Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
RyanandManda- the pup
Logan had a very similar diagnosis and started on the same drug. We were very unsure about it all at first too. It just seemed unfathomable that such a healthy, fairly young pup could go from running to being carried out to pee in about 3 days. She was losing weight rapidly and got sick VERY fast. We lost her just 10 days after we took her in to the vet the first time. She was ultimately put on 2 other meds, but we knew quickly that the outlook was not good. Maybe we caught it too late..maybe there wasn't any hope to begin with. She was a shepherd/lab mix and apparently this auto-immune disease is common in dogs like her, and shows up around age of 8. We were beyond devastated.
Check out:
http://www.cloudnet.com/~jdickson/
I found this website to be VERY helpful and hopeful. I am so sorry you are going through this. I hope your outcome is different. Sending you positive thoughts and tons of hugs
Re: RyanandManda- the pup
This sounds about right. He just started limping one day, early November. They thought he tore his ACL but it was fine on x-rays. Then, they thought he had a pulled groin muscle so we tried rest and anti-inflammatories. Then, they thought he chipped a bone somehow. Testing went on for 2 months before they finally realized there was fluid built up in his ankle joint. They drew it but there were too many red blood cells to absolutely confirm whatever it was they wanted to confirm... so they made the educated guess and told me it was that his immune system had gone haywire and started attacking his own body. After a couple days on Prednisone, the limping went away and the joint is clear of fluid. They said that we need to look out for future "flare ups" but they have no way of telling us what to look out for or what brought the attack on in the first place.
What worries me now is that he's acting really old and is losing weight despite eating the same, if not more, than we was before. We go back for a re-check on the 8th so I'll be sure to ask about this specific disorder to see if that's the diagnosis they have (but haven't REALLY) given us. I thought they said his blood work came back normal but they've withheld information (and given me false info "by accident") before so it wouldn't surprise me if something was off and they didn't disclose the whole truth.
Thanks so much for sharing this. I can't imagine how devastating the loss was for your family. We just rehomed our younger border collie in November and I cannot imagine grieving another dog right now.