Things Looking Up

Well, things seem to be going in the right direction for Jake. The vet has adjusted his meds some and is now on 800 mg of the milk thistle and the SAMe , 3000mg of flaxseed, 2000mg of Keflex and 600mg Ursadiol. He is eating great and being good ol' Jake. YEAH!! Jake goes to the vet on Friday May 1st to get his stitches out, ultrasound on liver and gallbladder and bloodwork for his liver enzymes. Things have been getting back to normal...well as normal as it can be for us..lol..I well post again soon. Thanks and Blessing and please continue to pray for us.

Jake

Sleeping Buddies

Jake is getting so pampered.


The boys chillin' watching the Reds game.

Jake resting. He is doing better. He is eating great. Jake still having a little drainage but seems to be feeling fine. It is so funny to watch him after he has the pain pill, he get so loopy acting and sleeps away. I have to call the vet on Monday about the drainage and to order more i/d can food for him and check in about the other meds and to get the referral info about the clinic that does the gallbladder removal. Keep us & Jake in all of your prayers.

God Bless.

New Update on Jake

We got Jake this afternoon from the vet and boy was he ready to go home. We had a long talk to vet about his situation last night. Come to find out that his liver is a BIG problem. He has liver disease and it is in the last stage. The vet told us a couple of weeks left for Jake and didn't think that he would make it through the gallbladder surgery. But, she also said she didn't think that he would make it through last night. So,worried that we might not see Jake again we went last night to the vet clinic and sat and had a good visit with Jake for a little over an hour. He ate all of his supper for us and he walked around some. We took his blanket from the house and got him cozy well, as cozy as he could be in the clinic. We said our goodbyes and gave him lots of love and of course I cried like a baby. When I got home last night I did alot of research about liver disease and come to find out that the liver will heal itself in time if the problem is removed(which is is gallbladder) it is a slow process but it can be done. I got a list of meds that might help him and so on. I asked the vet about them this afternoon, she was shocked that I did all the research and agreed with the list of vitamins that I wanted to give Jake. So, our plan and hope that it is God's too is to treat the liver disease with milk thistle(gave one tonight at 6:30), SAMe(have to give on an empty belly so going to give in the morning), and a special diet of low protein and high calories. He is on Hill's i/d can food, brown rice, cottage cheese, eggs and if he will eat it kale. He is on his antibiotics and pain meds from the surgery all ready and will be begin a drug that helps make the toxic bile less toxic. The vet has to order that one on Monday, they don't keep it is stock. He has had some bleeding today but he has surprised us all by eating and eating, walking around and urinating and taking bm's. We want to get him through this surgery and hopefully begin some healing in the liver and the goal is to get that gallbladder out! I know some people think that this might be a long shot but, not me. He is the toughest dog I know. Even the vet said that she can't believe that he is still alive and commented on just how tough he was..she told us this morning that if this happened to any other dog it wouldn't of survived.
Jake to me just isn't a dog he is a member of my family, we have had him for 11yrs and I just can't wait it out and do nothing. I have to fight this with him and right along his side all the way. After all he has given me all the unconditional love I never knew I wanted or needed for the past 11 yrs it is only fair to give it back. I love him as my son and I will do whatever and give up whatever for him cause you can't put a price on family and love. I ask everyone to please pray for us and especially for Jake at this time. Thank you so much and I will keep you updated.

What a Beautiful Storm

Here are some pics of Storm that we took last Saturday. She is such a nice looking girl and a attitude to go with the looks..lol..

This is our a third generation dog off of our foundation line.

Update About Jake

Well, I got the news from the vet about Jake. First, he gets to come home in the morning! Yeah! Second, good news the vet doesn't think that it is cancer but to be sure we are sending the tissue for the test out, hopefully we will know the results next week sometime. The vet went ahead and neutered him & found his bladder which is fine, no stones or anything and his prostate was so big that is what was causing him trouble with the urinating. His prostate will go down in time since we had him neutered. Now the bad news, Jake needs his gallbladder out ASAP. Our vet doesn't do that type of surgery, they do know a few vets that do...the problem..money...our vet thinks, that the rate for gallbladder removal is 3,000 to 5,000! So, we are trying to see if maybe Purdue will do it as a learning surgery hopefully at a discounted rate..Have to see. We got the email address to the professor in vet med and I am working on the email to send him. So, once again I am asking for prayer as we try to figure out how to pay for the surgery. As you all know we don't have the best credit so, this isn't going to be easy coming up with it but, I have to remember that all things are possible through Christ! If anyone has any ideas please let me know. Thanks and God Bless.

Never Prepared

I had to take Jake to the vet today. He has been having trouble urinating for a couple days. Thinking that it was just a enlarge prostate or maybe bladder/kidney stones. He has been needing neutered for a while but at his age 11, we didn't know if we wanted to put him through that. Anyway, the vet did and ultrasound and found a mass in his belly area and found out that he has a very large spleen and that all of his lymph nodes are huge and the vet couldn't find his bladder..so, after the exam the vet thinks that he might have cancer. Not the new that I was prepared to hear especially, to hear it alone. The vet gave me a couple options for Jake, do a quick biopsy and send it out to the lab, wait until Tuesday of next week for the results(but wouldn't help his urinating problem which if not found out why can lead to other compilations) or do exploratory surgery on him tomorrow and look and see what is going on. So, the vet called Scott told him what was going on and the options then I talked to Scott and we came to the decision to do the surgery. We made the decision that if the vet comes back and tells us bad news that we will bring Jake home and let him live out his years here at his home. They can do chemo but at his age we don't want him to have the remainder of his life sick from all of that. If things take a bad turn for him once he is home then we will cross the bridge when we get there. So, I am asking everyone to please pray for him and us. I will keep everyone informed on what happens tomorrow. Thank you so much.

The Determination of a Pit Bull

Storm had me laughing so hard this morning. Last night a limb fell into her kennel and she was so determined to take it in her house this morning. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get a few pics of her trying so hard.

A picture is worth a thousand words.