Well after a little over two weeks of being offline, because I have been computer less up until today, I am back. Both computers had to go out for service (thank goodness for warranties), I got one back this evening and the other is due to be back tomorrow. Since I have been computer less I will fill you all in on Hope and what has been happening with her.
She has been having more frequent episodes in the past month with no relief in sight for her. My vet originally diagnosed her with a collapsing trachea and this diagnosis was based on putting pressure on her trachea in certain spots until she went into an episode and coughed. However after seeing the specialist this afternoon there may be other possibilities. They did x-rays and said the trachea looked fine on the x-rays yet they are still not ruling it out but (they have to watch it work while under anesthetic to rule this out), they are also saying other possibilities are Laryngeal Paralysis (sp?), Elongated Soft Palate, Nasal Problems (including the low possibility of a benign tumor blocking the nasal passage), Stenotic Nares and Saccules. I apologize if any of the things I listed above are the same as the technical terms that I have at the bottom of that list. Not everything was explained to me as to the technical terms and meaning of these words. Apparently I am not the brightest of people right now, lack of sleep I guess. To make a long story short, Hope collapsed last Wednesday evening and we have no idea why or what caused her to collapse. She was slightly stiff, no drooling or shaking, didn't turn blue, did not have an episode before hand and did not lose conciseness. They could not explain it to me either this afternoon. So at this point we have no idea what caused it. She had been sleeping on her Beasley Couch and got up to walk over to me and before she reached me, collapsed. We got her up and moved her around and in about 5 minutes she was fine, acted just like nothing had happened to her at all. So we are all baffled by this turn of events. They want to do testing on her to find out what is wrong and to correct the problem. This entails a CTScan and Rhinoscopy. Then from there I am not sure what other tests they will want to do. I am in good spirits because other than what she is dealing with, Hope is healthy and Dr. Jackson remarked that this works in her favor. He also told me that her prognosis of coming through this with treatment is very good. I could not believe the cost of everything when they gave me the estimate for what they need to do. I was in utter shock! They gave me an estimate range of 1800.00 - 3195.00 and that didn't even include going in to repair the nasal cavity if that is the problem. Sometimes I think medical care for our family members is a bit over priced :o( I mean anesthetic for 1-2 hours runs anywhere from 168.00-336.00, how come so much to keep them under for so long? Is the anesthetic that expensive? Yes I worked in a vet clinic for a while but was never privy to the amount of what things cost the clinics. Hug your berners tight! Kelly Weir and Hope
