Well, not too much news, but I did go visit my boy... I think it was way harder on me than it was on him. He actually looked surprisingly good - better than when I left him on monday morning. The vet actually said she was so excited to see him so alert this morning thinking that the new antibiotics were working, alas, it's not so. Temp won't go down and stay down, and new bloodwork actually looks a bit more "off" than earlier, in confusing ways, so they're really stumped. His WBC count actually DROPPED, from low to lower...

I did get to see the x-rays... scary. There's a mass about the size of a deck of cards filling the bottom lobe of one lung. So many things could be going on, they just won't know until they aspirate it, and probably follow that with the bronchoscopy. I will hear back this evening - HOPEFULLY there will be at least a shred of an indication of what's going on in there, and not another big question mark. I feel so sick about this. Sorry I don't have anything better to report...

~Natalya

Oh Natalya...so sorry to hear that Oscar still isn't feeling well. Our prayers are with both of you.

Natalya, I've been following this thread. So sorry you're going through this. It IS so hard, especially the waiting.

We all enjoy Oscar. We voted for him. We're pulling for him.!

Sometimes the WBC will drop, and then all of a sudden will rise, high, and be all young cells, new recruits so to speak, as he begins to win.
I suspect they are trying to get him as strong as they can so that he can have his best shot with anaesthesia/procedures.
Angell Memorial would not give you false hope, they have plenty of sick dogs to
treat.

Oh, Natalya...so sorry to hear that Oscar is still not feeling better. Continuing to send healing thoughts & prayers.

I understand how stressful this is....but PLEASE take care of yourself.

Hanging on your every word Natalya... and hitting the refresh all day long... When the good news happens, I wanna know right away!

Natalya my heart goes out to you. At a stressful time like this, as Anne said, Please take care of yourself. Or better yet, let people who care help you to take care, be good to yourself.

We are with you Natalya, all of us here, we are with you.
((((((((((Big Hugs))))))))))) to you from everyone!!!

Thank you for taking the time to post. I would imagine that even typing the words was painful.

Healing thoughts are coming from Florida.

 Quote: betty waldron

Thank you for taking the time to post. I would imagine that even typing the words was painful.

You have no idea, Betty - I'm completely spent! It's a good thing I work for myself and am having a slow week so that I can take time off for this... I have been completely useless the last 4 days... But to everyone who has posted - please know how much I GREATLY appreciate your thoughts, it is absolutely a comfort.

And now for the latest:
GOOD NEWS: the aspiration revealed NO obvious cancer cells. That made my night, however, the doc did say that there were some cells present that technically, at some absolutely miniscule percentage, could in some situations indicate lymphoma... though it would be so unlikely she'd be stunned if that were the case here... so, I'm gonna ride this little high unless she tells me different (they will take a look at the cells under a microscope to be sure).

WEIRD NEWS (Oscar's trademark): the bronchoscopy revealed... wait for it... A PERFECT LUNG! No tumor, no abscess, no weird fluid - NOTHING. WTF!! Actually, what it means is that whatever is showing up as a mass on the x-rays is inflammation in the lung tissue/alveoli itself. Fungal infection would be rare in this geographic area, but some of the results of the aspirate do still line up with reaction to a foreign body. They are culturing samples.

SO, after a half dozen diagnostic tests, once again there were 6 of the most highly trained veterinary specialists in all of the Northeast looking at my dog and STILL scratching their heads. Our amazing vet said today, "Oh he just didn't read the book is all" (referring to his keen ability to not conform to typical medical scenarios). It's funny now, it wasn't so funny when I was half expecting them to find a malignant tumor in his chest....

The plan now is to change up the antibiotics again to maybe hit a bacterial spectrum that's very good at hiding, even from all the great tools we've already used up. If it's a foreign body, we may never find it because it's clearly not surrounded by a ball of puss and inflammation in the lung - maybe, like a foxtail (which we don't have many of in these parts) it's dug itself right through the lung and will pop up causing problems somewhere else... or maybe it's something completely different. As long as we can get the fever to stay down with some magic combination of antibiotics, we can keep doing regular radiographs to see if the lung tissue changes. If we CAN'T get the fever down... then I think the vet suggests trying to remove the affected lung lobe. That would suck.

Even though I still feel like we're in a veterinary twilight zone, it would seem to me that we got some at least minimally pleasing results from today's tests. I'll take that over the alternative.

More in the morning...
~Natalya

*BTW, Oscar sends you all kisses.

One of our vets tells me "Thats why they call it Practicing medicine". Get well Oscar.