Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Riley Had An Ultrasound This Morning


He was still gagging even with the PepcidAC so the vet asked if she could practice her ultrasound  techniques (for a reduced fee) and check out Riley's liver for a tumor.

So, this morning Riley went in (without breakfast) and he's on his way home now.  There are NO tumors anywhere ( I guess she had him asleep so why not practice on all his organs).  It's a VERY GOOD day here at my house.  He'll be on antibiotics for awhile to hopefully stop whatever is happening in his liver (hepatitis-like things?).  Another blood test in 6 weeks.  Our vet says she's always happy when there is no tumor.  Me, too.  Riley will be ten on April 4th.

My daughter is finding Eat For Life to be a good fit for her.  She has lost 20 pounds since New Years Day and looks wonderful.  I am still trying to get used to her not being blonde.  She is trying to find new recipes to make with the new vegetarian/vegan lifestyle.  Pulled Pork was on her mind this morning.  Subbing in squashes.  I didn't think the texture would work.  Anyone out there have any ideas?  Tofu is NOT an option. She is loving a Roasted Head of Cauliflower with Peanut Sauce right now.

I am ALWAYS perplexed by avid vegetarian/vegans trying to replicate meat recipes.  Why?  You are making a moral decision not to eat (or wear) animal products but you want to eat "fake bacon"?  Soy "meat" crumbles?  Seitan turkey?  Cashew cheese?  I stand by the Vegan freezer cases at the grocery and just feel like I will never understand.

"Today's Purchase"- A Bacon, Egg and Cheese Bagel.

"Today's Reading"- Junkyard Dogs.  Dark Horse yesterday.

"Today's Interest"- Snow Dye-ing of fabric.  I have to see if I have any soda ash.  I do have jars of Procion dyes that I never have used.  I do have PLENTY of SNOW available. I also have a package of indigo.  I think I have a box of latex gloves.  And a mask.  Sounds like I might be able to do some dye-ing.

I will now send an email to any daughter--Portobello mushrooms might just be the thing for "faux pulled pork"

1 comment:

Diane N said...

I'm glad that the ultrasound showed no tumors.

Our youngest dog was just diagnosed with atypical Addison's Disease. He would be fine for a couple weeks, then he would have "episodes of not wanting to eat anything, sometimes diarrhea, gurgling guts, looking like he was "swallowing hard" all the time, occasional vomiting, etc... The symptoms would come and go.

I kept taking him in to the vet and I would hear oh, he got into something or did you change his food or some other idea but finally, I got so frustrated and angry and the new vet agreed that we needed to start testing for what was going on.

Blood tests, x-rays with barium, etc... showed nothing except some strange elevated values in liver and kidneys. Then we did an ultrasound and we had a really good vet that goes from clinic to clinic doing nothing but ultrasounds and reading them. She noticed that his adrenal glands were strangely difficult to image. She didn't know if they were undersized or just hiding but she recommended a resting cortisol test to see if that would show what was happening.

We had the resting cortisol test and values that should go way up were just flatline. One other test after that called the ACTH test was done and they confirmed he had Atypical Addison's Disease. They told me the ACTH test was the definitive one.

I'm not a vet and I'm not saying Riley has this. I just wanted to make you aware of it because the vets told me that they are seeing more and more of Addison's and Cushing's Disease and they don't know why.

My dog's symptoms were considered to be a very unusual presentation of the disease. They told me that full blown Addison's Disease usually isn't even discovered until the dog crashes because all his levels just go flooey. We were just lucky that it was discovered in time before something worse happened.

One other thing they said was that if a dog has Atypical Addison's Disease it usually progresses to the full blown Addison's Disease. You might want to ask your vet if she noticed anything unusual with Riley's adrenals during the ultrasound.