicate” areas where the bull in the China shop mentality is bad for business.

Happy anniversary little man, the first of many, knock on wood.

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Luther has Cushing’s Disease

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

So Luther was diagnosed with Cushing’s disease and has been put on a very powerful medication named Lysodren.

It is a chemotherapy drug designed to slow down the ability of the pituitary gland to produce ACTH, a hormone that stimulates the adrenal gland’s production of cortisones which when allowed to flow free in the dog’s body results in all the symptoms Luther has been exhibiting.

He began the medication last Thursday and is currently in the midst of an 8 day induction phase in which he receives a large amount of the drug to “kickstart” the process of killing off tissue of the pituitary to slow things down.

So far, not much has changed with him, and he is on the 6th day of the medication.

The only way he would be taken off the induction phase before 8 days, is if he started losing his apetite, a sign that the drug is working.

I had hoped to see something positive out of him by day 6, but he does have a rather severe form of the disease so maybe it just takes a bit longer.

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Luther Update

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Well I have not posted an update on Luther for quite some time now, mainly because there is nothing really positive to report.

He is progressively deteriorating, and as he lies at my feet gnawing on his garlic bone, I cant help wondering if he is at the end of his road.

He has undergone a battery of tests, ranging from blood and urin analysis, to an ultrasound and still an affirmative diagnosis is not apparent.

Symptoms that he is exhibiting suggest Cushing’s Disease which he is being tested for, results of which we should get back sometime today.

I have started looking up symptoms that he has begun to exhibit, to try to determine what we’re dealing with, and the majority of his symptoms do indicate that he may actually have Cushing’s.

First symptoms he exhibited began as soon as he got into that damn backpack from an earlier post, and were mainly: excessive thurst and urination, which go hand in hand I guess.

Since then he has developed many more symptoms, including difficulty getting up when lying down, unstable back legs, refusing to go up stairs, increased hunger, increased tiredness, and most recently difficulty swallowing.

His recent bout of blood work also bodes poorly, as his liver enzymes are even worse than they were the last time they were checked, and he is losing even more protein through his urine.

He does not appear to be in pain according to a neurologist who looked at him yesterday, he just appears to have lost all muscle tone which could explain his difficulty getting up and walking.

I remember the days when Lu used to play tug of war with me and chase after treats, he is so far from that now it really breaks my heart to see him in his current state.

Yesterday when I went to pick him up from the vet after his overnight, he did not even wag his tail to see me, something very uncharacteristic for him.

Words that would invoke a tail wag 100% of the time, are not having the same effect on him now, more evidence that suggests he is just going through the motions.

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Luther Has Kidney Disease

Monday, September 28th, 2009

So as of late, Luther, my retired guide has been a little under the weather.

Problems for him began after I got home and found him lying amid a variety of contents he had taken the time to remove from a backpack, including protein bar wrappers, jewelry, gum, etc.

Ever since that day, he has been drinking far more water than usual, and subsequently peeing every 5 minutes, thus last week I took him to the vet.

I personally think he ingested something from that backpack, but the vet tells me that no matter what he ate, his symptoms do not fit, a fact that I am not qualified to argue with her about.

After a series of blood tests, urine tests and most recently an ultrasound, the vet tells me that Luther has a form of kidney disease.

His problem lies in his kidneys, which although working normally, are leaking protein, a big no-no.

He is now on baby aspirin to help thin his blood, medication to reduce his blood pressure, and an omega-3 fatty acid to again, help out the kidneys.

He goes back to the vet next week for a follow-up at which time I hope to find out if his meds are actually helping him out.

He has been on them since last Wednesday night, and I am pretty certain that his water intake has dropped a little, a good thing for sure.

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Luther, Not a Fan of Fasting

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

So Luther, my retired guide is a little under the weather today, fitting as it has been a rather gloomy day weather wise.

He goes through a phase every so often where he’ll find something outside to munch on, only to spend the next day or so “losing weight” on my lawn, lol poor lubu.

Anyway, now that I’ve grossed you all out, back to my reason for posting - when Luther is having belly issues, he does not eat, a rule that is by no means favorable with him.

Now before, this was not an issue as I would simply not feed him, but with Lars now in the mix, Luther has to watch Lars eat, a fact that makes me oh so glad I can not see Luther’s puppy eyes begging me for salvation, lol.

I should not laugh at this sinario because I’m sure if Luther knew I was, he’d take a bite out of me to satisfy his rumbling tummy!

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