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Once again thanks so much to Laura for agreeing to help little Lucy. The operation will hopefully take place in 3 weeks time as Laura said and from all reports she is in better form already after having her medication changed. Will hopefully have more info tomorrow when she is given back over to us
Best of luck with Lucy over the next three weeks. With your knowledge of her condition she is in with a fighting chance.
Lucy is now at home settling in with Laura, Jonathon, Jodie and Charlie so I am sure that she is loving being in a family home and being looked after so well. Laura will update her when she gets a chance.
Little Lucy tonight settling in, she’s eaten a little bit, she’s drank a little bit and had some medication, we are just waiting for a wee now
Her is some info from Lucys Discharge Advice for anyone that would like a read:
Diagnosis: Portosystemic Shunt
Procedures Perfomred: panel of bloods, ammonia testings, urinalysis, faecal examinations, abdominal ultrasounds.
Medication: Lactulose 2mls x 3 times per day
Beatamox, 40mg – 1 X twice per day
Royal Canin Hepatic – At Least three times per day.Discharge Instructions:
”Lucy has been diagnosed with a portosystemic shunt, this means that one of her blood vessels that carries blood from the intestines to the liver has not been developed properly and the blood by passes the liver resulting in toxins and nutition not being filtered by the Liver.
Surgery may repair the abnormality however we need to medically manage lucy first to get her stronger and try to improve her body weight and blood proteins. We should see Lucy again in 3 weeks and I will speak with the surgeons in the meantime.”We are so happy to see Lucy in her cosy bed with her lovely blanket. She looks a little happier, thankfully. We are checking the website all the time to see her progress
We hope to see Lucy getting better everyday, well done to Laura you are a lifesaver Trish,Laura and Molly woof woof!Little Lucy Update:
Lucy has turned into a lap HOGGER, I’m typing with my laptop at arms length as she just wants to be cuddled and has to stay on my lap, this is a small sign she is on the up as I remember my own dog only ever wanted to be on his own in little holes like behind the sofa etc. She’s a little floozy and just adores my husband, she just loves looking at him and when he’s in the room it’s his lap she has to sit on!!!
Undoubtedly the most difficult part to medically managing a dog with liver disease is the severe lack of appetite, it reduces you to tears. You can see how thin and sick they are just they just can’t eat. It took me and my aunt about 40 mins to syringe two pieces of soaked kibble into her today. It’s heart breaking, I often sat and cried with Charlie because he will just refuse point blank to eat
But it is so much harder with the little women as she is painfully thin. But since she had the two kibble she got a little flicker of a spark. She dug up her bed to make it comfy and thought she was going to have a little chomp on the wires of the computer!!!!! This made me very happy (I know, weird) but was because I saw a tiny, tiny flicker of the puppy she should be For anyone that has not met Lucy is very hard to imagine the size she is. I was shocked. Here is a photo of her to show her size. This is my husband and my JRT x on the sofa, to the right and the very back of the sofa is a tiny white bundle, that is Lucy
It sounds like little Lucy has landed in a very special place where she is getting the best possible care. Laura your an angel and Lucy is very lucky to have someone taking such great care of her with all that she is going through.
Laura, well done on looking after this little girl so well. I went through that with my little guy when his liver gave out and the trying to feed them when they cant stomach it but are so thin is just heartbreaking. The relief when you manage to get those couple of syrnges full of food into them is something else. Lucy is a lucky girl to be with you and to be getting such great care. Give her a big cuddle from me.
Todays update
Lucy had symtoms of Hepatic Encephalopathy last night. She started pacing and circling over and over and bumping into things. I’d read up a lot on it and knew straight away was not good, I’d remembered you need to administer their lactulose every hour an hour to stop it getting worse. Thankfully it passed after nearly two hours but was a severe reminder that she is still a very sick little girl and needs ALL the prayers in the world!
http://www.petplace.com/dogs/hepatic-en … page1.aspx
The clinical manifestations of HE can range from mild (unusual behavior) to severe (coma).
Hysteria
Unpredictable bouts of aggression
Staggering
Pacing
Compulsive circling
Pressing the head against a wall
Sudden apparent blindness
Tremors
Seizures
Coma-like state[/quote:1rvq9nly]However today she woke up with a starving, and has started eating her own food all by herself. This is a major breakthrough. Now she is begging for food but we cannot just let her free feed as this will put too much pressure on her liver and she’ll get too much protein and will be back to exactly square one again! I’d love to just let her eat till she felt all full up probably for the first time in her life
But after lasts nights scare, we are extremly happy with how she is today, I carried her out in her jumper and wrapped in her blankie for a little bit of fresh air today she really enjoyed herself looking all around her, my dogs are being very good with her, the constantly come over to check on her, they even understand she is not well Please keep Lucy in your prayers still xxxshe is in my prayers the poor little mite! thank you so much for taking such good care of her. God bless you Lucy..x
Lucy is in my prayers too. She is so, so lucky to be in your care – I certainly wouldn’t have realised what was happening to her last night.
Hang in there Lucy (and Laura too).
Laura you are doing such a fantastic job, really reassures me to know Lucy is finally in the care she deserves. It really hit home how little she is when I saw the photo of her on your couch.. Didn’t think she was that tiny. Poor thing.
You seem to really know what you are talking about and how to deal with all the little problems that could pop up which is fantastic. Good on you
Keep strong Lucy! xx
This is Molly… Well I hope this image uploads anyways!
Hmmm ok I guess I’m not as computer illiterate as I thought!! Could someone tell me how I transfer an image from my desktop to my comment? Thank you
She is very tiny, she is not even 2kgs, my scales weighed her as 1.1kg but with her jumper on in UCD she was just under 2kg
I spoke with UCD this morning as she is still having a lot of symptoms of HE and she is starting on an additional medication, so please god we get it under control and get some weight on her!
But it is so much harder with the little women as she is painfully thin. But since she had the two kibble she got a little flicker of a spark. She dug up her bed to make it comfy and thought she was going to have a little chomp on the wires of the computer!!!!! This made me very happy (I know, weird) but was because I saw a tiny, tiny flicker of the puppy she should be 
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