FOLLOWING IS an email I send to Cindy and she so kindly replied to. It's definitely not that I DON'T trust her advice but I very much want to have all the insight I can on it.
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Apologies in advance for how long this post is...I wanted to be as detailed and possible. Please offer any ideas or suggestions, Cena and her family thank you.

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I've spent days, maybe even weeks, researching in the hopes of figuring out what might be wrong with Cena, our almost four year old, spayed Rottweiler. Up until April Cena had been the picture of good health...we've been going downhill ever since.

First I discovered, during a grooming session, a tiny bump on her shoulder, maybe the size of your pinky finger nail. I decided to wait a week or two thinking it might be a bug bite but it increased in size (about thumb nail size) so off to the vet we go. They drew fluid from it and found 'unusual cells' so we scheduled surgery to have it removed. The results of the biopsy came back as a spindle cell tumour but it hadn't yet spread and the vet was confident that she'd removed the bad cells and a good portion of the surrounding area. The sutures that were done initially dissolved too soon and we had to take her back the morning the wound opened up again. Back under anesthetic to resuture her. They did a much better job the second time around and also put her on antibiotics. She healed up nicely.

About that time we had noticed Cena was 'slowing down'. She wasn't her normal goofy self, preferred to lounge rather than chase her canine sister or follow us from room to room. I figured the surgery and antibiotics had taken a toll on her energy levels. Then she started acting achy after rest--slow to rise, cautious gaits, effort required to sit or lie down. Called the vet and made another appointment. Vet suspected start of arthritis--poor dog was only three and a half years old--and put her on glucosamine powder and told me to help Cena lose at least 15 pounds. (She weighed in at 99 pounds, down from 109 pounds the summer before.)

Bloodwork was taken after she still didn't improve. Results came back 'fine' (I have the results in front of me) and vet said that any slightly elevated levels could have been attributed to slight infection in the surgery wound when it opened up or stress. On two visits Cena did show a very tiny fever but nothing the vet seemed concerned about.

The stiffness and lethargy got worse. Two weeks later we made another appointment and had to see the other vet at the practice--our regular was on vacation. She examined Cena's joints, listened for grating, poked and prodded. Cena lay on the floor, showing no interest in anything. Vet prescribed Rimadyl. Day one seemed like a miracle! She was almost her old self again. The next day her face swelled up like a puffer fish and we, of course, stopped using it. Next we got Metacam. Results weren't quite as instant but it did seem to keep her comfortable. Certainly not 100% but she could at least get around. A pharmacist friend told me about the human version of Metacam which is known to work the same in dogs, called Meloxicam, and the vet was fine changing our prescription to it to save us some money. (Metacam $6.00 per day, Meloxicam fifty cents per day...veterinary medicine companies should be ashamed of themselves!) Because the human form came in a tiny tablet and Cena needed a strange dose amount we started giving her 1/2 of a 7.5 mg tablet of Meloxicam PLUS the dose for a 7.5 kg dog worth of Metacam. Confused yet?

Cena also 'flinches' when you move to pet her, no matter how slowly or gently, and she has taken to growling at her canine sister when she so much as walks NEAR her, not even close enough to touch her. Cena was in for x-rays of her hips last Thursday. No sign of dysplasia, just the arthritis. Also, creaking and grating in joints and quite regular 'clicks' in her hind when when walking and the occasional 'pop' also from her hind end, hips I assume. Some days after rising she will shift weight from hind leg to hind leg and hold each off the ground for a moment in an obvious attempt to keep the pressure off them. I mentioned to the vet that her joints seem to swell from time to time and her ear flaps felt puffy like they were retaining water. Vet said to bring her in the next time her joints swelled so fluid could be tapped. Mentioned the possibility of an auto-immune disorder and she'd check for it in the fluid. Was going to draw more blood but didn't realize that she'd had bloodwork done a few months ago so decided to wait until she did the tap. Cena was down to 96 pounds...but up two pounds from her last visit. This, despite our best efforts to get her weight down--increased but very gentle exercise (walking) and cutting her food amounts down.

Cena has good days and bad days. Yesterday was a bad day. All four legs swelled up, from barrel to paw. They felt spongy and puffy. Called vet to see what I could do because I couldn't get her in to the clinic immediately. The tech said to try hot and cold packs. Neither helped and Cena was not impressed that I was harassing her while she was trying to rest. She spent most of the day trying to get comfortable...from her dog bed to the cool ceramic floor, back to the dog bed to the mat by the door. That's unlike her, she prefers her dog bed. Didn't want to drink any water but ate her kibble happily at all three meals. Had quite bad gas and mild diarrhea. I watched her most of the night and she slept soundly, though snored loudly (typical for her the last six months).

This morning the swelling of her legs has gone down at least 75% but her ear flaps are swollen to twice the normal thickness (entire ear, different from the 'retaining water' feel at the bottom 1/3 of her ear flaps that was there before). This morning (4:30 am) Cena vomited. No food, just a browny-yellowish fluid. She has always been sensitive-stomached and will occasionally vomit like this when she goes too long without food. Last night her last meal was at 7:30 pm and normally I give her another 1/2 cup of food right before bed (11:30/12:00) to keep her comfortable but I fell asleep early. She ate her breakfast happily at 7:30 (I only gave about half of her regular amount) and she slept for a few hours but at 12:30 she rose and vomited. Some partially chewed pieces of kibble and the browny-yellowish liquid. I offered her water but she didn't want any.

She chose to go outside to lie in the sun. She wants to spend most of the day there and if I didn't make her come in I doubt she would. She's always loved the outdoors but she used to love being with her people more. Back to the vet tomorrow so they can attempt to draw fluid from the joints, I hope there will be enough to give us an answer as to what is causing Cena's discomfort. I am going to request that bloodwork be taken and sent to the lab again.

Please, if you have any suggestions or insight into what might be going on with our dear Cena, I would love to know. It's breaking our hearts seeing her in pain.

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Today (10th September) Cena's vet took "CYTOLOGY FINE NEEDLE ASPIRATE" (lymph), "CBC/DIFF" as well as a sample for ANTINUCLEAR ANTIBODY' according to reciept. Cena has an ear infection as well, and was prescribed Panolog to be put in her ears twice a day for seven days.

Cena has not had vaccinations since she was three months old. I read too many articles about 'bad reactions' and decided to go without (plus they live a very sheltered life).

I will wait to hear from vet (said a couple days for results) and go from there.

Advice, comments welcome.

To me being the lay person who has minimal experience with anything like this IMO this sounds like an over medication issue or a possible reoccurance of cancer somewhere near the nervous system or kidneys. Maybe a combination of both. Hopefully the latest lymph test will give you answers on the cancer.

If it were me I'd cut out the fancy painkillers as they are likely what's causing the nausea and the swelling and switch to aspirin and normal elderly person glucosamine which both have very limited side effects. It's very likely the pain and medication are causing the temperment shift and nausea which is causing the dog to want to lay more and not move which doesn't help with the swelling and the cycle goes on. I would also try to help the dog with some hydrotherapy (pool exercise with no impact on joints) and a heat mat so long as your not in a place thats too warm already.

It seems to me this puzzle has gotten a little too complicated with medications. You need to know which came first, infection, joint pain (which could be releated to infection), medication to fix joint pain, swelled joints, personality change, nausea, and anti inflammitories, and in my mind breaking it down to square one with as few meds as possible is the way to do this. Do the course with the ear infection, try to keep her up and moving every few hours, give her some peace to rest between that. I'm not sure what kind of dog bed she has but for ailing large dogs we liked to use old crib mattresses at the rescue.

I'm sure Connie had some great advice and as I said I'm no expert. Best of luck with your girl. I hope she is better soon.

I also am just a lay person with no real experience. I'm sorry she is going through this.

What are you feeding her? If she isn't on RAW I would suggest switching her. The grains and ingredients in kibble can and do cause or aggravate a myriad of conditions. Including, cancer, arthritis, allergies, the list goes on.

It almost sounds like an autoimmune disease. Has she been heavily vaccinated? You might want to contact a good homeopath for more natural treatments, because as was mentioned, the perscription drugs can cause as many or more problems than they halp.

I'm not sure of all the symptoms, but has she been checked for tick borne diseases? Just a thought.

Goodluck.

Thanks very much for your input.

Cena was last vaccinated when she was a pup (three or four months old).

The joint pain and swelling was apparent before we started her on the medication. Sadly, I did try Aspirin for a few days thinking that she'd injured herself hopping around...the Aspirin didn't help at all and that's when we got the vet involved.

Cena has a fairly squishy large bed and I have 'borrowed' her sister's bed and stacked the two. (The other dog prefers the kitchen mat anyhow.) I plan on picking up a heating pad on our next trip to town, especially since winter is quickly approaching here and the floors stay cool even with the heat cranked.

Cena is on Acana Light & Fit kibble. Although it's kibble it seems to be, from what I have read in my research, one of the better ones. I did consider a raw diet but my concerns (probably a stupid one) are what will happen when we go on holidays (two weeks at a time) or if something happened to me (hospital stay or death)...who would be able to handle feeding the raw stuff? The more I read though I see that the food can be prepared and frozen so, at least for holidays, that would be an option. I still have some thinking/researching to do before making that leap though.

I will call vet right now and ask about the tick disease and a friend suggested that we should test for thyroid disorder too.

Wanted to add...

Yesterday when we left to the vet Cena was 95% fit as a fiddle. Active and moving smoothly, even attempted a hop into the truck before I had a chance to lift her in. Of course. She makes me look like one of those mothers who fake their kid's illness to get attention.

No vomiting, drank water and ate her breakfast happily (I only gave her 1/2 the normal amount). Complete difference from the day before when she vomited six times and would turn her nose up at her kibble. And the swelling from her legs and joints was gone yesterday...so the vet couldn't take a sample of the fluid. But did say that her skin was thicker than the visit six days before.

Today she's very cautiously using her hind right, doesn't want to put much pressure on it. I will ask vet if that is the one they tried to draw fluid from or if it's just the 'bothersome leg of the day'.

Has she been tested for Lyme disease?

Just spoke to vet (thank goodness she's so great about me calling so often...though I think they were all sitting around on a lunch break and she probably got the short straw and was forced to answer when they saw my number come up on the display, ha ha) and she said Lyme disease is very rare out here...we will test for it if the tests we sent out yesterday don't tell us anything but she suspects immune-mediated issue.

Hope the lab is speedy...I'm going nuts waiting to find out.

Where are you? I'm from Massachusetts, and Lyme is pretty common here. I have kind of a neat link that shows where the reported cases of ehrlichiosis, Lyme disease, heartworm disease and anaplasmosis are on a map of the US. I know it's a bit off topic, but it may be of some interest.

http://www.dogsandticks.com/US-map-lyme-disease-dogs/

Please let us know how your girl does.

Thanks Tracy, I will check out that link. We are in Alberta, Canada.

UPDATE:

Yesterday Cena's bloodwork and lymph sample came back alright. Waiting on ANA test.

Took Cena back to the vet today to attempt another joint tap. When I walked in the vet said "we aren't going to tap any of Cena's joints, the ANA test came back positive". She says it's lupus. I was told to discontinue the Metacam and Meloxicam immediately and at the end of the week we will start her on steroids.

I would be grateful for any information on the disease...I'm researching it on the internet right now but first-hand knowledge/your experiences would be even better.

(I imagine these drugs aren't going to be cheap...on the way home I decided to sell one of my two mares with her identically matched dun filly. Sad but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, right? My remaining mare might be lonely but maybe that will make her less of a witch, ha ha ha, if us humans are her only hope of companionship. I am waiting to hear from the mare's breeder/trainer to see if she wants to buy the pair back...if she doesn't she goes on the market.)