Asking The Vet Tough Questions
Pawesome writer Tara recently wrote about her dog Gida’s liver enzyme rollercoaster and how difficult learning our pets are sick can be. When Tara told us about Gida’s test results, I was shocked because it was all too similar to the rollercoaster my fiance and I have been on ourselves for over a year with our dog, Happy. It started when I took Happy in for a routine vet visit and mentioned that he vomited on, what I felt, was a regular basis. At the time that meant vomiting 2-3 times a month. We started with a stool sample which ruled out giardia and routine bloodwork. When the vet called to give me the bloodwork results, I was stunned to hear his results were abnormal, with elevated ALT liver enzymes. I really thought he’d be fine. A very long story — with many more diagnostic tests over the course of a year — short, Happy likely has low grade liver disease or hepatitis. Without an invasive liver biopsy (the only test we haven’t done), we don’t know for sure what he has.
Happy has been on a mild liver support supplement called denamarin for about a year now. At first it seemed the denamarin was working. He has been vomiting less — still about once a month — and his enzyme levels were reaching the normal range. He does display occasional lethargy and have “off” days, something that really isn’t normal for dogs. All seemed to be moving in the right direction until recently when he had his enzyme levels re-checked via a bile acid test (like little Gida had) and the results showed his liver was worsening, not improving as the previous test had shown. However, his baseline bloodwork was normal so that is good news. His bile acid test results were so poor the vet thinks it could even be a lab error (wtf?). The vet prescribed him a new medication (a liquid I have to shoot in his mouth, oy) and prescription “liver friendly” food…that set me back $150. Oh well. We’ll do another bile acid test (a $200 test) in 3 months to check his levels.
While this has all been happening, I’ve not allowed to myself to do too much googling of “liver disease in dogs” because I don’t want to scare myself. But I did force myself to ask the vet a tough question. During my conversation with our vet about Happy’s test results and the plan of action, he kept saying things like “monitor him closely,” “quality of life,” and “deteriorating.” Finally, I asked the burning question, “Do you think Happy is going to have a shorter lifespan because of this?” Happy is only 4. Much to my relief, the vet said no, with proper care and watching Happy closely he believes Happy will live a full life. He didn’t make any promises, I’m not God he said, but it sounded very promising.
3 Responses to “Asking The Vet Tough Questions”
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The worst thing is that animals can’t speak clearly to us. One afternoon Jackie, my 11-year-old Abby suddenly let me know that he had a terrible tooth problem. I rushed him to the nearby vet, who sedated him, poked around in his mouth, cleaned his teeth, charged me $300+, and sent us home. He sucks and I hope a dog bites him today.
The next day Jack was rolling on the kitchen floor pawing at his mouth, so I rushed him to our regular vet, which led to surgery that he definitely needed. I paid $1100, took him home, and a week later he was still sick as hell. I brought him back, saw a different vet, who opened his mouth and flinched, saying “Oh my God!” More surgery, $500. The first guy hadn’t prescribed the right antibiotic and Jack’s mouth was a giant puss ball.
I decided to change vets and went to the expensive place that saved my friend’s chicken. $100 got a “he’s ok, now,” diagnosis (thankfully there was a $!00 new patient discount), and I took Jackie home. He’s been fine since, and I trust the new vet. She asked me a lot of questions and answered everyone that I asked. No vet since I left Oakland has ever done that.
So the whole thing cost me about $2000, and now that Jack’s good I’m okay with that, even though I’m going to be eating ramen all summer because there are no summer school classes to teach in LA and his teeth ate up our summer cash supply. But still, for the better part of a month, Jack suffered and I did, too. I was so bummed at one point that I slept on the floor in front of the cabinet where he’d taken up temporary residence.
Now one of the feral cats I’ve adopted – a smart, funny grey and black girl named Interloper for the way she moved into the family of cats I feed – has a bloody tumor in her right ear. I’m not sure I’ll be able to trap her, because I’ve already caught her once when I had her fixed. I’m going to try, though, and so I’m trying to figure out what quality vet service she’s going to get, and what I’m going to do if the bill soars into four figures. I’ve asked her, but so far she hasn’t answered back.
My dog had nearly 3 times the normal level of alt liver enzymes, he didn’t vomit but was peeing more then normal which caught my attention. He was put on denamarin too and they thought he may have been poisoned when the Chinese dog treats were found to be poisoned but I did not give him any as I make their treats since my other dog has an allergy to most food. So I knew it wasn’t that. They then thought he might have caught a strain of leptosporsis that is not stopped by the vaccine, but were never positive about what it was. They treated him for that and he got better. It was a heavy duty antibiotic along with the denamarin. I was afraid he was going to die too, He is doing fine now. I hope Happy gets better, I know it is always hard when our babies are hurting.
Thanks for writing this, Katie. I think it’ll help a lot of our Pawesome pet pals! I’m thinking tons of good thoughts for Happy.