[ SHOWGSD-L ] Please help if you can
- From: Fran Henry <fhenry1@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ShowGSD-L <showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 04 May 2005 20:05:30 -0600
This is very painful for me, and you, the list, are my last hope.
Several months ago, I asked if anyone had had a diagnosis of cutaneous
histocytosis. No takers. Here's what happened., beginning at the end of
January.
I have a five-year old male with 11 points and both majors. I reached down
to pet him and found "sticky,." Investigating, I found an orange-sized area
on his stomach with multiple sores, about the size of a thumbnail, open,
raw, oozing. They don't hurt or itch; he doesn't bother them.
I tried hot-spot remedies; then the vet used antibiotics; then he did a
biopsy -- the diagnosis: cutaneous histocytosis.
Apparently, from the research I've been able to do, this is an auto-immune
related disease. It CAN migrate to internal organs and become cancer, but
if I understand correctly, it does not necessarily do this. It's a poorly
understood disease, most often seen in Bernese Mountain Dogs, though it
does, apparently, occur in other breeds as well.
My vet, with constant input from the Colorado State University Vet School,
then put him on increasingly large doses of prednisone, with a cytoxan pill
[50 m,g] every three weeks. He's just had his third "dose."
He became increasingly quiet, but in the meantime, I had hip-replacement
surgery March 1, and I probably wasn't as in tune as I SHOULD have been.
But then, a couple of weeks ago, he tried to jump on my bed and couldn't.
Up until then, he'd slept on my bed with his head on my shoulder. I guess I
thought he didn't choose to sleep there ---- what an idiot!
Two days later, I took him to my grandson's soccer game, and he couldn't get
into the car without help.
I took him to the vet the next day, and she took spinal and stomach x-rays
-- no obvious spinal problems, but his stomach was somewhat distended and
"squishy." She said his rear muscles had atrophied. We started weaning him
off the prednisone.
And OHMYGOD -- a few nights later, he came onto the bed on his own. And he's
driving me CRAZY playing with his ball. He clearly feels so much better, and
I'm so THANKFUL.
BUT -- he now has a new lesion between his toes -- I think this is a big
deal because the lesions have moved to a new location for the first time
since they appeared in late January.
He feels so much better, but the lesions on his stomach are also now open.
That's been the pattern -- they scab over; the scabs fall off; they're open
for awhile; then they scab over again. HOWEVER, some of them have healed;
there are now only three small lesions, down from the orange-sized cluster.
And, of course, the new lesion between his toes, which leaves blood spots
here and there.
I know that cyclosporin is a possible drug, but the cost is $1,000 to $3,000
per month for the rest of his life. I'm a retired high school teacher -- I
CAN'T do that, as much as I'd like to. But then, I have to ask, would the
cyclosporin be as hard on him as the prednisone has been?
Right now, he's obnoxious. He's pursuing his ball, voicing his disapproval
if it isn;t readily available, being a totally normal GSD. But he's also
leaving spots of blood from the lesion on his foot.
Does anyone have any suggestions?? I've decided that I will send him to the
Rainbow Bridge before I put him back on high doses of prednisone . . . I
cannot condemn him to that life . . . But this dog is my heart . . . How do
I do let him go, much less send him?????? How do I live my life without
him"??????
And how do I pay for $3,000 a month drugs, even if I decide that would be
beneficial for him. I don't MAKE that much.
ANY, ANY help will be appreciated, beyond my ability to express it. This is
a LOVELY boy.
I'm in your hands.
Fran in Denver
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