A Note From Joey and Maggie: Maggie's Big Day

Maggie, May 24, 2011

The day has finally arrived - your Long and Short of it All hostess 'Maggie' gets to have her anal tumor removed, so we'll be a little short on the posts for a few days.  She's also going to have a dental while she's under; she's got a slab fracture which will most likely be removed.  It's a risky surgery for her - she's 10.5 years old, she's got Cushing's disease, a heart murmur, and she just had a pancreatitis attack about 2 months ago.  The pancreatitis is what we're worried the most about - surgery can cause pancreatitis to flare up, the same way Joey developed a really bad case after his bilateral adrenalectomy last fall.  Her lipase levels, which indicate pancreas issues, are still about twice normal, but the good vet doesn't see that as an issue - they need to be really high to indicate pancreatitis.   All precautions are being taken to prevent a flare-up, including heavy hydration before and after surgery until almost 8 PM tonight.  She should be able to come home tonight if all goes well. 
In this photo you can see how Cushing's is taking its toll on our Mags.  While she is groomed with a modified cocker cut, her hair stopped growing last fall.  She used to be fully grown out again in about 2 months, but her last cut was in September.   People keep commenting that her hair is turning more brown, but we think that's because it is just so thin from hair loss.  Her legs have been shaved for IV placement from when she was in the hospital for the pancreatitis.  She's also losing the hair on the back of her ears - her skin has become scaly from the Cushing's, and the hair falls out.  And you can't see in this photo, but her stomach is very large - she looks pregnant.  She also has extra fatty deposits around the back of neck.   One of our good friends at our local Dachshund meetup didn't even recognize her in March - she said "This isn't Maggie, is it?"  :(
But the good news is that she's really close to being stabilized on her trilostane treatment for Cushing's.  She had an ACTH stimulation test last week, and her resting cortisol was 2.2 which is right about where we want it, (before it kept coming in at over 10), and her post test cortisol is about 9.5.  We'd like to get that post test number down just a little to maybe 7.5.  So, we upped her medication just slightly.  Hoping to see hair growth and decrease in the pot belly soon, but sometimes that just doesn't happen.  At least she's been very happy and spry since her levels have been good - she runs around the house like a puppy, and when she gets excited she bucks like a little bronco.  We're hoping that her good demeanor is indicative that she's going to sail through this surgery without a single issue, and she will be comfortable enough in her nether region that she can wag her tail at full force once more. 

Who's a pretty girl?