[Dailydrool] Bud's appt

[surferdogs at comcast.net]

Bud made the trek down to the cardiologist in the snow storm this morning. Of course, he was snug with a blankie in the back of the BUV. (BTW - love the new Toyota Sienna - folded down the back seats, put the captain's chairs side by side and tumbled them forward. Tons of room in back and the seats still in the van and kept clean and ready for use should I need them). It was sort of a mixed assessment. The cardiologist was very nice and Bud took a nap during his echo - cool table with holes in it, so Bud just laid on his side and the vetman reached up under the table to do the study. He does have some mitral and tricuspid regurgitation, but no signs of congestive heart failure or cardiac tamponade. It is doubtful that his heart caused any of his symptoms last week. His blood pressure was slightly elevated (systolic 150 mmHg) and he needs to get that checked again in a month. If still up, he will start enalapril. He also needs another echo in 6 months to see if he is starting to show some signs of failure from the leaky valves. 

Of course, the question is What did happen last week? The vetman thinks it may have been a small abdominal bleed, ie splenic hemangiosarcoma, but there really isn't any way to know and as he put it "We are chasing shadows." We discussed doing an abdominal US while we were there but, since we really weren't going for anything specific, and he said if it is a splenic tumor, which has already bled once, it's disseminated and non-operable anyway. So, without a specific goal, and low probability that the study would change treatment, I opted to save the $350 for now. And if we found something, that I couldn't fix, it would eat at me with the waiting. If there are any other signs, or "off" days, we will do additional diagnostics then, assuming we believe we can alter his comfort or outcome. For now, Bud is back to normal, so we will let him continue his cushy life as is. 

Poor Barney woke again at 0330 with another UTI. So I dropped him off at the regular vetman on the way to the specialty hospital. He is on Clavimox again. And, yes, he gets cranberry daily, and is on Proin for his incontinence, so his is not wearing his belly band much anymore. We tried some other herbal supplements for the incontinence, but couldn't decrease the Proin at all, so I stopped them. We are all back home, and ready for a nap! Wait....I have 6" of snow to shovel.... 

Synthia, so many bellies to rub, so little time 
Bud, Barney, Zuma, Kahuna, Pearl 
Ace, Maya, Sage 
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