Flea is gone

[jorats]

:bananas:

I got the dex! We are going to start her on dex injectable given orally but if she does well, she will give me the oral dex. Weee!

My vet did tell me not to get too hopeful that this was a temporary solution and that the tumour will continue to grow, hopefully at a slower rate though.

I told her even if it just gives me an extra month or two, it will be worth it and she agreed with me. Flea is already 30 months old so I'll take whatever I can get.

 

[Melissa's ZOO]

YEAH, so happy to hear that little Flea will be okay for awhile.

I agree even one more month with our beloved furkids is enough to make us try anything :angel2: .

 

[lilspaz68]

Fantastic to hear you got the dex!!!

I found the injectable given orally worked just fine. Now lets all keep our fingers crossed that it slows that PT down for you and sweet Flea!

 

[Ratgirl@RatRitz]

How is Flea doing? I need an update! ... please :lol:

 

[jorats]

Flea is on 0.15 dex for 4 days, then it goes to every second day. Kind of a like a weaning off, then I have to call the vet to tell her how she's doing.
She's doing great, just like her old self, she's even eating blocks again and able to hold on to them, she's faster, comes straight away when I call her name.

 

[lilspaz68]

Flea is on 0.15 dex for 4 days, then it goes to every second day. Kind of a like a weaning off, then I have to call the vet to tell her how she's doing.
She's doing great, just like her old self, she's even eating blocks again and able to hold on to them, she's faster, comes straight away when I call her name.

Jo, you might have to keep her on the dex for the rest of her life...watch very carefully when you go to every 2nd day, it never worked for me, and I put them back onto their regular med regime after that.


Yay Flea! :banana:

 

[jorats]

Hopefully the vet will agree with this too.

 

[lilspaz68]

Hopefully the vet will agree with this too.
When I first approached the vet about it, she wasn't too convinced. I talked to one of the assistants yesterday and I'll call right away if I see that she's going downhill again.

Its a pretty drastic decrease in function when they don't respond well to the every 2nd day dex, and I am hoping your vet will keep her on it.

 

[jorats]

Here's a vid I took of Flea this morning. I wanted to show the change in her, how she is able to use her arms again, really good too.

Other things I've noticed, she's more alert, more awake, full of energy, is interested in her surroundings (redecorating) she's running up ramps, she runs to the door if she hears me. She's also fighting me on the meds now. She's 120% better.

 

[mamarat]

Flea looks fantastic, Jo.

 

[lilspaz68]

Can't wait to get home and watch the video!!

 

[mamarat2]

Glad to see her feeling better!!!! Gotta love it when pred does what its supposed to!!!

 

[Melissa]

She's such a cutey.

 

[wonderrodent]

Wow! Is this the same rat??? :wink: She looks great!! Scritches and treats to sweet Flea. :bliss: :banana:

 

[Ratgirl@RatRitz]

Its a pretty drastic decrease in function when they don't respond well to the every 2nd day dex, and I am hoping your vet will keep her on it.

I totally agree ... please don't try and wean her off the dex (if you can help it).

In the past when I've tried to do this it has been impossible to get the rat back to the original state before the weaning off began.

When treating PT's with steroids you need to do the exact opposite of what is usually done with steroids and gradually increase the dose to match with the tumour growth.

She looks fabulous in that video! I'd say the dex is agreeing with her!

 

[user 78]

Is your vet expecting to see Flea? As in, she wants to see her relapse before she gives you more dex?

Just a suggestion, and only because I've seen Shelagh go through it, but I'd just lie to her. I know, it's awful, but..

 

[jorats]

Here's my big problem, when Flea first started the symptoms, the video is how she was, I decided to follow the advice here quickly and gave Flea pred that I had on hand, my vet was still out of town and I didn't want to risk Flea getting worse. So Flea started to look good.

 

[lilspaz68]

OK I have an idea. Do you still have the prednisone? When you run out of dex and she won't give you more then start her on pred instead

 

[user 78]

That was going to be my next suggestion.. If for any reason she won't give you more dex, give Flea the Pred you've got. Not as good as dex, but still very good, as my Penn can attest to.

Does your camera do playbacks? Maybe take your camera in, show her the video of Flea before the pred?

 

[jorats]

My clinic/vet is very strict with meds, rightfully so.