Tag: checkup (Page 1 of 2)

Monty’s March 4th checkup with the neurologist went OK, so we decided to drop the Cyclosporine to every other day offset with the Prednisone every other day. Today he had another checkup and we opted for the full blood panel to see if there has been any improvement with his white cell count. Unfortunately this number ticked down another whole value in the last 2 months so we’re dropping the Leflunomide to 20mb/day to try to get that value rebounded. The other off thing in the last month or so is we’ve seen a little bit of a decrease in activity and spunk. Being overly sensitive to any perceived changes in behavior I brought it up with the neurologist and just to make sure there’s nothing lurking we decided on a course of a general antibiotic for 7 days. I was hesitant to use Clavamox again since his last bad reaction, but the doc felt it was the best general use one given the lack of anything specific to go on. Guess we’ll see how this goes.

It’s been a while since Monty reminded me to post anything about him…

The checkup in early December went well so he got his Cytosar injection and the Prednisone dose was reduced to 2.5mg/day. Then I went out of town for a few days in mid-December and he very suddenly out of the blue developed a corneal ulcer in his right eye, which of course is the only eye he has vision out of. Panic! So C took him to the family vet and managed treatment and by the time I was back everything was fine. Around Christmas time I tried again unsuccessfully to drop the antibiotic (Cefpodoxime) from his daily med dose, and while we lasted over a week this time his immune response ultimately wasn’t up to the task just yet. His next checkup just before the new year again went well, so he got another Cytosar injection and a further reduction of Prednisone to 2.5mg every other day.

Fast forward to today’s exam, and while his neurological responses were great his white count came back low so the decision was made to keep treatment as is and to not have a Cytosar injection. Hopefully it’s nothing, so we’ll wait and monitor until early March.

The good news is that the little dude has his energy and spunk back. All indications point to him feeling much better these days with the low Prednisone dose, and continues to surprise no one with his grit and determination through thick and thin.

Monty has been much more active & cognizant since the last step down of Prednisone, so overall October has been a good month. Today’s checkup included another Cytosar injection and a full blood work up in addition to the standard CBC, as well as a further reduction in Prednisone to 5mg/day. The test results showed improvement in liver health with the “slightly elevated” ALT/AST numbers coming down again over the last two months, so the supplement seems to be helping. He’s been eating a lot more lately which means several walks a day around town, and we’re now at the Prednisone dose threshold where we should start to see the negative side effects fade away for good.

Today was the February checkup with the neurologist and it was for the most part OK, however here was some concern about his CBC results in that the white count was below normal for the first time ever. The doc made a comment that his white count has always been on the lowish side of normal, but never below normal like today, so it was decided not to make any changes to the current treatment regimen and skip chemo just to be on the safe side. I still haven’t seen any physical or behavioral changes that have raised any relapse flags and this is only precautionary to protect his immune system from becoming too weak. Overall he continues to respond and improve but has started to shed an insane amount which is probably due to the combined long term prednisone/chemo. We’re trying to address this by adding an Omega-3/fish oil supplement daily to his meals, so if you enjoyed his bulldog gaseousness before I invite you to stop by again soon… =)

We’re very excited to say Monty is doing very well and continues to improve with every day that goes by. The latest CBC and additional Superchem tests came back great so he had what may be his last Cytosar chemo treatment for a while today, and we’re now down to alternating Prednisone/Cyclosporine doses every other day.
Thanks to everyone for your continued support and inquiries – we’re hoping to spend a lot of quality time in 2013 with the little dude and hope you can too!