I realized the other day that Lottie, our chocolate lab, aka "the baby," has yet to make an appearance on the blog. I hate it that she is making an appearance under these circumstances but oh well....so be it.
About two weeks ago I noticed that Lottie's ears were, to spare you gross details, scabby. So I made a vet appointment and took her in to get checked for what I thought was just an ear infection. While at the vet I noticed that her back legs were swollen and that they were very pink, almost as if she had been chewing on them. To make a VERY long story short, the doctor diagnosed her with vaculitis, which is the inflammation of the blood vessels. So instead of leaving the vet with ear drops, I left with steroids, antibiotics and another prescription to be filled by a pharmacy. Later that week, after she had a HORRIBLE bout of uncontrollable diarrhea (yes, I said uncontrollable) we added a bland diet and Pepcid AC to the growing list of medicines followed by a blood test suggested by the doctor. After two weeks of being medicated and having someone cook her meals of chicken and rice for her EVERYDAY, we believe that Lottie is on the mend. The swelling is gone and her skin is healing. We are beginning to try to wean her off of the steroid at this point and hope that the swelling and scabs don't return but it is just trial and error at this point.
Here is what I have learned thus far about vasculitis: it is normally caused by vaccines or can appear in dogs that have been very sick. Lottie's case is somewhat of a conundrum because neither of these things apply to her. The doctor doesn't really know what is causing this because this isn't normally seen in young, healthy dogs. Also her blood test showed elevated levels in her liver and pancreas which could mean several things: 1) that the elevated levels were caused by the diarrhea 2) that the elevated levels are what has caused the vasculitis 3) the vasculitis has caused the elevated levels 4) she could have vasculitis in her pancreas and liver. The doctor is very pleased with her progress though and very happy that she has a good appetite, high energy and doesn't seem to be showing any signs of abdominal pain. So, like I said, our first hurdle is to see how she does with weaning her off of the steroid. If she does well with that we will move toward adding back in her normal food. If she does not do well we are looking at a possible biopsy of some tissue in her leg and maybe an abdominal scan to see what is going on in her liver and pancreas. As you can see...not just an ear infection. I took her to the doctor on Friday for a checkup and the doctor told me "we are going to be seeing a lot of each other in the next couple of weeks." Great....not exactly what you want to hear.
I can't close this post without trying to explain the title. When we first got Lottie for some reason adding "-kins" to the end of her name just seemed to fit. So her nickname became "Lottiekins" and eventually evolved into "Misses Lottiekins" or sometimes just "Misses Kins." Those later evolved into anything and everything that she did, for example, "Misses Pooterkins" when she poots, "Misses Pouterkins" when she pouts and I can't leave out "Misses Scumperkins" when she, well, scumps. I don't really know what "scumping" is but I believe the word originated with my high school girlfriends and somehow became a go-to word at our house. In this context I would say that Lottie being a "Scumperkins" is her just laying there, looking cute and being her sweet self. And I'll give a little shoutout to my brother-in-law, Pierce, because he thinks all of these names are hilarious and laughs any time I call Lottie anything ending in "-kins."
So if you think about it, say a little prayer for "Misses Sickykins." Pray that we get over this first hurdle and that she can return to our sweet "Scumperkins" sooner rather than later.
- Anna
