Phew! (well, sort of)

Let's call today 'Adventures at the Veterinary Specialists!'

After my morning swim I came back home and called the vet internist who had been treating his cushings to get in. Luckily someone had just cancelled their 10:15am appointment. No time for me to drive 30 minutes down south to work and turn around and head back so I just took the morning off. Got some dishes and some ironing done and somehow managed to lift Mars into the car. The first visit took about an hour. Dr. C looked at Mars, checked his alertness, his joints, etc, and ran a quick test to check his electrolyte level. She also did a 'resting cortisol' test. The electrolytes were good so that means one hormone (can't remember which) is fine, and the cortisol results will be back later this week. Her thinking about his loss of appetite is that his cortisol levels are still low from the lysodren treatment and now his body is responding. Ok, so we'll get him on a low dose of prednisone to see if that bumps his appetite. But she also noticed he was in a lot of back pain and has join stiffness so she recommended a consultation with the pain management guy next door for a consult and possible accupuncture treatment. wow.

Needing (not necessarily wanting) to get back to work for the afternoon, I left Mars with them and they brought him over (down the hall) to the pain guy.

A few x-rays and a laser pain treatment later the diagnosis is....
1) hip displaysia (boo!) But Mars gets applause for letting them get the x-rays without sedation!
2) good elbows joints (yay!!!)
3) definite back pain
4) possible slight tear in some ligaments in his right knee
5) possible neurological problem (would be a disc issue)

So I have a handful of drugs to give him now to get the pain under control and a recommendation that we get a consultation with the orthopedic guy.

First things first - make sure the Cushings is under control and he gets his appetite back while starting him on some pain meds. Then we'll see about the orthopedic consultation. (I hear they now even scope dog knees to see if surgery is really needed.)

So, phew! that it looks managable for now, though not easy on the wallet. Time to feed him and see about all those silly pills!