What The Pug??

Some Birthday Present...

I've been leaving the diary writing to my kitty sisfur Sally Maria. She is much better with words and stuffs than I am. But I just have to say...

My third birthday isn't starting out so hot.

On Thursday, something bit my beautiful fabulous little face and it made it itch like crazy. I did what any good dog would do. I scratched it and rubbed it and did everything I could to get rid of it. It made my nose wrinkle swell so much my mom thought it would interfere with my breathing so I had to go to that place again where the nice man in the white coat works. He gave me two shots to make me less itchy and more sleepy and put some stingy stuff on the owies I gave myself on my face. The swelling started coming down pretty quickly and, with all the redness gone, you can clearly see the big red bite mark RIGHT BETWEEN MY EYES!!! My face still itches some and I still have a pretty good knot on my forehead but at least my totally cute face isn't permanently damaged. I owe a lot to this Pug mug of mine. It's gotten me many things and I'd hate to lose it!!

Also (and this may be the worse of the two) I won't get my usual birthday girl Happy Meal. Every year, my mom and dad take me for a ride in the car to a place that makes food and gives it to you out of a little window. Every year I've gotten a small plain hamburger to eat all by myself. But not this year. Since I'm going to see the special vet about my liver (whatever that is) on Wednesday, mom and dad don't want me eating anything that may be bad for me. Now, mom told me that instead of a hamburger, I get to go to the toy store and pick out a new plushy squeaky friend, but I honestly think I'd rather have the burger! I have lots of plushy squeaky friends. Do I really need another??

~Sigh~ Happy Birthday to me...

If this is what being a big girl is all about, can I go back to being a puppy?

The Verdict Is In.... Almost

Well, it's looking like I have a liver shunt.

I went to see Sally's IM vet on Wednesday. He was completely charmed by my Pugness, my lovely flat face and adorable little curly tail. The one thing he wasn't prepared for were all my NOISES! He even asked at one point if I were ever quiet. Mom and dad thought about it and said no, but they'd become accustomed to it so they didn't think about it much anymore! Yes, I snort and snark and grunt and groan and pant and cry and whine... It was even hard for him to listen to my heart because of how noisy I am when I breathe! But the best part were the burps. Mom and dad aren't even used to that! What can I say, I'm a gassy gal!! And boy, did I burp A LOT on Wednesday!

Dr. Richter checked me out all over. He looked at my X-rays from Dr. Hansche and noticed right away that my liver is small. Good indicator of a shunt he says. I could have one of three kinds of shunts: an extra vein outside my liver, an extra vein inside my liver, and a capillary deformity inside the liver itself. The last type is NOT good, it's untreatable and it didn't sound like I'd do very well if that was the case. The other two types are fixable surgically, so the next step was to figure out what kind I have. They took me to ultrasound (where I got my tummy shave for the second time in a month) and tried to look at my insides. Now, even on my best behavior, I'm not capable of being "still" and I was wiggling and squirming pretty good. Dr. Richter got a look at something he thought was an external shunt, but he couldn't be sure because of my moving. However, he noticed that my portal vein (the big vein that takes blood into the liver) was about half the size it should be, another good indicator of an external shunt.

What to do now? I have to go back for a very special test called a portal scan. They will put some radioactive stuff in me (in a place I choose not to mention) and it will get in my bloodstream. Then they will make me go night night so I'll be very still and they'll use a VERY special camera on me to follow the path of the radioactive material. If it diverts away from my liver, BINGO, we have a confirmed shunt! The next step will be surgery and Dr. Richter will go in and tie off the extra vein so all of my blood will start filtering through my liver as it's supposed to. Over time, my liver and portal vein will return to normal size and before you know it, I'll be 100% normal. Well, as normal as I can be!!

When puppies are still inside their mamas, they have a shunt, that keeps their mama's blood from filtering through their own kidneys. It's supposed to close off after birth, but not all of them do. Mine apparently was one of those that didn't. The bladder stones were a result of all the bad stuff not being filtered out of my blood properly and winding up being dumped in my bladder.

This is a good thing. Mom and dad are relieved that there's a fix for what I have, but they're not looking forward to the surgery. Just my little bladder surgery left me pretty low and this will be a major surgery, but it's something I have to have.

The best part? I won't have to eat a restrictive diet and can go on having the thing I love more than anything else: FRENCH FRIES!! I only get one or two but mmmmmmm..... Love them!!

So I figure, I've rounded second and am heading for third. Boy, will I be thrilled when I get to home plate!!!

UPDATE

I am having my portal scan this Thursday. Mom is trying to get the green light to bring me to work with her that morning so we can just leave from there to go to the vet. Her boss thinks I may be too much of a distraction. I agree. I'm so stinkin' cute, everyone will want to fuss over and play with me!!

When my mom made my appointment, the lady there asked her a couple of questions that mom thinks are kind of funny (in a weird way). She asked mom if she were pregnant or trying to get pregnant - the answer to both is "no". The lady said that I can't be around any pregnant ladies or small children for 24 hours after my scan. It's just a precaution since they're putting some radioactive stuff in me where the sun don't shine but it still made mom kind of sort of laugh. Between Sally's carcinogenic cancer causing chemo pill that mom has to wear gloves and follow special instruction to handle to a radioactive pug!! Mom's got it all!! Dad asked me if I was going to glow in the dark. How should I know? I'm just hoping to get a treat out of all this....

This scan should confirm my shunt without a doubt and then my surgery will be scheduled. Then I should HOPEFULLY be all done with this stuff. This seriously cuts into my "me" time. I mean, a girl has to have her beauty sleep and her treats and her toys and chewies and all.

By the way, I have a new friend. Dad got me a new green froggy that keeps giving me the stink eye so I have to keep chewing on his face. He doesn't squeak, but I like him just the same. He's not as good as my purple puppy but he's cool.

Time for this pug to convince mom and dad to go to bed. I's tired...

Emily B out.

Sheesh! I have to go again??!?

I had my portal scan done on Thursday but I have to have it repeated on Friday but it's not TOTALLY my fault!!!

To do the portal scan, they put some radioactive material in me where the sun doesn't shine. Then they follow it with a special camera to see if it diverts and doesn't go through my liver. If so, shunt confirmed and I have surgery. That's the way it's supposed to go...

This is how it went. They thought I was going to be a good girl and hold nice and still on my own so they didn't give me the sedative like they were supposed to. Then, when they put the stuff in my yoo-hoo, I started wiggling and squirming like there was no tomorrow. They tried to get a picture but it was all blurry. This scan is a one shot deal so there was no way of trying to repeat it. So I had to hang out there and wait until that stuff was all out of my system before I could go home. I'm having another done on Friday.

The bad news? I have to be starved again!!! It was pure agony!!!!! Food is very very important to Pugs, very important and we take it very seriously. My mom and dad couldn't feed me after 8 pm on Wednesday. I got so hungry that I tried sneaking some kitty crunchy crumbs while mom was in the shower but she caught me and picked those up too. Then I realized that I would be getting Sally Maria's left over specials after she took her morning pills. Not so. Mom skipped Sally's specials (much to both Sally's and my dismay) because she knew I'd try to sneak some. Mom finally talked me into sleeping on her lap so I'd forget about my empty tummy (as if!) and we hung out that way until it was time to go for a ride.

Friday, mom and dad are going to make sure that they give me the nighty night stuff so I don't wiggle and ruin another test. I did during my first ultrasound so we were surprised they gave me the benefit of the doubt with the first portal scan. Oh well, I guess we've all learned that "holding still" isn't a part of the make up of a Pug!

I hope I get something yummy after this next scan. I think I will have earned it by then.... As long as I hold still! :)

Eeeeewwww! Surgery!!!

Well, it's now 100% official. I have an external liver shunt and I need surgery to close it off.

They gave me not one but TWO meds to make me hold still for my second portal scan on Friday. Wow! That stuff sure had quite a kick! I was pretty out of it most of the day Saturday. I just wanted to sleep. At least it didn't effect my appetite. I went over 24 hours without food, don't you know. They couldn't get me to eat at the hospital but I chowed down as soon as we got home. They just didn't have the right flavor I guess.

My surgery is scheduled for November 6th. It's straightforward in itself, but it's afterwards that now has us all a little nervous. I'll spend two days in ICU and one in intermediate care after my surgery. I may have seizures and liver failure. The seizures are a possibility because my blood pressure will fluctuate when the extra vein starts closing down. My liver could shut down because of the increased blood flow. My liver is smaller than it should be because not all of my blood was circulating through it so it kind of shrunk. Even a slight increase in blood flow could cause it to freak out and decide to stop working.

My mom and dad are worried about something bad happening to me. However my age and good health are definitely on my side. Usually this surgery is preformed on much younger dogs and puppies and they have usually been sick (which is what leads to the discovery of the shunt in the first place). If it hadn't been for my bladder stones, who knows when we would have caught this?

We will all be much happier when this is all over and done with.

My poor little tummy is going to look like a road map!!! I'll have my spay scar, the one from my umbilical hernia surgery, the one for my bladder stones and then the one for my shunt. ENOUGH! I don't have all that much hair on my tummy to start with so there's nothing to hide them all with!!

~Sigh~

Just call me zipper tummy....

PS - I've been promised a ride in the car and a WHOLE plain hamburger with some fries once I'm well. Yeeee haw!! Something cool to look forward to! :)

I Got The Blues...

Have you ever seen a depressed Pug?

I have the itchy bumps AGAIN! And I'm still on my steroids and antibiotics!! Mom and dad are at their wits end trying to figure out what's bothering me. They've messed with my food, given me baths, put flea medicine on me, picked me, poked me, prodded me and now, worst of all, I'm back to sleeping in my crate. The heat makes my bumps worse and dad thinks I'm getting too hot sleeping in the big bed with mom and dad. Bummer....

Mom's going to postpone my surgery while they try to figure out what's wrong. This surgery has complications even if I'm 100% and right now I'm pretty miserable. I have a couple of spots where I've scratched until I've bled. The Prednisone has given me the appetite of a WOLF but mom and dad have actually cut back on my food. No cheese with my Benadryls, no canned food with my meds... My life pretty much stinks right now.

If I don't start looking better in the next couple of days, I'll be going to see Dr. Hansche Saturday. He's a nice man and I like him a lot, but I've seen waaaaay too much of him lately. Even he says so! But these bumps are making me crazy. If I'm not begging for food, I'm scratching myself. Dad would make me wear a t-shirt if he didn't think it would make me hot. About the only positive is at least they're not on my lovely face this time. They're on my hiney back around my tail.

I'm sad....

I itch....

This is no fair. Pugs aren't supposed to be unhappy.

Here's me ---------> :(

Blah...

PUPDATE

Whew! What a wild couple of weeks I've had!!

First of all, my surgery went very very well. It took almost twice as long as they figured it would. The exact location of my shunt was never confirmed by the portal scans or ultrasounds so the surgeon had to look for it. He started by my stomach and went all the way back to my intestines and finally found it in a spot they don't usually see shunts (trust me to be special) but he put the band around it to start closing it off. He took a liver biopsy just to make sure everything was okay and then he checked my bladder to make sure that no additional stones had formed since my surgery.

The big concern was for complications after the surgery. Sometimes when they close shunts off, the blood backs up into the intestines because the liver can't handle the increased blood flow. Sometimes new shunts form in response to the additional blood flow, almost like pressure release valves. Seizures were the bigger worry. They're not sure why some dogs have them post-surgery. It's almost as if our bodies miss the toxins that have been in our systems. But I didn't have any of these problems. I did so well that I got to come home a day early.

I had a HUGE incision that was closed with staples. 25 of them in fact. Mom and dad called it my zipper. Ouch! It sure hurt to move. For the first two days, I got a pain pill every eight hours and did a lot of sleeping. Mom took time off work to stay with me so I slept on her most of the time. By my third day home, I was moving around more and even wagged my tail. Mom cut my pain meds back to every 12 hours but I still was a little stiff when I moved. The surgeon said that for two weeks I wasn't supposed to run, jump, climb or exercise. HA HA HA!! Fat chance!! There's nothing that could stop me from jumping up on the couch, even though mom and dad said no. I did let them help me down off their bed though.

I got my staples out on the 19th. My surgeon said he was very happy with my progress and I need to have my bile acids checked the week before Christmas. If they are normal, then my shunt is closed. If they're not normal (which he expects they won't be), then we'll just wait four more weeks and check them again. The whole point in this surgery and the band around this extra vein was to close it off slowly. If after the second test, my bile acids are still high, then we'll have to check to make sure that no new shunts have formed and that the band is doing its job. We're not worried about that though. We're just happy that I made it through with no trouble.

The only bad thing? These &*$#**@ bumps!!! They will not go away! When I came out of the hospital, I didn't have a single one. Within 12 hours of being home, they had already started to come back. Mom and dad have run out of ideas on what could be causing them. They bought some expensive laundry soap made for human babies and have washed all of my stuff and all of their blankies in it. It has helped a bit. I don't have any new bumps but the ones I have are all scabbed over and my skin is VERY dry and scaly. Mom is trying to find some kind of moisturizer to use on me to help soothe my poor skin. I've been so itchy that I've scratched a lot of my hair off too. I'm pretty pathetic looking. If they can't figure out what's wrong, there's a dermatologist at the specialty hospital I can go see. But not for a while please. I've had enough of vets lately!!

I'd like to bark my thanks to Dr. Aiken, my surgeon, for doing such a good job and to Dr. Hansche for catching this in the first place. Dr. Hansche was sure I didn't have anything wrong with my liver but he wanted to make sure so he checked my bile acids. That was the only thing that showed I had a problem. If he hadn't been so thorough, who knows how long it would have been before it was noticed. I might have been a much sicker pup by then so I really appreciate his caution and thoroughness. He just loves me and takes such good care of me! I am lucky to have such good doctors.

Okay, telling my tail... oops, I mean TALE has totally worn me out. i need a nap now.

Good night all, from one happy, healthy, bumpy pug!