Being sick ... a Beagle's story

My mom learned Friday, Jan. 15, that I have Cushings disease.  She doesn’t yet know if it’s the adrenal gland tumor or brain type.  She’s very upset and crying all the time.  I’m lying next to her as much as I can, but I don’t know that it helps.  She feels hopeless because she had taken me to the vet because I’d been losing weight (five pounds as it turned out), drinking a lot of water and pooping way more than usual.  She thought it was diabetes, and she knows that can be treated.

I'm the goofy one and have my mom's heart.

The vet first did a blood test and found I had a bladder infection that they gave me pills for.  I don’t mind pills cuz I usually get an extra treat for it.  By the time I went back to the vet in three weeks I’d lost another pound.  I’m pretty thin anyway because mom doesn’t let me get overweight since when she got me I’d had an untreated broken leg that she was told in time would atrophy so I’d not be able to use it.  So I cannot afford to lose weight.

I went back to the vet Thursday, Jan. 14, for a day-long blood test.  That’s the one that said I had Cushings.  Mom has been trying to read about it, and much of what she’s read isn’t good news.  Others have been able to keep their fur babies for quite a while with certain treatments, so I know that’s what she’s hoping for.  But she still keeps crying because she doesn’t know enough yet.

 

Pop and Jade, September 2015.

Maybe me being sick wouldn’t be so bad if it were just me, but pop’s girl, Jade, had a splenectomy in early-December.  She weighed 23.5 pounds, and they removed a 1.4-pound tumor.  The vet said that usually as ugly and big as it was, that type is normally benign.  It wasn’t.  Jade will probably have 3-12 months.  Mom could do chemo for three months, but she and pop chose not to based on quality of life.  So Jade gets an anti-inflammatory, cancer-inhibiting pill once a day. 

Jade might be sick, but you’d never know it.  She’s like the old Jade … demanding, playing, lively, barking too much, being bossy.  Mom’s been giving her special treatment, too.

Jade looks slim and trim after losing the tumor.  I'm looking at her in a whole different way.

I know it’s hard for mom because Daisy Mae has been sick, too, throwing up.  She figures it’s cuz Daisy got in the bird seed and she’s allergic to nuts.  It’s been a long, hard road this fall and winter.  And I can only cuddle up to her and give her love, as she gives me cuz we're her kids.  I sleep right up next to her heart, and she knows I have a huge piece of it.

I’ll try to do some updates.  Mom has some good friends who are telling her things because they’ve had fur babies with cancer and Cushings so hopefully those things will help Jade and me, too. The upside is that I'm getting lots and lots of extra food.  But all this couldn’t have come at a worse time since mom’s going on vacation in less than a month and will be gone for two months.   But maybe I’ll live a long time and she won’t be so sad.