There is something wrong with Blomma

Bellasophia

Well-Known Member
Joined
13 May 2014
Messages
2,445
Location
Italy
Visit site
I'm pleased you have a diagnosis and now a plan. The good thing is it’s doable,not terminal.
I looked up the drugs for treatment..https://www.drugs.com/condition/diabetes-insipidus.html
lots of choices depending on the patient..
the minirin med .over here ( Italy) seems to be a reasonable price..which one is your dog going to take?
Some,of these meds are online pharmacies...which your vet could give you a long term prescription to order from them.

scroll down in link for price idea...
https://www.starbene.it/farmaci/minirin_ddavp-30cpr-subl120mcg_023892122
 

FinnishLapphund

There's no cow on the ice
Joined
28 June 2008
Messages
11,251
Location
w(b)est coast of Sweden
Visit site
I'm pleased you have a diagnosis and now a plan. The good thing is it’s doable,not terminal.
I looked up the drugs for treatment..https://www.drugs.com/condition/diabetes-insipidus.html
lots of choices depending on the patient..
the minirin med .over here ( Italy) seems to be a reasonable price..which one is your dog going to take?
Some,of these meds are online pharmacies...which your vet could give you a long term prescription to order from them.

scroll down in link for price idea...
https://www.starbene.it/farmaci/minirin_ddavp-30cpr-subl120mcg_023892122

Her medicine's name is Nocutil (active ingredient Desmopressinacetat). Thank you so much for taking the trouble of finding those links, but the price for her medicine turned out to be much lower than what I had prepared myself for. It was the equivalent of 14,33 Brittish pounds, or 15,73 Euro.

If she continues to need it 3 times per day, she'll need 2 packages per month, but if she's okay on a lower dose which my veterinarian thinks she might be after the initial start up, 1 package will last around 1 month, or perhaps even longer.

I was worried that it would cost something like around 53 British pounds/58 Euros. That would maybe eventually have made me try and find a cheaper option online, but with the current price, regardless if she needs one or two packages per month, I think the cost is acceptable.
 

Bellasophia

Well-Known Member
Joined
13 May 2014
Messages
2,445
Location
Italy
Visit site
Great update on those,prices..I had my last dog on so many meds..eutirox for her Low thyroid,medrol for the auto immune,Injectable ranitidine And flagyl for her colitis / sibo...and on and on..
human meds are much cheaper than dog meds over here and vet says in many cases are the same drugs.
Hope your girl improves on her new treatment..I bet you see a difference within a week on the meds.

( just looked up Nocutil..says it is the derivative of minirin....so,probably a bit cheaper too)
 
Last edited:

FinnishLapphund

There's no cow on the ice
Joined
28 June 2008
Messages
11,251
Location
w(b)est coast of Sweden
Visit site
Blomma have already responded to her medication! Which is great in one way, but now I'm worried it is working too well.

She's been drinking much less, and already this morning she seemed a bit hesitant about if she really needed to pee. Although I didn't take it with me on their daily long walk, her behaviour this morning have made me follow Blomma with an empty Chinese takeaway container, the other times today when I've just let them out in the garden. To unscientifically check how much urine that comes.

Yesterday morning she nearly flooded the container, and the other times she peed later that day, she peed so much you could see a large stream running away from where she had peed.
But today what I've collected in the container have been much less, one time it didn't even cover the whole bottom.

I'm worried that is too little for a normal Finnish Lapphund bitch, so I've came up with a plan! Some of the times when I let them out in the garden (tonight, tomorrow, Saturday, perhaps also Sunday), I will take them out separately, so I can compare how much Blomma pees, to how much Jonna, and Beata pees.

So, that is my exciting plans for the weekend, shoving takeaway containers in under Lapphund bottoms, to compare, and monitor, pee amounts. The things my bitches have to put up with.
 

cauda equina

Well-Known Member
Joined
2 February 2014
Messages
8,851
Visit site
Agree, that's brilliant news. Perhaps now it's just a matter of tinkering with the dose until you find the right balance
Do you have a pill cutter? It makes accurate division of pills so much easier
 

FinnishLapphund

There's no cow on the ice
Joined
28 June 2008
Messages
11,251
Location
w(b)est coast of Sweden
Visit site
Agree, that's brilliant news. Perhaps now it's just a matter of tinkering with the dose until you find the right balance
Do you have a pill cutter? It makes accurate division of pills so much easier

Don't have a pill cutter, but these pills is so easy to divide, I can do it with my fingers + nails.

Sadly there will be a whole lot of tinkering, because Blomma have already shown signs of overdosing. :(
She have barely touched the water bowl since we started the medication, so her water intake have basically been the water I put in her food bowl together with her food. And this morning she have thrown up twice. It wasn't a normal for example "I've eaten some grass and it needs to come up" type off throwing up, without different, if that makes sense.

Plus if I hadn't used the lead, and taken her with me off the garden path, I don't think she would have bothered with peeing this morning (I don't think the amount she peed was that much for a morning pee either).

Rang the veterinarian clinic, and her veterinarian phoned back as soon as she arrived at work. Blomma is to have no medication neither today, nor during the weekend, and we will talk about trying new doses on Monday. The veterinarian is worried that she maybe can't tolerate the medication at all, but I'm hoping that it is the dose that is too much.

After all, since I read the medicine leaflet, and saw that taking it together with food could inhibit the uptake, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I came up with a schedule where she got the medicine one or more hours before/after her 4 daily meals. So I'm hoping that it is a case of my schedule leading to her body taking up every ounce of the medicine, and that being a higher dose than what she needs.

Otherwise she's her usual happy self, and her appetite is the same as usual, so that's good. :)
Will monitor her, her drinking and peeing until Monday, and hopefully we'll be allowed to start trying to find a lower dose that suits her. With fingers crossed for that it isn't the medicine she can't tolerate.

ETA By the way, I'm very impressed by that you knew, or could guess, that it is Diabetes insipidus.
 

cauda equina

Well-Known Member
Joined
2 February 2014
Messages
8,851
Visit site
Thank you
I am crossing my fingers too; the emotional highs and lows of 'We've found a treatment' and 'It's not working as we'd hoped' are so hard to bear
Sending hugs and good luck xxx
 

FinnishLapphund

There's no cow on the ice
Joined
28 June 2008
Messages
11,251
Location
w(b)est coast of Sweden
Visit site
And it doesn't just rain... Found a mammary gland lump on Berta our 14 ½ years old Cornish Rex Wednesday evening, phoned veterinarian yesterday, and got an appointment this morning. Aggressive mammary gland cancer, a bit of heart murmur, and her kidneys aren't tip top any more = there is nothing to do.

But she is happy, behaves as normal, and according to the veterinarian, not currently in any pain. So the veterinarian (which Berta was leaning her body against, bopping her head against, purring, trying to get the veterinarian to pick her up to hold her in her arms for a proper cuddle, and would have happily stayed with to socialise some more) said that if Berta had been her cat, she would not do anything today, without take her home, and see how things goes.

The veterinarian said it can go faster, or it can take a month or more before we need to euthanise her. I think it will be faster. I'm certain the lump wasn't there between 2 and 3 weeks ago when I last trimmed her claws, so it has grown very fast, which I don't think is a good sign. But at least we get some time to spoil her with her favourite foods.

To be absolutely honest, the veterinarian said that even though it is not what she recommends, if we wanted to, they could do tests to see if it has spread, and if it hadn't (and her liver + kidney values aren't too bad) they could try and surgically remove all breasts, and mammary gland tissue, on the side the tumour is at.
But the heart murmur + not tip top kidneys decreases her chances of surviving such a large operation, and even if she did survive, she would only be likely to live up to 4-6 months.
The veterinarian didn't say anything about it, but I presume there is also a risk for that recovering from such a large operation might take more than the usual 7 to 10 days, considering her age, and the other things.

There is a tiny little part of me that would want to give it a try, because I so much want to get a chance of getting more time with her. But the rest of me is convinced that doing nothing is the only option.
It isn't what is best for Berta, to have to do tests to try and find out if the cancer have spread, and maybe go through a large operation, with the recovery period afterwards, when the veterinarian is certain that even if it worked out the best it could, she will still die within months.

:(

But to end with something positive, Blomma's kidneys is already starting to overproduce urine again. Might not sound so positive, but it is. Because according to the medicine leaflet, if the medicine works too well, as she showed signs of this morning, it can lead to water poisoning/too low sodium levels in the blood, not to mention cerebral edema!

But since her kidneys have already started to open their "taps" again, we at least shouldn't need to worry much about that over the weekend. By the way, I know her urine amount have increased because my unscientific study of Lapphund pee amounts is going well.

Although, Jonna stopped, and gave me a quick glance when I took her out some minutes ago, and I could have sworn she sighed when she saw that I was following her with the container, again.

Signed: Partly heartbroken, but at the same time trying to do what my pets are doing, live in the moment.
 

Bellasophia

Well-Known Member
Joined
13 May 2014
Messages
2,445
Location
Italy
Visit site
Oh dear..very sorry to read your news..you know we will be with you every step of the way.
I agree with your vet for your elderly cat,the mammary strip would be huge for her ,I think you are right to not be aggressive in her treatments.
Good news for your dog,I hope this continues. Stay strong.
 

FinnishLapphund

There's no cow on the ice
Joined
28 June 2008
Messages
11,251
Location
w(b)est coast of Sweden
Visit site
Oh dear..very sorry to read your news..you know we will be with you every step of the way.
I agree with your vet for your elderly cat,the mammary strip would be huge for her ,I think you are right to not be aggressive in her treatments.
Good news for your dog,I hope this continues. Stay strong.

Thank you. It wouldn't change my decision if people disagreed, but it is very nice to hear that someone does agree.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TPO

{97702}

...
Joined
9 July 2012
Messages
14,849
Visit site
FL I’m so sorry to read about Berta ? I would do exactly the same in your position I have to say, it is heartbreaking but I always keep the best interests of my pet at heart and I know you will do the same.

It sounds like Blomma has picked up well after trying to scare you, I hope you manage to stabilise things with her soon x
 

JennBags

HHOSS Wonder Woman
Joined
21 May 2002
Messages
18,177
Location
West Sussex
Visit site
What a rollercoaster of emotions you're having to go through at the moment, sorry to hear about your cat. Glad Blomma is looking better, let's hope it's not an intolerance to the medication and you can get the right dosage for her.
 

chaps89

Well-Known Member
Joined
8 July 2009
Messages
8,518
Location
Surrey
Visit site
I'm so sorry about Berta. It sounds like letting her have a dignified end and lots of love and cuddles is the way forwards but it is of course your decision as to whether you want to operate.
I'm glad Blomma doesn't seem to have any lasting damage from the medication, hopefully you can find the right balance.
Hope you have a nice weekend, which isn't too taken up with following your dogs around with a Chinese takeaway container!
 

FinnishLapphund

There's no cow on the ice
Joined
28 June 2008
Messages
11,251
Location
w(b)est coast of Sweden
Visit site
Thank you so much for everyone's replies, they're very comforting. <3
a020.gif


...
Hope you have a nice weekend, which isn't too taken up with following your dogs around with a Chinese takeaway container!

I first thought I could always claim that my continued obsession with Lapphund pee amounts is a distraction from Berta, but to be honest, I would have been the same even if she hadn't gotten cancer. Sometimes I've wondered if the staff at my veterinarian clinic thinks I'm their craziest client, and that was before this latest idea, the pee studying started.

I find it oddly fascinating, this is from yesterday afternoon, with about 2 hours between:

50332307043_f30d2ba570.jpg


50333155287_8afe9fdd51.jpg
 

splashgirl45

Lurcher lover
Joined
6 March 2010
Messages
15,044
Location
suffolk
Visit site
glad you have a diagnosis for blomma and it could be controlled once the medication level is right. hope you are keeping those containers separate from your human meal ones :D:D

you are doing the same as i would with berta, just spoil her loads for the time she has left..... fingers crossed for her..
 

Aru

Well-Known Member
Joined
2 December 2008
Messages
2,353
Visit site
What a roller coaster of a thread. It sounds like you have had a stressful time of it recently.

Another one echoing the I wouldn't put a geriatric cat through surgery. unlike dogs cats and tumours are very rarely good news with a good prognosis :(

Loving the per lappie urine measuring. Handy way to check what's normal!
It may take some tinkering to get a dose right for your girl.
D. inspidus is quite rare! Well caught. I'd have been more suspicious for addisons and cushings as well!

Hope your girl continues to improve :)
 
Top