Information about Nora

As some of you know, we've been having some problems with Nora. She's been acting aggressively towards Nelson and me, but never towards Emily. We've been trying to figure out what to do about her and what we can do to correct the problem. We took her to Dr. Wade, our vet, and had him check her out. He said that some dogs develop epilepsy at this age (she's 3.5 yrs old) and that we should try giving her some daily B6 wth her food, and this might help. (She has had some times in the past where she might have had a seizure -- but nothing consistent that stood out in our memory.) We've been trying the B6 for about 2-3 weeks and we haven't seen any changes in her behavior. So, we took her in on Monday to get some blood drawn and tests done.

Well, I just got off the phone with Dr. Wade. Nora's blood work from Monday came back and it doesn't look good. Dr. Wade said that it doesn't look like Nora has epilepsy (which was a good thing) but she does have some very elevated levels that are concerning in her kidneys, liver and pancreas (bilirubin, protein, magnesium, cholesterol, amulese, etc.). He thinks that this could be caused by two different things: Portal-Systemic Shunts or a Liver-Shut-Down Problem. If it's the Shunts, it's a congenital problem where the food's nutrients go straight to the blood instead of the liver. To determine if this is the problem, we would need to do much more blood work and tests and he did warn me that they are very expensive. If this is the problem, we might have to put her down. If her liver is shutting down, there are a few things we might be able to do. He said we can put her on a Senior Diet (the food is more easily digestible) and supplement her food with children's Flinstone's vitamins (full of B6). If she starts to improve with this new diet, he wants us to repeat the blood work in 3-4 months. If her aggressive behavior doesn't improve or worsens, he recommends that we put her down.

So, overall, not good news but hopefully this new diet will be able to help her. Only time will tell. Obviously I'm feeling pretty down today but am hoping that this diet change will do the trick! No matter how much we gripe and complain about her, Nora is my baby and I can't quite imagine her not being with us!

We'll keep you posted . . .