Patty's Ali - my precious, beautiful angel

[CarolW]

Re: Patty's Ali

GREAT T-shirt, Patty! It clearly fits very well, which would tend to keep Ali quite comfortable! Love it!

Tami - not a chance it was risky to offer to take Ali; haha!
Sat, 1 Oct 2011 19:51:10 (PDT)

[HarrysMom]

Re: Patty's Ali

She looks so stylish and trendy with this t-shirt!

[Patty]

Re: Patty's Ali

It was functional while we needed it to keep her from itching her chest raw. Her allergies have calmed down enough that I don't have to keep it on her anymore.

[beachnut55]

Re: Patty's Ali

Awww...Ali looks so cute in her shirt. She seems to be recovering very well. She is such an angel and surely has an angel as a Mom.

[buddingartist]

Re: Patty's Ali

Patty
Can you tell we are all in love with Ali? She has such a soft and kind looking face

As for wanting to adopt her, I wouldn't even think of it as I would be concerned that I would never live up to the quality and standard of care that she is currently getting

Glad she is recuperating well.

Louise

[LilyBell]

Re: Patty's Ali

Hey, Patty, gosh I'm so sorry to read about Ali's surgery. I hope you get great news really soon! Ali is such a BEAUTIFUL golden. Wow! I had a golden growing up and although he was nowhere near as handsome as Ali is beautiful, looking at Ali brings back such fond childhood memories. Goldens are the best buddies in the whole wide world!

[Patty]

Re: Patty's Ali

Goldens are the best buddies in the whole wide world!

I kinda think so, Tricia . But then I'm a bit partial. My family has had goldens since I was 2 y/o.

Ali's pathology results came back today. Good news, but not what we were expecting.

"Multilobular apocrine sweat gland adenoma, complete excision, with mild atypia."

So basically a benign sweat gland tumor, with atypical characteristics. It had multiple lobes and the size of the nuclei of the cells weren't equal. But it was completely excised with 3mm margins all around.

The pathologist recommends watching the area as these atypical characteristics can be indicative of precancer formation. So I'm very glad we had it removed.

I told doc we stopped Ali's Amoxi-tab 2 days early (yesterday). She had a full 5 days on it. He was fine with that. He had said he usually doesn't prescribe an oral antibiotic with this kind of surgery but given Ali's history, better to be safe than sorry. The wound site looks good but I couldn't get rid of the big rises late in her curve, even without our couple of daytime outings while on it.

So we'll work on completing the healing process and stabilizing her blood sugar as best we can now.

Thanks all!
Patty and Ali

[CarolW]

Re: Patty's Ali

Hey, Patty! Sounds like a good report! Good heavens; the unexpected!

It seems you have very good sense about what to do when, as well as a vet who's a great team-mate! I'm so glad for that.

And - I'm glad for Ali. Only the best for Ali!

Love and hugs,
Mon, 3 Oct 2011 14:18:39 (PDT)

[Shellie]

Re: Patty's Ali

Wooohooo! Happy happy sweat glands! I am SO glad that you got such great news! Yay, Alil! Yippeee! Hugs and more hugs!!!

[MaryLea]

Re: Patty's Ali

Great news! YAY, Ali! And sweet relief for you, Patty.

Mary

[Abby's Mom]

Re: Patty's Ali

Great News, and what a relief!

[k9diabetes]

Re: Patty's Ali

Glad you opted for the surgery and that you have such a great vet too.

Hoping the pollen, etc. will start to drop now that fall is arriving.

We are having our first winter storm - pretty weird time for it in Northern California. They are saying snow in the Sierras tonight. When I arrived here in 1986 on about October 2, it was 102 degrees and we usually have a few days of very hot weather early in October but this year it looks like it might go straight to winter!

Jack was even able to go out to a couple of appointments with us yesterday and stay in the car.

Is she still trying to scratch the incision or has that settled down?

Natalie

[Patty]

Re: Patty's Ali

Took Ali up to S. Denver for her annual eye exam yesterday. We saw the same doc I loved so much last November.

He said she continues to have no signs of cataracts. Her lenticular or nuclear sclerosis is quite dense but not seeming to obstruct her visual ability. She still has some mild retinopathy but doesn't seem worse than last year. Pressures last year were 8 left and 10 right. At that time he indicated norm was around 8-18. This year she was 6 left and 8 right but said that is really quite normal for a 12 y/o dog.

We chatted about the question that I wondered about last year. He said it seems lenticular sclerosis offers some protection from cataracts. When I asked why that is he said we don't really know. A best guess is that the fibers of the lens are so tightly compressed with the lenticular sclerosis that the water retention/edema that typically occurs with cataract formation can't take place. (As sorbitol accumulates with high blood sugars, the osmotic pressure changes. It draws water into the lens and changes the structures.)

In my reading, I found a good article on lenticular sclerosis vs. cataracts here: http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/dvm....jsp?id=201597

I asked if there was anything new for slowing cataracts in diabetic dogs. They are still awaiting FDA approval for Kinostat. Many of the trials have been completed and the drops offer some protection but it sounds like the drops will only be available within the confines of the Kinostat trials. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21182720
Based on the info Scootersmom offered in the study near her it sounds like they may be in Phase II http://www.sbir.gov/sbirsearch/detail/332839

They do still recommend the OcuGlo product to patients as an antioxidant protection. But emphasize there really isn't anything that can stop/reverse the process. Younger dogs are particularly more vulnerable and can develop cataracts overnight.

I found a human article that perhaps explains why some of the antioxidant supplements may help but I would de-emphasize the word "Prevent" in the article title. There's often nothing that can be done to prevent the process from happening but providing some support from free radical effects may help. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...6/ai_n8968831/

I was praying Ali's blood sugar would hold steady for us yesterday and it did. She was 187 when I fed her 2nd meal and 126 when we left. I did give her a small drop of honey before the ride and she was 135 before the appointment and 162 fasting last night.

I'm adding Amoxicillin capsules to my list of fav antibiotics (Simplicef being the other for us). Neither one cause the big rise we get with other meds so her numbers have been better.

Doc extended her meds through this week. I did take a urine sample in last Fri for culture to see if her UTI is gone. No word yet.

Anyway, was glad to hear the good news considering how unstable of a diabetic Ali is and the fact that we spent more days hitting 400 than 100 with her allergies this Aug.

Take care,
Patty and Ali-girl

[peggy0]

Re: Patty's Ali

go ali!!! great news patty

[jesse girl]

Re: Patty's Ali

that is good news

interesting information

i wonder if there is any correlation between dogs not developing cataracts and being unstable for jesse she had prolonged high numbers for sometime and huge swings in blood sugar for a time till we got better control but not perfect

the only thing i noticed jesse had good tear production her eyes seem to have a high moister content maybe alli due to her allergies may have produced more tear production a constant cleansing affect on the eyes who knows for sure

maybe saline eye drops or a flushing of the eye or a moisturizing effect maybe a preventive measure
i bet there are some dots that can be connected which could give a clue to help preserve sight in some

thanks for the update and thoughts