My dog might be improving. The liver cancer diagnosis was almost certainly malpractice

Wow that really sucks. Its so upsetting you both are going through painful disasters. Why cant all animal deaths be painless
 
The vet just called me. They got his blood work mixed up with another dog that had identical breed, age, issues, and name. They never drew his blood so the method of primary diagnosis for liver condition was never checked. He has a mass in the same area as his liver, but we don't know what it is.
 
He's with his normal vet now at the veterinary hospital. In addition to fucking up the bloodwork, the emergency vet may have also misdiagnosed the xrays. My regular vet thinks his hip's popped out of the socket due to his hip dysplasia. Because of his advanced age, there are no surgical options for correction. We're still waiting on the new bloodwork to be completed. Depending on the bloodwork cold laser therapy might be an option--but his quality of life at this point is markedly reduced. The question today is going to be whether to euthanize him or see how he responds to cold laser treatment over the weekend. If his quality of life doesn't dramatically improve from cold laser, then monday we'll need to euthanize him.
 
PetsPet said:
He's with his normal vet now at the veterinary hospital. In addition to fucking up the bloodwork, the emergency vet may have also misdiagnosed the xrays. My regular vet thinks his hip's popped out of the socket due to his hip dysplasia. Because of his advanced age, there are no surgical options for correction. We're still waiting on the new bloodwork to be completed. Depending on the bloodwork cold laser therapy might be an option--but his quality of life at this point is markedly reduced. The question today is going to be whether to euthanize him or see how he responds to cold laser treatment over the weekend. If his quality of life doesn't dramatically improve from cold laser, then monday we'll need to euthanize him.
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Hold him before then. When it happens keep him close and picture his memories
 
I feel for you because we do is lost our female Rottweiler to cancer and its a cruel world but in the end I had toput her down and it was probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Just be strong and remember all the good times. It just goes to show how human beings are a cruel breed when we can help our canine friends from suffering but it's against the law to help a family member the same situation.
 
PetsPet said:
I just spent 5 hours at the emergency vet and an hour here at home. He's obviously distressed and the vet said he could pass away any hour or a couple months. its 3.5 hours before I can call the specialist. I'm so very worried.
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im so sorry to hear, i know how you feel, i lost my pit 9 months ago to liver cancer.
 
This story is a wild fucking ride. The short: He doesn't have cancer. The bad: The first vet probably qualifies for medical malpractice.

Thursday he was fine. He laid down and hurt himself severely though. He has hip dysplasia and permanently knocked his hip out of socket. The first vet diagnosed him with possible liver cancer and maybe only hours to live.

Took him to our regular vet this Friday morning and they gave him proper diagnosis. The first vet said they felt a mass, saw it on the xrays and sonogram, and his bloodwork showed likely liver cancer. That vet later called me and said they gave us the bloodwork on another dog by same name and age.

Our regular vet did the bloodwork that wasn’t done and found no issues. On sonogram and palpitation nothing found. In the xray sent by the first vet no mass found but his hip dysplasia has advanced to the point where it looks like his hip is no longer in socket. His current treatment is an increase in dose in gabapentin and continuation of his novox. We're using a sling to give him additional hip support. He's getting three courses of cold laser treatment for his hip, and what we're hoping is that he shows sufficient progress that he forms scar tissue at the most problematic hip over the next two weeks, giving him reduced pain and additional mobility. The vet said that if he doesn't show improvement by Monday we may need to euthanize him.

Something I suspect now: The Tramadol (prescribed by the first vet and continued by the second) is making it look like continued symptoms when he is, in fact, improving. Throughout the course of Friday he was showing steady and marked improvement up to the point that he was largely free from needing the puppy handle (waist sling) except in cases of going up and down steps. After giving him his Tramodol last night, he went to sleep for a couple hours, then woke up like he was in extreme pain and was basically incapable of walking. I think the Tramadol might be causing dizziness which is compounded by his poor leg strength, arthritis and hip dysplasia, and he *looks* like he's in pain because the Tramadol is giving him high anxiety as a side effect. The high anxiety would explain why, after a while he keeps getting up and pacing the house and repeatedly going outside just to look around and sniff.

If I'm right about the tramadol, then a great many of his symptoms are a product of that first vet's misdiagnosis and a medication he's having a very poor reaction to.

I think I'm probably right, and I hope I'm right, because taking him off the Tramadol would show excellent and rapid improvement. Based on his improvement Friday, maybe even approaching his prior state of mobility before his incident on Thursday with his revised drug schedule..
 
He seems to be doing pretty good now that the tramadol has largely left his system. Him and I basically slept like the dead for most of the day. He's had his ups and downs for mobility. About midday was his best. He's still having difficulty getting up from a sitting position and navigating stairs, but he's no longer walking like his hips are made of jello. He is walking rather stiff legged. Sometimes he's having a much easier time standing up than others. Occasionally I have to help him. He is eating a little bit more, but we're still having to mix his food with boiled chicken. I'm trying to avoid straight chicken and rice--we've been having challenges with him eating for a long time now, I'm trying to not encourage him getting even more picky than he already is.
 
My lab has hip problems and is on gabepentin as well as carprofen and some hip supplements. He didn't get anxiety when we tried Tramadol but it did make him lethargic. Have your tried CBD? If it's legal where you're at. Helped my boy a bit with the pain but it's also good for calming anxiety.
 
PetsPet said:
This story is a wild fucking ride. The short: He doesn't have cancer. The bad: The first vet probably qualifies for medical malpractice.

Thursday he was fine. He laid down and hurt himself severely though. He has hip dysplasia and permanently knocked his hip out of socket. The first vet diagnosed him with possible liver cancer and maybe only hours to live.

Took him to our regular vet this Friday morning and they gave him proper diagnosis. The first vet said they felt a mass, saw it on the xrays and sonogram, and his bloodwork showed likely liver cancer. That vet later called me and said they gave us the bloodwork on another dog by same name and age.

Our regular vet did the bloodwork that wasn’t done and found no issues. On sonogram and palpitation nothing found. In the xray sent by the first vet no mass found but his hip dysplasia has advanced to the point where it looks like his hip is no longer in socket. His current treatment is an increase in dose in gabapentin and continuation of his novox. We're using a sling to give him additional hip support. He's getting three courses of cold laser treatment for his hip, and what we're hoping is that he shows sufficient progress that he forms scar tissue at the most problematic hip over the next two weeks, giving him reduced pain and additional mobility. The vet said that if he doesn't show improvement by Monday we may need to euthanize him.

Something I suspect now: The Tramadol (prescribed by the first vet and continued by the second) is making it look like continued symptoms when he is, in fact, improving. Throughout the course of Friday he was showing steady and marked improvement up to the point that he was largely free from needing the puppy handle (waist sling) except in cases of going up and down steps. After giving him his Tramodol last night, he went to sleep for a couple hours, then woke up like he was in extreme pain and was basically incapable of walking. I think the Tramadol might be causing dizziness which is compounded by his poor leg strength, arthritis and hip dysplasia, and he *looks* like he's in pain because the Tramadol is giving him high anxiety as a side effect. The high anxiety would explain why, after a while he keeps getting up and pacing the house and repeatedly going outside just to look around and sniff.

If I'm right about the tramadol, then a great many of his symptoms are a product of that first vet's misdiagnosis and a medication he's having a very poor reaction to.

I think I'm probably right, and I hope I'm right, because taking him off the Tramadol would show excellent and rapid improvement. Based on his improvement Friday, maybe even approaching his prior state of mobility before his incident on Thursday with his revised drug schedule..
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wonderful to hear he doesnt have cancer and is improving.
 
Octavian said:
My lab has hip problems and is on gabepentin as well as carprofen and some hip supplements. He didn't get anxiety when we tried Tramadol but it did make him lethargic. Have your tried CBD? If it's legal where you're at. Helped my boy a bit with the pain but it's also good for calming anxiety.
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Yeah, he was on Truprofen, but the supply for it around here dried up so they moved him to its not-generic form Novox. He seems to be responding better to the Novox even if its the same active ingredient--probably because its a less chalky pill and its easier to give it to him.

I haven't tried CBD yet. Right now I'm adhering close to the vet's instructions while we recover.
 
He finally let me sleep. Oh god it felt good to sleep mostly through the night. First time in days. Thursday through saturday I had a cumulative total of maybe 6 hours sleep.
 
I think we can safely say the pupzilla is over the bad parts. He's comfortable and content at this point and I'm happy to give him the extra support and help he needs now. Thank you all for the well wishes and support.
 
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