Stella Recheck Take 3

Another week, another recheck at KSU Vet med.  As far as at home and physically, Stella seems to be back to normal. Of course I super analyze every move she makes.  Is she limping, is she trotting to much, is she breaking into a canter because she can't trot.  Sigh.  Sometimes it is hard to tell if she is walking with her head down because she wants ALL THE FOOD, or if she is tired, or if the heat is getting to her, so I have decided to not analyze our walks at all.  We have had a cooler week this week so post my 6 or 7 miles in the morning, we head out and take a 15-20 minute walk.

It makes me sad that her harness is swimming on her now and that her brother is in the lead now instead of her, but it is what it is. 

This week we just needed to do a recheck on blood pressure and urinalysis.  We had yet another new student, but I did see my old student and got to wave to her.  Yes, I sure do miss her and Dr. George.  Anyway, never saw my resident this week, the 4th year student just came and got her and took her away and brought her back to the waiting room.  This picture was taken while we were waiting for her discharge papers.  I think she is DONE going in.  I don't blame her.  I wouldn't want a needle in my tummy/bladder either.  

Here is where we are at.  Next recheck in 30 days.  Whew.  Kidney still dumping protein, but seems to be stable, so we are going to proceed with the taper.  She was previously on 20 mg x 2 a day, and now they are tapering her back to 10mg x 2 a day.  This kind of surprises me, because I thought we were going to a very slow careful taper, but I can't wait for her to be off of the prednisone and rid of all of the side effects.  The attending this week says that her issues are probably now due to the high dose prednisone, not the disease, so we need to get her down to a more manageable dose soon.  I will be honest with you  in that this whole process is very confusing.  One person tells you one thing and then another something slightly different, and you just get confused and frustrated.  I was originally told that she would be on the high dose steroid a minimum of 3 maybe 4 weeks, and the next resident told me a minimum of 6.  Now we have only been on high dose for 4 which is kind of in between the two.  Oh well, go with the flow I guess.  Whatever we are doing is working, and again I just need to be patient and trust the process.  Not sure what we will recheck when we go back, that wasn't discussed.  They still don't want me changing her diet at all, but I did notice she has gained about a half a lb in a week.  We have been having steak once a week so she is getting steak snuck to her:)  They are concerned about her muscle wasting, as am I, but again the attending thought it was totally tied into the high does prednisone.  

I have noticed she is wanting to be up on her hind legs more, and she even did a small jump the other day to snag a ball out of the air.  I am trying to keep the throws low and the balls on the ground, but accidents do happen and I do have bad throws.  She is going back to hugging (what she is doing in the picture as I was trying to take a pic for my blog) and is jumping up on things.  We are starting our canine fitness program this week, and should finish our video consult this weekend.  I am so excited to have a program with specific exercises to help her get back into shape, along with the running.  I am going to push her walks up to 25-30 minutes this week and see how she does and maybe start some pooch to 5 K training the week after if she is ready!  Still headed in the right direction and I sure do hope we don't have any relapses.  

Thanks for all of the kind words, thoughts, prayers, and virtual hugs!  They are working!!!!