Jenny - Abnormal Breathing

[SH]

When we arrived home this evening, I found that Jenny's breathing seemed abnormal - her breathing seems to be coming for from rear, rather
then from her middle area.  When I went to feed her, she did not seem interested in the food - but, she did take half a pumpkin seed from my
fingers, although I'm not sure if she dropped it or ate any of it.

She did lick two helpings of Nutrical off my finger she does move around, but, I think that's more to find a place to be left alone.  She is doing some
chewing in her Timothy Hay hideout.

Not sure what to make of this - we were thinking of giving her a dose of metacam or baytrill or perhaps both, but, we are afraid we might stress
her out to much doing that.

For, now we are just keeping an eye on her, I guess there is not to much more we can do for her being it's 7:50 p.m.

[SH]

UPDATE:  In the time that has past since my initial posting - Jenny's breathing seems to have improved, she was sleeping for a while, now she
is resting/chewing in her hideout.  I tried another Pumpkin seed, this time I know she both chewed on it and ate the seed.

She is responsive to us, she does move around (changing positions).

Now, we (rh) and I are thinking perhaps she had a petite stroke, which she is slowly recovering from. 

[SH]

UPDATE - Background --

For 8 weeks we treated Jenny for Mange with oral iveimectin and weekly tank cleanings - the treatments concluded 3 weeks ago with Jenny
doing very well, most of the fur she had lost has grown back and she has been acting very normal since.  She is still scratching  but the vet said
that should be expected for a while. 

I only bring this up now, with the thought that maybe she has gotten so stressed from all this - that her system is acting up.

If we were just coming home now, we would never have known or seen anything out of the ordinary - she is sleeping again
and her breathing seems to be OK.  This is all very strange - we just hoping this is not the beginning of a system slowly breaking down.

[pyrotarukia]

Sounds like you were in a bit of a scary situation but I have my fingers crossed for you that she just keeps improving and that it was just a "funny 5 minutes" get well soon Jenny <3

[SH]

UPDATE: 

We took Jenny to an Emerg. Vet today,  they took xrays. and found her lungs & heart to be OK.  They did find a mass in her abdomen, that they
said might be causing some pressure on her organs.  They are not sure what the mass is.  They did give her injections of a pain killer, an antibiotic
and glucose and we will be continuing her on both the pain killer & anti biotic orally.

We will be following up on Monday morning with her regular vet.

As of now we are not sure what the outcome will be - but we are going to try to keep her nourished, comfortable.

Tomorrow, we are going to try to have our regular playtime with her and we will see how she is - as I am typing this, Jenny has just finished
grooming herself.

At the Emerg. vets office, when they bought her back to us after she had a slight anesthetic (gas), so they could do the xray - that said that she
was very lively.

[catnut]

sorry to hear Jenny needed to see the emerg. vet but hope the treatment will help her and she will be okay, fingers crossed.

[SH]

UPDATE:

We are not sure if it's Jenny that has improved, the medication - or a little of both.  This morning my wife (rs) gave Jenny a few pumpkin seeds
which Jenny ate.  My wife then gave Jenny some water, after which Jenny went to the water bottle and drank on her own.  A few hours later
we gave her the anti-biotic and pain medication and then put her right into the play pen.

She acted pretty normal, but a little slow.  I put a few cheerios on the floor of the pen.  Jenny took one of the cheerios and ran to her "private" area
of the pen and ate nearly the whole cheerio.

Jenny did urinate as well as pooped several times - so that was very good to see.  It tells us that her kidneys are functioning and there is likely
no blockage.

When we came home late this afternoon, I gave Jenny a pumpkin seed and she took it right away and ate it.

Her breathing did pick up a few times and she did need to rest a few times while in the pen.

We are still not sure what is going on here, but the likely hood of some sort of growth, seems to have diminished.

It is of course quite possible that the intermittent breathing problem may have been happening for a while (as my wife suggested) and
that we just noticed it in the last few days.

If, Jenny should get worse before tomorrow morning - we will arrange to get her to her regular vet as an emergency.  But, as of now she
seems to have stabilized and we do have an appointment with her vet for first thing Tuesday morning.

[SH]

UPDATE:

We medicated Jenny this morning (it gets her very upset), she seems to be doing much better - we have not seen the breathing problems and we
have decided that unless she starts to have breathing problems or looks to be in distress - we are not going to give her the pain medication
tonight - getting it really bothers her and as long as she looks comfortable and is acting pretty normal - we do not want to upset her.

She has an appointment with her vet tomorrow morning - so if necessary, the vet can give her a dose of the pain medication in the morning
as well as the antibiotic.

She has been eating and taking water, in fact just a little while ago.  I put her food in my hand, I laid my hand in the tank, she came out of
her Timothy Hay hideout, and came over to my hand and had a picnic, she then went through her tubes, over to her other hideout, I switched
hands and she had another picnic.  I then held several lengths of Timothy Hay in front of her which she munched on (that's her dessert).

[SH]

UPDATE: Hospice Care

We had Jenny to her regular vet this morning - and we are now giving her Hospice care.  She has a large tumor which is probably in her spleen.

The vet put together a special formula (kinavet & oxycodone), the kinavet is an anti tumor medication.  The hope is that the medication can reduce the size of the tumor which would give us more time together and help her feel better.  We will be giving this to her every morning.

We will also be giving her just oxycodone (a pain killer) one or two more times a day, depending on need.

She has a follow up with her vet on 12/11.

As of now, she is actually behaving very normally - she even ate some food from my hand soon after returning from the vet, she is now
sleeping in one of her regular places.  And we are planning to have a regular playtime with her tomorrow.

[snowballandnugget]

Oh my gosh! What an ordeal! So sorry to hear that your little one.

[SH]

UPDATE:

Well, it has been 4 days now since we fond out about the tumor and if we did not know she had a tumor, we would not know anything was
wrong.  We are hoping that this is a sign that the tumor medication is doing something.

She has been both eating on and drinking water on her own, but we have also been giving her food and water.

Right after she has had her morning medication which contains the tumor medication, we put her right into her playpen and she does her
usual stuff - although the medication does tire her out more quickly then usual.

We have not been giving her the afternoon and nighttime pain medication - as she shows no signs of pain and we do not want to dope her up just for the sake of it.  We want her to be as active as she feels well enough to be.

We are just taking it one day at a time, my wife (rs) and I are taking shifts at night to keep an eye on her.

As good as things are right now, we are keeping ourselves prepared and we do have instructions from her Dr. on what
to do if things get bad (if or when that time comes).

[SH]

UPDATE:

Jenny is still enjoying a good quality of life - but, we are now once again treating her for mange as well.  We noticed yesterday, while she was
in her playpen that her fur was once again receding over her tail stub.  This is the same thing that was happening with the last bout.

We are guessing that the tumor medication is working as the only time we see a slight breathing irregularity is right after we give her
the morning medication and the put her right into the playpen - the breathing does settle down within a couple of minutes after she is in
the pen.

We have not been giving her either the afternoon or nighttime pain medication, as she is usually either very active or sleeping.

So, all in all except for the darn mange, Jenny has been doing OK - in fact, she is doing everything normally - the morning medication
does slow down and she does sleep quite a bit during the day, but we know that is due to the pain medication that is mixed in with
the tumor medication.

[SH]

UPDATE:

Jenny had her follow-up with the vet this morning and the vet was very pleased to see how well she was doing, the vet told us that
Jenny is still enjoying a quality of life as a result of the care we are giving her and of course the tumor and pain medication.

An xray was taken, and it does seem that the tumor medication is having an effect as the tumor does appear the have become
smaller.  Her breathing remains good and all other vitals are good - she is continuing to eat and take water normally as well
as go to the bathroom normally.

The vet did remind us that the tumor medication, being experimental, there was no way to know what to expect - we will be
continuing to give it to her each morning and this will be for an indefinite period of time for as long as she is doing OK.

Jenny's next follow-up is on 12/24 (yep, Christmas Eve).

[ninestone]

Yay!

[SH]

UPDATE: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The reason for the smile faces is we just returned from the vet, Jenny had her follow up appointment - an xray was taken and the Dr. has
informed us that the tumor has now been reduced to half the size that it was.  Her lungs are also clear.   So, the tumor is in sort
of remission and the tumor medication (kinavet) is working.

We are also going to start using an anti-itch medication which the dr. is going to mix with the tumor medication - and we are going to switch to giving her the pain medication (which gets her doped up) on an as needed basis .

This is such wonderful news for us during this holiday season !!!!!!!

Jenny's next follow-up is on 01/8/2015

rs and I want to wish everyone a very happy holiday and a very happy & health New Year with all the best in 2015