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- Apr 23, 2016
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Our Gracie was battling upper respiratory infections for a couple of months-- tried a couple of different antibiotics and the infection came back even worse a couple of weeks ago (she's 12). She developed severe congestion and stopped eating. Then she developed Horner's Syndrome. We took her to the vet and the vet treated her with IV antibiotics for a few days, diagnosing an inner ear infection. We brought her home and at first she seemed to be doing better, but then she stopped wanting to eat and started acting like she didn't feel great. The Horner's symptoms have been the same and she still sounded horribly congested.
The vet put her out a little bit to clean out her ears, thinking the infection was still there. She found clean ears-- no more infection. So she did an Xray and found a tumor in her stomach. That and blood results, and her weakened immune system (not fighting a URI), made our vet think this could be GI cancer, that may have even spread into her lymph nodes and head (causing the congestion and Horner's syndrome). She also has high WBC and high neutrophils. Her neutrophils did not go down despite the heavy-duty antibiotics.
We could get her an ultrasound and biopsy, but the vet thinks she's too weak to put fully under right now. And if it is GI cancer or some kind of cancer, we would not do chemo. The vet described it's an IV treatment once a week that makes them feel lousy and we don't want to put her through that. Especially if it only gives her a little more time.
She's home now and we have to give her food on our fingers (I will not force-feed but she seems to like it off my finger-- just has a hard time with it in her mouth bc of the Horner's). Otherwise she won't eat on her own, but acts interested in food until she smells it. No signs of nausea and she's not drooling or throwing up. We have her on steroids and an appetite stimulant. She's lethargic but still getting up occasionally. And she does interact with us and enjoys our company.
We don't want to put her down if this is just Horner's. But it seems like so much more than Horner's syndrome. And she seems like she feels so awful. She's lost weight. We're just not sure if we should put her through the ultrasound or just assume she has widespread cancer and is fading.
The vet put her out a little bit to clean out her ears, thinking the infection was still there. She found clean ears-- no more infection. So she did an Xray and found a tumor in her stomach. That and blood results, and her weakened immune system (not fighting a URI), made our vet think this could be GI cancer, that may have even spread into her lymph nodes and head (causing the congestion and Horner's syndrome). She also has high WBC and high neutrophils. Her neutrophils did not go down despite the heavy-duty antibiotics.
We could get her an ultrasound and biopsy, but the vet thinks she's too weak to put fully under right now. And if it is GI cancer or some kind of cancer, we would not do chemo. The vet described it's an IV treatment once a week that makes them feel lousy and we don't want to put her through that. Especially if it only gives her a little more time.
She's home now and we have to give her food on our fingers (I will not force-feed but she seems to like it off my finger-- just has a hard time with it in her mouth bc of the Horner's). Otherwise she won't eat on her own, but acts interested in food until she smells it. No signs of nausea and she's not drooling or throwing up. We have her on steroids and an appetite stimulant. She's lethargic but still getting up occasionally. And she does interact with us and enjoys our company.
We don't want to put her down if this is just Horner's. But it seems like so much more than Horner's syndrome. And she seems like she feels so awful. She's lost weight. We're just not sure if we should put her through the ultrasound or just assume she has widespread cancer and is fading.