Cuddles

This is Cuddles. She (and Rusty) were the first dogs in the Rahmandar family. We acquired these dogs while dad was away on a business trip in Australia. He wasn't real happy about it at first, but has grown to love them (even though he'd never admit it!)

Cuddles has always been the sicklier of the two dogs. She has always gotten ear infections, had bad teeth (she has about 5-6 teeth left), slip disc in her neck/back area, etc... The other day Cuddles had a seizure. Teddy was with her and it lasted about a minute. She was disoriented and stiff, but recovered quickly. The next day, she had another one. We were both with her at the time, this one lasted a little longer. Still she recovered. We took her into the vet yesterday and they ran some blood work on her. In a dog her age, she is 13+, there are a couple causes of seizures. One will show up in her blood work, something not processing correctly in her liver, kidneys, or other. Second, it could be she has a tumor (cancerous or not). The vet called with the results yesterday and Cuddles is pretty much in renal (kidney) failure, although she is not presenting like she is in failure. Besides the couple seizures she had and her weight (she is really skinny!), she is not showing any of the classic renal failure symptoms. The vet thinks it is in early stages and with a complete system flush and diet change (low proteins), she could bounce back and potentially have a good few years left in her. If we chose not to flush her system, he would have tried her on some medications, but he didn't know if they would work or not. So after weighing our options, I took Cuddles in this morning where she will remain for about 3 days so completely flush her system with IV fluids and drugs. They will repeat her blood work at the end of the treatment and we will see if it worked.

This has been a hard decision for us. We understand Cuddles is a old dog (although if healthy, like Rusty, we estimate they would live until 17-18). So when do you decide when it is good to treat and when it is good to just manage, especially given her history. But Cuddles is like a child to me and she deserves a chance. If this works and she comes out better, than we can continue to enjoy her in our family for years to come. So I will keep you posted on her progress. Hopefully Rusty will be OK without her for a few days.