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Bowie!
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Kim Somjen is owned by Bowie, her 4 1/2 year old black and tan male Dobie. Kim has been a member of SND from its early days. She is now faced with overwhelming bills relating to Bowie's upcoming hernia and lipoma removal surgery. Here is Bowie's story as written by Kim: Bowie is having surgery the first week of January. His prostate has herniated through, and the vet was very worried and wants me to keep a VERY close eye on him in case his bladder or bowels get entrapped but this is something I have been watching for his entire time with me. He will be with me 24/7 until the surgery, so I will watch him and make sure things are ok - and he's getting checked every day while I am at home by the docs at my clinic. Bowie's vet said that because he has had so many surgeries (and the first two were very conservative) that there is virtually no chance that ANY surgery or treatment at this point will be a permanent solution for him. What she plans on doing is tacking Bowie's ductus deferens (like the vas deferens of men) to his abdominal wall, which will essentially pull his prostate cranially into his pelvis and prevent it from moving out into the hernia. She is also concerned about why his prostate is so enlarged - so she will be taking a biopsy as well. We are all hoping that its simply prostitis, but there is also the chance of cancer that is causing this. If it is, I have a whole separate group of worries to deal with then - but I just cant think of that right now (I need to think one step at a time). Once the prostate is pulled back in, she will then check the hernias status - its now mainly a ventral herniation, and if she does any repair, it will be with a synthetic mesh insert. She said that it wouldn't necessarily have to happen- however, I think that I am going to ask her to just do the mesh - I don't want to have a surgery and then have to put him back under the knife a few months later when the hernia gets worse again. I think its his best option. So I'll be running complete bloodwork on him, and a urinalysis with culture as well. The vet also asked that I slim him down to be on the skinny side (and keep him like that) - she mentioned his structure and also wants me to check his hips, and we both talked about the fact that his back end is noticeably smaller than his front in structure and musculature. |
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Updates! (some parts graphic)
January 29th, 2004 - Problems with Bowie's leg!
January 2nd, 2004 - A Bit of a Scare!
December 8th, 2003 - Bowie's Latest!
August 6th, 2003 - Bad News...
July 16th, 2003 - Bowie's Surgery!
May 2nd, 2003 - Bowie Update plus new pictures! March
26th, 2003 - Bowie's First Acupunture Session! March
24th, 2003 - Bowie is making progress! March
11th, 2003 - Bowie has his MRI. March
10th, 2003 - Bowie's MRI pushed back. March
6th, 2003 - Possibility of Wobblers! March
4th, 2003 - New Problems for Bowie! February
16th, 2003 - A loving essay about Bowie, written by Kim. February 11th,
2003 "On my way
to take Bowie in for his next check up at the vet school (yes, we have
almost standing appointments every tuesday afternoon!) and we will decide
today if he is up to having his next surgery next tuesday, the 18th...)
Keep your fingers crossed - not sure for WHAT (I dont know if I want him
going into surgery again so soon), but just keep them crossed - and paws
too!" February 7th, 2003 Monday,
Bowie went in for another consult with his surgeon - mixed results there.
The good news is, his repaired hernia is doing WONDERFULLY - he has even
started to show some scar tissue growing OVER the mesh, which is more
than we could have hoped for. That side is holding very well...however,
the lack of support on the other side (yet to be repaired), has caused
it to worsen. Our fear is that not only is the pressure on the unrepaired
side getting very large, but further pressure may break down the newly
fixed side as well. Bowie will need to go into surgery VERY soon. We
discussed his bladder problems. He does appear to have some sort of nerve
damage, however, it appears that it may stem from his EARLIER surgery.
What we HOPE happened is that from the large doses of opioids he was being
given for pain control after the surgery, combined with the inflammation,
resulted in him retaining urine and thus he lost tone of the bladder (detrusor
muscle). This isn't definite, and because he has no normal anatomy, it
is virtually impossible to know where his nerves lie now. Further surgery
has no guarantee that it can't get worse or we won't hit another nerve.
We postponed scheduling of any surgery until his consult with the urology
internist, which was Tuesday. After observing him urinate, and then checking
his residual volume (the urine left in his bladder after voiding), he
still is not fully emptying his bladder. We only pulled off 300 or so
mls, which is much better than the 2000 we pulled off earlier, but still
not perfect.(His residual volume SHOULD be about 25 mls). We are postponing
surgery another week with a recheck on Tuesday to see where he stands.
We are upping his dosage of bethanechol to help him contract his bladder
more strongly, and keeping him on 2 mg of prazosin three times a day as
well to relax his urethra and cut down on any spasms. The urologist also
decided that instead of bringing him in, that i should catheterize him
every night to remove any excess urine to see if keeping it low will help.
There
is the option of going in abdominally still, to move his bladder and related
structures and tacking his ductus deferens to his abdominal wall, while
moveing things away from the surgery sites. But again, this is no guarantee,
and in moving anything we may just do more nerve damage. Bowie
himself is doing very well, all things considered. He has taken up interesting
ways to urinate (he is attempting to use his abdominal muscles to compress
the bladder), and is a little sore (maybe unrelated, his neck again),
but he's much happier than he has been in the past few weeks. We had a
day or two of slight dribbling on my bed again but that appears to have
resolved, and he's being an angel for me to catheterize at home. (Thank
god this dog trusts me, because I dont think my roommates would actually
be able to restrain him for me!). His appetite is strong (he just loves
the raw food, and BEGS for those chicken wings and necks!!), and he no
longer needs to pee every 15 minutes, which is a nice change! So
that is where we stand - recheck on Tuesday, and see what the doctor thinks.
We can also run some further diagnostics if necessary...part of me wants
to do the surgery soon, but another part wants to wait. He still has no
problem going to the vet school and doesn't really hate it until I get
him laying on the ground (knows the catheter is coming out) -- but hopefully,
soon we will have some resolution. February
1st - Bowie is being observed after a week in the hospital, another
surgery is being scheduled. January
20th - Complications with Bowie's bladder cause an emergency visit
to the hospital. January
19th - Update on Bowie's recovery from surgery. Bowie
Updates from December 27th to January 17th includes Bowie's condition
leading up to his surgery, the surgery itself, and Bowie coming home. |
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