Hiccup's Diagnosis

As I suspected, my poor Hiccup has some health problems. She has been panting excessively for a while now and our regular vet wasn’t finding anything wrong with her. As her panting got worse, I got more concerned and decided to see another vet for a second opinion. I made an appointment with Dr. Lashley, who my mom claims is a miracle worker. She used to take our pets there when I was a kid. Anyway, I called our regular vet to get a copy of her records and they agreed to fax them to Dr. Lashley. About an hour later, Dr. Jessen (our regular vet) called me to see what was going on. I explained that I had a gut feeling something was wrong with her and they just weren’t finding anything. He looked at all of her records again during our conversation and asked if she was still on enalapril for her heart. Excuse me? Did you just say for her heart? Nothing has been mentioned to me about her heart, what’s wrong with her heart? He proceeds to tell me that the x-ray taken last August, yes almost a year ago, showed the right side of her heart was enlarged and that is why she was on the medicine. When he gave that to her, she only got a limited supply and it was never mentioned again. The only thing he told me about those x-rays is that her lungs had pockets in them and that is what I thought the medicine was for. So each time we have been in since then, they ask what she is taking. I give the same answer all the time, Heartguard and Frontline. Ok, here’s the deal. If she was supposed to be on that medicine this entire time, why was that never caught? So, without even seeing her, he says he will get a prescription ready for her and I can stop by and pick it up. Um, no thank you. I’ll wait to see what Dr. Lashley thinks first.

In the meantime, I get online and read all about heart problems and excessive panting. Everything points to congestive heart failure so that is my concern now that I know she has an enlarged heart. It about killed me to wait 24 hours to get her in but it had already been a year so what’s one more day, right? We finally got to his office and he asked a million questions and looked at her history before he examined her. All he did was listen to her chest with his stethoscope and determined she has a heart valve leaking. Tears immediately come to my eyes because I’m thinking the worst with heart failure. He said that on the scale of 0-6, she is at a 1 and really doesn’t think it is life threatening, yet. We have to monitor her on a regular basis and she will be on medication forever as treatment.

As he examines her further, he pushed on her back and she almost jumped off the table. At first he thought it was arthritis but looked at the x-ray I brought from the other vet and realized she has 2 different spots in her spine where the vertebrae are fusing themselves together. In humans, surgery is the only way to fix disc problems but in animals, nature takes care of itself. He said it can take several years to complete the process and she is about half way though. He said she is in severe pain with it and thinks that is the source of her panting, not her heart. Again, tears come to my eyes because she has been in such pain for so long and I had no idea. He gave her some pain meds and said it should help with her pain and panting within a few days.

Overall, Dr. Lashley has a positive outlook for her and thinks she has quite a few good years left in her. After all, she is only 10. Granted, she’s considered a senior dog but she still acts like a puppy so I don’t consider her old. I feel a sense of relief knowing it could have been much worse but at the same time, I feel like the worst dog-mom ever for not taking her sooner. I feel absolutely horrible that she has been in such pain; however, I can’t focus on that now. I have to focus on Hiccup and getting her better. We sure could use some puppy-prayers so please send positive thoughts our way!