Heavy hearts.

Sigh…

We have Maggie May.

This is our boxer. She will be 8 on April 21st. (boxers give you a life span of about 9-10 years) she has recently started a new habit of drinking excessive amounts of water. As in about a gallon plus some a day. Thus she pisses. ALL THE TIME. All over the house.

Well the rooms she’s allowed in. We can’t just take the water away. Obviously her body is telling her she NEEDS water. But why?

So we discuss with the vet, We came up with a FEW options. (few as in 5 different options…)

 

First Vet visit.

Test her urine, HOPE for a bladder infection or UTI. Do blood work to check all her levels.

Results

Sadly no infection. Nothing simple some antibiotics could fix. It’s her calcium. Needs to be retested. Oh and her lymph nodes seem odd to touch. Could be because she is older and loosing muscle mass. But still odd.

Price $268

Second Vet visit.

Test for Calcium. Also do ‘fine needle aspiration’ on her lymph nodes.

Results

The fine needle aspiration cytology came back “some sort of inflammation” (seems kind of vague for $152 doesn’t it?!)

The calcium test came back today with ‘Calcium is high’… again. We still have that vague feeling here. But for a steal of $108 dollars.

Price for visit $263 

So this brings us to now.

Oh yeah. What are we looking at?

Hyper-para-thyroid-ism.

OR…

Thyroid Cancer.

I guess they are SO closely related that is why we are still testing for both. AND with out doing an ultrasound on her throat and abdominal and biopsy whatever we find.We STILL don’t know.

We are just frustrated that we spent the last $263 dollars for tests that we could have just skipped and went for the ultrasound?

THAT is a very pretty $400 for the ultrasounds and the biopsy is another $200.

They also would LIKE a PTH test done, to better help the doctor understand what we are dealing with. Well when that $245 test is free. Let us know. Until then let’s just pick one. Hyperpara… or cancer.

 

AND they wanted to start with an X-ray of her chest. BUT if the ‘cancer’ hasn’t spread there yet. And we got a clean x-ray, then we could just flush $235 down the toilet.  AND even if we did start with the x-ray and they found a mass, they would STILL have to do an ultrasound and biopsy.

THEN…

if it’s Hyperparathyroidism THEN we can do a surgery to remove the benign mass that is creating her calcium to spike, her to drink excessive water and stop pissing all over our floors and feel better. And she can live a ‘normal’ life. (and we can stop going through ROLLS of paper towels, and pine sole)

We get NO estimate on that surgery, till we know for sure. (lots goes into that one for price, and at that point we will be pretty one on one with the doctor anyway. So he would tell us before we opted to do anything)

OR.

If it’s cancer.

We see how big it is. We could probably have a few more months with her if we go untreated…

Sadly we could never afford dog chemo. And not sure how much it would effect her life anyway.

Sigh…

We are crushed.

Maggie is stressed.

Sophie is concerned for Maggie.

They barely eat.

They sleep and mope. ALL. DAY.

All the barking, the constantly wanting to play, the wiggly butts, the running in the yard… it’s come to a complete STOP. This below is our everyday.

Our hearts are broken. Our minds are full. Our wallet is empty. Any ideas?

FEISTY.