The Reginald's Status

Friday 2/10/11

• Reg had been acting pretty lethargic for almost a week.
• He had been walking extremely slow
• Laid down at the dog park on Thursday, which is VERY rare.  He doesn't lay down in public anywhere until we have been sitting (like at a coffee shop) for at least 30 minutes.  He didn't really want to play, which if you have seen any videos of him from the dog park, is also very unusual.  Usually he LOVES playing with tennis balls.
• Friday morning - I left Reg on my bed around 8:00am when I went to a meeting at the hospital. 
• After I went to the hospital I came home at around 9:00am and he was still on the bed.  Okay...I thought, he's probably just tired.
• I left again to run some errands and came home around 4:25pm when I still found him on the bed.  This is NOT normal.  He never stays on the bed all day...ever. 
• Also he had been drooling quite a bit...and he never drools
• I immediately freaked out and called the vet.  They had a 4:30pm appointment and I rushed over there (we only live about 5 minutes away).  By this time I'm already crying because I don't know what's wrong with him
• Dr. Tasky performed a physical exam and Reg presented a fever of 103.3 (100.5 - 102.5 is normal for dogs)
• She ran a complete blood panel and found his WBC count to be high
• He was given 4 bags of subcutaneous fluid, an antibiotic injection, and an injection of Cerenia (an anti-emetic), and sent home with an antibiotic regimin of Cephlexin in hopes that he would perk up in the next day or so

Saturday 2/11/10

• Reg stayed pretty lethargic all day and didn't really get out of bed.

• He was uninterested in pretty much everything and didn't even lift his head when I called his name.

• He didn't eat or drink any water all day...

Sunday 2/12/10

• By Sunday afternoon Reg still wouldn't drink or eat.
• At 1:00pm, I became increasingly worried about his lack of water in take.  While his gums were still pretty pink, he hadn't had water in almost 48 hours.
• I called VRCC, my vet's emergency clinic referral.  I told them what was going on and they told me to bring him in.
• He was more alert in the car and when we got there.  His temperature and other vitals presented normal.
• After Dr. Rector's (the vet) physical examination, she came out and told me she had found a lump in his neck.
• Note:  I felt the lump when I was loving on him in the room at my personal vet on Friday.  I asked Dr. Tasky if it was from the sub q fluids and she said no, they normally don't travel into the neck region, but that it could be a swollen lymph node if he was fighting infection, or could be a hematoma from where the blood was drawn for his blood panel.
• I told Dr. Rector that I had felt the lump Friday, and then told her what my vet suggested it may be from.  Dr. Rector seemed more concerned about its location, but agreed it could be a hematoma from where blood was taken.  She wanted to shave it and see if the area was bruised; if it wasn't she wanted to aspirate it and look at it under a microscope.
• Dr. Rector came back out and told me that it indeed was NOT bruised, so she aspirated.  The tissue looked mostly fatty, like a lipoma, although there were a few cells in there.
• They ran another complete blood panal and urine analysis on him, both came back normal (WBC had come down) except that his globulin was a bit high.
• She was still concerned about Reg's lethargy and the unknown origin and wanted to possibly have an ultrasound performed on his abdomen the next day.  
• Dr. Rector went back to get me a cost estimate, but when she came back out she sat down and told me she wanted to be really thorough about the lump so she took some more tissue to look at.  The new tissue had multiple cells--red, white, and ones with spindles.  My heart immediately sunk.
• She suggested that I keep Reg there overnight so that he could get fluids all night from an infusion pump, then in the morning transfer him over to Internal Medicine for an ultrasound, so that's what I did.
• Dr. Rector could not determine if Reg's sickness was in any way connected to the mass on his neck, but that an ultrasound may rule out other causes of his sickness.
• I sat and laid with Reg in his kennel for almost 3 hours.  While I was back there with him, they offered him some food to see if he would eat for "mom."  He didn't like the wet food (he kept spitting it out), so I asked if he could have some dry food.  He ate a little bit but not much.

• After I left Reg I called up to check on him a few times.  They took vitals and offered him food every 3 hours throughout the night.  All of his vitals were normal and he continued to eat little bits.
• Not having Reg at home was really, really hard for me (and Bug), so my friend Annie brought Reg's Pyr friend, The Bumble, over to visit with me and Bug.  While it wasn't Reg, Bug seemed to really like B.

Monday 2/13/12

• Reg was transferred to Internal Medicine at 7:30am
• The IM docs arrived at 8:00am to round, and then started seeing patients at 9:00am
• One of my good friends, Shannon, works at VRCC in the cardiology department, so she was able to check on Reg when she got to work.
• I called at 8:30am to check on my little guy
• Dr. Van Pelt spoke with me and said that she had taken additional tissue samples to look at under the microscope and the mass was indeed abnormal.
• She suggested that I have it sent to pathology which I did.
• I decided to wait on the ultrasound until the cytology report came back and if he was feeling okay otherwise, I wanted to take him home.  She was okay with that as long as I monitored his food and water intake.  She also sent him home with some more Cerenia.
• I went and picked The Reginald up around 9:30 to bring him home.  He seemed happy to be out of there, wanted to put his head out the window on the car ride home, smiling (he really does smile), etc.

• We got home and and I offered him a can of food, which he ate.
• Bug was so excited when he came home.  She was waiting on the kitchen rug for us, and her little tail just started wagging.  She was so confused when I came home Sunday night without him.  She refused to go ou to go potty without him here, so I basically had to pick her up (55#) and put her outside.
• Then he promptly went and jumped on my bed to rest.  I rested with him all day.

• He jumped down around 3:30 and asked to go out, so we went out to potty.  He peed quite a bit (from all the fluids), but also pooped, which is good.
• We went back in and he napped the the rest of the day.  

• He seems to be doing better--eating, drinking, going potty--but still seems pretty tired (I am hoping that may be in part because he had a rough night).
• We should hear back from pathology either tomorrow or Wednesday morning, so I am crossing my fingers and asking for lots of prayers and good news from the big guy upstairs.