jiminct
08-23-2018, 10:00 PM
Hi, all -
Sorry if this turns into a novel. Our 11.5 year old Chocolate Lab Bella was just diagnosed with a pituitary macroadenoma. Bella has always been in pretty good health, but a couple of months ago we noticed her trembling or quivering when she was laying down and we were petting her. She didn't seem to be in any kind of pain or distress, but the quivering started getting more frequent so we took her to our regular vet. He checked her out and ran blood work and said everything looked fine. We took her to a neurologist who examined her - he told us she had some neck and back pain and it was possibly arthritic. We went to an orthopedist who recommended some crate rest and put her on several painkillers. She was originally on Gabapentin and Tramadol, they then stopped the Tramadol (we were a little concerned after reading some articles raising doubts over its effectiveness and mentioning the addiction/withdrawal potential). They started her on Rimadyl.
Bella seemed to show some signs of improvement (moving around better, tail wagging more, head held higher) but at the same time she was increasingly dysphoric. She would whine and cry all night, trying to get comfortable and unable to do so. She would aggressively try and "nest" -- kicking pillows and blankets across the room. She would run to her toy box and grab a toy (something we thought was a good sign, as she hadn't shown much interest in toys during this whole saga) but it was like she didn't know what to do with it. She would take one toy, then another, then another. At one point she emptied her entire (substantial) toy box and the toys were spread all across the floor. She also seemed a bit wobbly on her feet and confused at times. We attributed all of this "weirdness" to the drugs.
We called the orthopedist back on Tuesday and told him about the reactions to the drugs. He said she shouldn't still be in any pain with those medications and referred us back to the neurologist. We took her there and after we described her behavioral changes he decided to run an MRI. (It was really the picture of the ransacked toy box that sealed the deal for him -- that screamed "behavioral change" to him and he wanted to look at her brain). We got the call back after the MRI that he had found a large (~1.5cm) tumor on her pituitary gland.
We don't think it is a functional tumor so far -- she hasn't displayed any symptoms of Cushings, but the doctors have advised that we don't know for sure. At least we now know why she's been so off lately - the tumor is pressing into the rest of the brain and causing these issues.
We just brought her home tonight. They immediately stopped the Rimadyl and will start her on Prednisone on the 26th after the Rimadyl has cleared her system. We are starting radiation therapy on the tumor next week. They also did an abdominal ultrasound and chest x-ray today to make sure her adrenal glands looked ok, so far so good on those results.
The hardest part is having her still so uncomfortable while we wait for the OK to start the Prednisone. I feel so helpless right now, there's nothing we can do for her at the moment. This was my worst nightmare... the neurologist said it's probably the best kind of bad news we could get since these tumors usually respond well to radiation, but this has still just wrecked our world.
Just wanted to share and vent a bit - I hope that's ok here since she hasn't been diagnosed with Cushing's (yet), although the pituitary tumor is something I'm sure many of you are familiar with.
If anyone has any advice or similar experiences I'd love to hear from you. Until then we'll be trying to keep Bella as comfortable as possible until her treatments can begin. We might take the doc up on his offer to prescribe her some tranquilizers so she can at least rest a bit in the meantime. We're keeping her mostly in her crate because she seems to relax more easily in there.
Fingers crossed...I'll keep you updated.
Sorry if this turns into a novel. Our 11.5 year old Chocolate Lab Bella was just diagnosed with a pituitary macroadenoma. Bella has always been in pretty good health, but a couple of months ago we noticed her trembling or quivering when she was laying down and we were petting her. She didn't seem to be in any kind of pain or distress, but the quivering started getting more frequent so we took her to our regular vet. He checked her out and ran blood work and said everything looked fine. We took her to a neurologist who examined her - he told us she had some neck and back pain and it was possibly arthritic. We went to an orthopedist who recommended some crate rest and put her on several painkillers. She was originally on Gabapentin and Tramadol, they then stopped the Tramadol (we were a little concerned after reading some articles raising doubts over its effectiveness and mentioning the addiction/withdrawal potential). They started her on Rimadyl.
Bella seemed to show some signs of improvement (moving around better, tail wagging more, head held higher) but at the same time she was increasingly dysphoric. She would whine and cry all night, trying to get comfortable and unable to do so. She would aggressively try and "nest" -- kicking pillows and blankets across the room. She would run to her toy box and grab a toy (something we thought was a good sign, as she hadn't shown much interest in toys during this whole saga) but it was like she didn't know what to do with it. She would take one toy, then another, then another. At one point she emptied her entire (substantial) toy box and the toys were spread all across the floor. She also seemed a bit wobbly on her feet and confused at times. We attributed all of this "weirdness" to the drugs.
We called the orthopedist back on Tuesday and told him about the reactions to the drugs. He said she shouldn't still be in any pain with those medications and referred us back to the neurologist. We took her there and after we described her behavioral changes he decided to run an MRI. (It was really the picture of the ransacked toy box that sealed the deal for him -- that screamed "behavioral change" to him and he wanted to look at her brain). We got the call back after the MRI that he had found a large (~1.5cm) tumor on her pituitary gland.
We don't think it is a functional tumor so far -- she hasn't displayed any symptoms of Cushings, but the doctors have advised that we don't know for sure. At least we now know why she's been so off lately - the tumor is pressing into the rest of the brain and causing these issues.
We just brought her home tonight. They immediately stopped the Rimadyl and will start her on Prednisone on the 26th after the Rimadyl has cleared her system. We are starting radiation therapy on the tumor next week. They also did an abdominal ultrasound and chest x-ray today to make sure her adrenal glands looked ok, so far so good on those results.
The hardest part is having her still so uncomfortable while we wait for the OK to start the Prednisone. I feel so helpless right now, there's nothing we can do for her at the moment. This was my worst nightmare... the neurologist said it's probably the best kind of bad news we could get since these tumors usually respond well to radiation, but this has still just wrecked our world.
Just wanted to share and vent a bit - I hope that's ok here since she hasn't been diagnosed with Cushing's (yet), although the pituitary tumor is something I'm sure many of you are familiar with.
If anyone has any advice or similar experiences I'd love to hear from you. Until then we'll be trying to keep Bella as comfortable as possible until her treatments can begin. We might take the doc up on his offer to prescribe her some tranquilizers so she can at least rest a bit in the meantime. We're keeping her mostly in her crate because she seems to relax more easily in there.
Fingers crossed...I'll keep you updated.