Same ol' same ol'

I haven't updated the blog lately because there is nothing new to report.  This is a GOOD THING!!  Tia is completely off the prednisone now, and only has 2 more doses of the antibiotic left.  I am still using the steroid ointment in her eye, along with GenTeal eye drops.  Just as Dr. Rosen said, the pigment is beginning to return to the skin that was affected by the radiation.  No sign of any fur yet though.  Tia is obviously feeling a TON better.  She still has trouble getting up in the morning (don't we ALL!!!) but she is a bit more playful now, and even barks a little.  She has growled at the puppies through the x-pen a few times, but nothing bad.  She's the matriarch, and is only asserting her position as such!  The puppies will learn.  Next NEVOG visit is in 4 days.

Doing well

Recovery continues.  I've been giving Tia 1/2 prednisone pill a day, and tomorrow we will go to 1/2 pill every other day for 5 days, and then stop.  Her side effects have really lessened.  Hardly any drooling.  Her mouth has stayed nice and clean, and we rinse it after every meal.  Her right eye is doing better with the steroid ointment.  We see Dr. Leah at Ellington Vet on Monday for a quick recheck, to be sure her mouth and eye are ok.  I took a picture of her this morning.  She wasn't in the mood, can you tell?!  All in all, she is definitely feeling better than ever.  She has even started barking a little again, which is a sure sign.

3 weeks post radiation

Today was Tia's second follow-up visit at NEVOG since her radiation treatment ended.  Dr. Rosen checked her mouth, measured her tumor, tested tear production in both eyes and did another dye test in the right eye.  Good results all around.  Her mouth is clean and her tumor has gotten SO much smaller, both inside her mouth and outside. Tear production tested at '20' in both eyes, which is normal.  Last week her right eye tested 20 and her left eye was pretty much at 0 in 2 separate tests on 2 different days.  The dye test was normal as well but Tia keeps squinting and blinking the right eye despite using the eye ointment.  Dr. Rosen decided to change to an eye ointment containing steroids.  We are going to keep her on the Baytril until our next visit in 3 or 4 weeks.  Starting tomorrow I will taper the Prednisone to 1/2 tablet for 5 days and then 1/2 tablet every other day for another 5 days.

The skin on Tia's face where the tumor used to be is so light and incredibly soft - like silk.  Dr. Rosen says that is because it is brand new skin.  Over the next few weeks we should see some more pigmentation show through, and over the next few months the fur will come in.  As for the hole in her mouth, she does not think it opens into the sinus cavity, but it is hard to tell.  I told her I doubt it does, because if it did we would see her meals coming out her nose!  (She is still on a totally liquid diet.)  She agreed with this thought, but wants to repeat the CT scan when we return for our next visit.  The hole in her mouth appears to have gotten bigger (to me) and this is because it is taking up the space once occupied by the tumor.  We will see what happens over the next few weeks - if the mouth continues to heal and if the hole fills in at all.  I hope it does, because none of us wants to face surgical reconstruction of the area!

Lastly, we discussed the fatigue that Tia seems to have been experiencing over the past 3 or so days.  She doesn't lift her head off her bed when I come downstairs in the mornings and all around seems to be more tired than usual.  Dr. Rosen says Tia's body is still doing some major healing, after the radiation  and it could just be that it is causing her to be more tired than normal.  She had told me that this was a side effect to expect, but I thought it was strange that it appeared to be worse just in the past few days.  Of course there are also times when she has bursts of energy, especially when we get home from work, or at meal times.  We'll continue to watch things, I'll check in with Dr. Leah at Ellington Vet weekly and I'll report to Dr. Rosen next week so we can decide when our next visit at NEVOG will be.  If things are going well we won't need to return for another 4 weeks!

Hairless

Tia has lost even more hair on her face, which is to be expected.  I snapped a picture of her while she was napping a little while ago.  It's funny to see her white skin next to the black & brown fur on her face.  It is a stark contrast.  She doesn't seem to be feeling too well today, but she had a fairly big day yesterday, so maybe she is just tired.  Kim and I went to the sheltie club meeting yesterday afternoon, and I took Tia for a show and tell.  After the meeting I explained what Tia has been going through since September, and what an Acanthomatous Epulis tumor is all about. Hopefully nobody will have to deal with one, but if they do, they have an idea of what to expect.

After the meeting Kim came by the house and helped me clean out the hole in Tia's mouth.  Up until Thursday we were doing great keeping it clean, but I tried giving her some of the Honest Kitchen food mixed in with her liquid diet and she got a huge clump stuck in there.  I tried everything to remove it by myself.  Someone needed to hold Tia's upper and lower jaws, while I tended to the hole.  Since Kim has experience working at a veterinary clinic and knows how to handle animals she was invaluable in helping me get the job done.  We were amazed at what came out of that hole!!  Now it is all nice and clean, and I won't be experimenting with her food until I am told to by the vets!

The 'eyes' have it

Tia developed a sticky discharge from her right eye Wednesday afternoon.  Thursday morning she woke up and could hardly get her eye open.  It looked like some sort of conjunctivitis.  The vet just checked her eyes thoroughly on Tuesday and they were fine.  Go figure.  So off to see Dr. Leah again yesterday afternoon.  She did another tear test on both eyes and the results were unchanged.  Right eye is almost normal.  Left eye is dry as a bone.  We can't figure out why though.  The right eye should be the dry one.  She also did a dye test on the right eye.  Everything is fine.  No ulcerations.  She put Tia on an antibiotic ointment, which I am using in both eyes.  Maybe using it in the left eye will help with the dryness.  Dr. Leah gave poor "starving" Tia some treats because she was such a good girl, and so darned cute, of course.  She won't feed her from her hand anymore though.  Tia put an end to that on our visit earlier this week.  She really needs to learn not to bite the hand that feeds her, but at this point in her life I doubt she has much incentive to learn!

Last night is the first time in months that Tia has not had to take any meds, other than the eye ointment.  We have been tapering down her prednisone, so she only takes it in the mornings.  I decided not to give her any pain meds last night, as she didn't seem to need them.  She was fine without them.  Also, her last dose of Baytril was yesterday morning.  This morning Tia seemed almost back to her old self!  Barking and playing a bit, as she always has before I let her outside.  It's nice to see her making such progress.  I'm thinking of taking her to the LEAP agility club meeting and run thru's on Sunday.  Maybe we'll do a couple of runs at a very low jump height, if she's up to it. 

Update... just talked to Dr. Rosen at NEVOG, since they wanted an update on Tia's eye issues.  She wants me to start using Genteal eye ointment in Tia's left eye, as opposed to the antibiotic, since it is measuring so dry.  Also, since Dr. Leah mentioned that she thought the tumor area was looking a little puffy last night, she wants T back on the Baytril at least until she see's her again on Tuesday.  At least we've made progress by stopping the pain meds, and soon we'll be tapering down the prednisone to once every other day.

Tia visits Dr. Greenberger

We went to see Dr. Leah at Ellington Veterinary Center tonight.  We've been meaning to drop by since Tia's radiation treatment ended.  Everyone there was happy to see Miss T.  Dr. Leah checked her mouth and it was nice and clean.  Tia's weight was a little down, probably because of the liquid diet she has been on.  We also have not been giving her ANY treats for fear that they will get stuck in the hole.  While we were there Dr. Leah gave Tia a treat and she was so excited that she practically took the Doctor's hand off!  Yes, that's our Tia.  I forgot to warn Dr. Leah about that.  She also checked Tia's eyes for dryness and found that her right eye is almost normal, but her left is really dry.  That seemed strange, since we expected the dry eye to be on the side of the tumor, which was on the right.  We'll have Dr. Rosen check them again next week at our NEVOG follow-up and see if there has been any change.  We will continue to check in with Dr. Leah so she can monitor Tia's progress as well. 

While we were at Ellington Vet I took another photo of Tia's face.  This picture shows the fur loss and healing over the tumor site, and if you look closely you can also see an area of healing around her lip.  Tia continues to enjoy sticking her face in the snow whenever she goes outside.  It obviously feels good to her.  She doesn't seem to be doing any damage, and I haven't noticed that she rubs her face hard.  On New Year's Day I decreased Tia's prednisone from two tabs a day to one, but some of her side effects came back so I upped it to 1 1/2 tabs and she did better.  Today I decreased the pred to one tab a day.  We'll see how she does with that.  Tonight Tia seems more herself and Rick, Brian and I agree that she seems to be feeling better. 

We are so lucky to have such great veterinary care for Tia.  Everyone really cares about our T, and has gone above and beyond in providing her care.  We can't thank you enough!