Sneaky's latest ordeal

[Red]

After the pics I sent in of the past two days her regular vet finds this thing "suspicious", and they are not sure what to do at this point. How freaking great to hear that. Trying to get seen by the dermatologist tomorrow, which is two hours away and I am supposed to be at work all day.

[patty]

Sending my very best thoughts that Sneaky's toe will heal and nothing "suspicous" is going on.

[HappyPuppy]

[heartbullies]

Oh, what?!

This is not what I wanted to read.
Sneaky, NOT suspicious! I hope it isn't anything. Fingers crossed.

Sent from my ATRIX using Tapatalk

[dogs4jen]

Oh, gees,

[AllisonPibbleLvr]

It's ironic (albeit frightening and frustrating) that a dog named Sneaky would have a suspicious toe.

Best wishes that it's nothing serious!

[Ilovethepits]

Oh Sneaky toe, boo! I hope they are able to figure out the problem and make it better for her (and you).

[Murfins]

Continuing good thoughts for Sneaky and her toe.

[Red]

Thank you for wondering about Sneaky and sending good thoughts. She was at the dermatology clinic in Pasadena yesterday, and we have more blood work done and a biopsy that will be read by a dermatohistopathologis at the clinic. They are hoping that the lab who has the original sample can do a cut and send it back to them for a better reading, but if not I'll go back to the dermatology clinic and re do it. She is on another drug now, on top of the Fluconazole, which is Terbinafibe, to see if there is more improvements. If that does not work it will be Itraconazole, which is pricey but if she needs it then she needs it. Right now they are checking her liver to see if it can go through potential months of treatment. I also had a thyroid panel added, just to make sure that we figure out what has contributed to this and what makes it harder to cure. Her condition and where it is affecting her is apparently unusual, but it can occur.I share all of this because it can maybe help someone else if they go through it.

Sneaky is no longer to have a bandage on, because it is not productive, since the warm and dark type of environment under the bandage can lead to farther complications such as extra bacterial infections. I was worried about that, but I think that her regular vet wanted to protect the sutured area after the biopsy. Her toe is less red, thanks to fresh air getting to it. It still looks very odd and hope that by this Friday I get some answers.

[lilangel]

Oh man. So they are attributing Sneaky's massive inflammatory response to simple ringworm? That's all? That makes little sense to me since she would probably be symptomatic on other areas of her body as well. Wouldn't she have to be pretty immuno-compromised among other things for such a thing to happen to this magnitude? and why now? are they looking into why she had such an odd reaction in such a localized area to a prevalent fungus? Why has it not spread to her other toes? It is very contagious stuff. They removed the entire nail bed which is the area that is hardest to treat, right? So why all this continuing trouble? I guess I am so skeptical because I had a dog almost die because none of the top moron vets in an entire state could figure out he had an infection. They even opened him up and said there was nothing there even though there was an obvious hard mass. They kept insisting it was scar tissue. Vet after vet. I eventually gave up on those idiots and ended up treating him on my own and guess what? That hard mass was a pocket of pus and I pulled it to the surface with painful massage and hot epsom salt compresses. Once I drained the whole thing he got better within a few days. How much trauma and damage was done because vets are mostly friggin morons? Months of pain and surgeries, pointless tests, injections, incorrect meds haphazardly thrown at him probably led to some organ damage... Too much.

Similar crap happened at Cornell with a different dog. If one of the top vet schools in the world is training vets to be friggin myopic morons then who knows ...

Just sharing because I want people to be aware that they need to do their own legwork or they can get played. I really hope these vets are using their brains to rule out other things and I hope they are right, that it is some weird form of resistant ringworm. It has been 2 weeks? Inflammation is down? Are they sure, before they start on some intense med regimen, that the organism is not just nearing its life span and going to clear up all by itself now that it is exposed to sunlight and an anti-fungal? Did they have to amputate in the first place?

Good luck. Good wishes.

What a nightmare.

[Red]

I don't know Vin, I have taken her where they should know more than her regular vet and will continue to do so as long as I am able to. I am hoping to see something on blood work, although she has had blood work done before and came back as an healthy dog. Dr. Angus, the dermatologist who saw Tigger many times before, was out for a satellite clinic duty so he did not see her (another dermatologist did) but he will go over the findings when he comes in on Friday. He shared this on e-mail:

Fungal infections on single digit are rare but do occur. Usually solitary wicked toe problems are either cancer or bacteria infection secondary to trauma. Systemic fungal infection with coccidioidomycosis (valley fever) can localize to the toe.

The first biopsy was negative for cancer and I can only hope they were right. I know that sometime vets are unable to diagnose things correctly without a million of tests, so I have to let them do what they think will help to find the reasons behind this. I have never dealt with something like this, so I have no room to tell them that something is unecessary . Tigger was followed by all kinds of specialists and she still died due to something they were unable to treat, so I am aware that there are situation in which nothing can be done.I can't treat her on my own not knowing what I am dealing with, especially because I could not forgive myself if things went wrong.

? Did they have to amputate in the first place?

They chose not to, because the test was negative for cancer, according to the first lab biopsy findings.They only took enough for the biopsy, which turned out to be more than what they originally thought.

I guess I am so skeptical because I had a dog almost die because none of the top moron vets in an entire state could figure out he had an infection.

I understand where you are coming from, but I don't even want to think about something like that right now. I would not know what to do with myself if I lost another dog this year.

[lilangel]

Yeah I know... didn't mean to come off like you are not doing what you have to do. I guess I just feel helpless and this reminds me of hard times and I know how you must feel these months is much much worse. Wish I could fix her up for you.

[HappyPuppy]

This is so frustrating!!! Hey - just thinking - why did Vin take Dash instead of Sneaky?!?

[lilangel]

Because Sneaky is a freakin nutjob and I have too many nutjobs already and also because she's Val's dog and part of her family, although I know she had a hard time admitting this for a while.

Any good news on Sneaky's finger?

[Red]

Stitches were taken out today, hope that it makes her toe feel better.Not that this whole thing ever stopped her for hopping around anyway. Blood panel came back good, except one parameter slightly higher on one of the kidneys but the dermatologist is not worried about it.The thyroid panel did not show any issue at all. I do not have the reports on paper yet but that is what the dermatologist said on the phone.She also had to get some Rx probiotics and Endosorb because she is having stomach problems (aka loose stools), perhaps because of all the meds she has been on for the past 3 or 4 weeks. Waiting on the new pathology report to know more. On another note Jack and Tux are on Clavamox for a respiratory tract infection, most likely they got it from Sneaky, who must have been exposed when she was hopitalized. Shall I say WTF? Yes, I think I am entitled to it.

Oh, and just because this dog is going to make me insane one day (I think she is trying to do this on purpose, actually) ...she went out to potty, tried to catch a bird on my palm tree with the soft cone on and ended up with a nice ouchie right on the corner of the only eye she has left.