My poor rescue boy Toby has had more than his fair share of bad luck

[blacklabs]

Why is it that some poor dogs have more than their fair share of bad luck in life. I am so upset and feel so bad for my 7 year old (8 in Dec) rescue boy Toby, who after all he has been through is now facing a serious health issue that will probably claim his life .

As his story was lost in the system crash last year, in summary, I adopted him from a local Lab Rescue approx 18 months ago and he came to me with behavioural issues (anxiety and leash reactiveness) and allergy issues. He had been bounced around a few homes prior to being surrendered to the Lab rescue group as his owners tried to unsuccessfully rehome him themselves a couple of times after their marriage breakdown. Despite all he had been through he was such a darling boy, beautifully natured and got on fabulously from day one with my Lab boy Tana, who is close to 2 yrs younger than Toby. He had been raised in the country as an outside dog and largely ignored, but very quickly adjusted to being an inside/outside pampered pooch and was toilet trained within a couple of weeks and loved being allowed to sleep inside and come and go inside/outside as he pleased. I just let him settle in without any pressure or expectations on him and over time he went from being a very clingy, insecure follow me everywhere, glued to my hip dog to a chilled out, more confident and secure dog who didn't have to follow me everywhere and be in the same room as me all the time. I also worked hard on his leash reactivity during walks and made huge progress with him and whilst he was initially reactive with both dogs and some people whilst on leash, he was great with dogs and people at the off leash dog park I took him and Tana to on a regular basis and loves playing with any dog visitors to my house, in particular, he loves my friend's Lab that I look after on a regular basis. In addition to working on his behavioural issues, I also addressed his allergy issues with changes to diet, treatment by my Vet and also treatment and monitoring by a Specialist Veterinary Dermatologist and everything was going so well for him.

Then he ruptured his cruciate ligament and tore his meniscus, so underwent TPLO surgery at end of January and just as he had fully recovered from his TPLO surgery, he has now been diagnosed with Histiocytic Disease and is currently undergoing chemo treatment for it. The last few months have been very challenging as he has had multiple consultations with the Specialist Dermatologist, Specialist Oncologist and Medicine Specialists at the Small Animal Specialist Hospital here in Sydney due to various symptoms he has had. He underwent a skin biopsy with multiple tests done on that biopsy as well as other tests for a variety of conditions (e.g. Addison's Disease). The first test on the skin biopsy for Epitheliotropic Lymphoma, came back with a negative result but the next lot of tests (stains) came back with a positive result for Histiocytic Disease and all the other tests came back with negative results.

This all came about when back in June he developed a progressively worsening itch and given his allergy history, I thought he may need to have his diet tweaked again which I did for a few weeks, but the itching didn't resolve itself and his chronic ear infections started again, so I took him to my Vet. He was given a Cortisone injection to give him immediate relief from the itching and Prednisolone tablets to take for the next 4 days and thereafter every 2nd or 3rd day depending on the itchiness. He got immediate relief from the injection and the 4 days of Prednisolone, but when I reduced to every 2nd day he started getting itchy again but not as bad as before so I persevered for just over a week of every 2nd day and then reduced to every 3rd day for another week and the itchiness returned to what it had been prior to the Cortisone injection and his skin was beginning to flake quite badly. Also his poo was changing to soft serve consistency and a lot of it so I stopped giving him the Prednisolone tablets & put him on steamed rice and boiled chicken but this didn't help and his energy levels had changed and he was seeming depressed. He was also starting to lose some hair around his eyebrows and neck.

I then made an appointment with the Specialist Dermatologist who treated his allergies and chronic ear infection last year and she was concerned with his condition after checking him over and wanted to do bloodtests and cytology on the gunk in his ears & whilst getting this organised, she popped in to have a chat with the Specialist Oncologist about Toby and asked her to check him over. He was then booked in for a skin biopsy the next day as they wanted to check for a couple of different conditions, the first one being Epitheliotropic Lymphoma and the test results a few days later came back negative for this condition. More tests (stains) were then done on the biopsy and a few days later the test results came back positive for Histiocytic Disease. A couple of days later he had an Oncology appointment where Thoracic Xrays and Abdominal Ultrasound were done to check if the Histiocytosis was systemic (i.e. infiltrated any major organs like lungs, spleen, liver etc) and I had a discussion with the Specialist Oncologist on the diagnosis and treatment options. Whilst there wasn't any evidence in the Xrays, Ultrasound or Bloodtests that the Histiocytosis was systemic, the Oncologist believes it has infiltrated his abdomen causing the soft serve poo he has been having since July and the 2 lots of Antibiotics he was put on by the Dermatologist, one lot to help with his stomach issues (soft serve poo) and the other for bacterial infection and the change in his diet to chicken and rice have done nothing to alleviate the soft serve poo issue. In addition, all the other tests for the various conditions which may be causing the soft serve poo all came back negative. The only way to definitively ascertain if the Histiocytosis has infiltrated his abdomen is do an endoscopy which at this stage, I am not willing to put him through as he has already endured enough over these last few months. Also The next couple of weeks will be telling as he is no longer taking antibiotics (they finished on Thurs) and the last chemo tablets were on Tuesday and he is only being fed boiled chicken and rice, so theoretically there shouldn't be any medication or food in in his system to cause any stomach upset, so if he continues to have soft serve poor or diarrhoea, then it probably will prove beyond reasonable doubt the Histiocytosis has infiltrated his abdomen which the Oncologist believes is the case anyway.

His chemo treatment thus far has been an injection of L-asparginase and I then had to give him Chemo tablets at home on two consecutive days, 4 days after his L-asparginase injection and he did have diarrhoea following and decrease in appetite following his chemo treatments, but his appetite did return to normal after a couple of days. Oncologist wants me to keep him on the chicken and rice due to his ongoing stomach issues until his next visit but to increase amount because of his ongoing weight loss. On Friday he had another CBC (Complete Blood Count) done by Oncology as well as given a Vitamin B injection as his vitamin B is low and he has lost another 1.5 kg in a week since his last appointment. His next visit with Oncologist is on 6 Oct for another checkup and discussion on his condition and his response to the treatment thus far and ongoing treatment options, so will have more of an idea on his prognosis after this appointment. If his condition deteriorates before this appointment, then I will move it forward and determine if I need to make the hardest of decisions .

Histiocytic Disease is an uncommon disease and I have been advised it is a notoriously tricky disease to treat whether it is the benign version or systemic (infiltrated organs) version. I have attached some links below with info/explanations on this disease. I had never heard of this disease prior to Toby's diagnosis . Please keep my boy in your thoughts as he battles this latest health challenge.

https://www.histiocytosis.ucdavis.edu/
Canine histiocytic diseases - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[SunDance]

Gosh, I'm so sorry to hear this. I'd never heard of the disease...plain old histiocytomas, yes, but not this.

Sending all good thoughts that Toby will rally and be given a good pronouncement on Oct. 6. What a beautiful boy...you and he sure don't need to be dealing with something like this.

[Murphy030813]

Hugs to you and Toby, crossing paws for a good outcome...

[Halcyon]

Oh no. Poor boy. I've never heard of this either. Sending good thoughts your way. Fingers and paws crossed for Toby.

[Snowshoe]

Boy, that's a scary thing, I read the link too. Poor Toby, it's just not fair. Sending good thoughts and wishes, hope they work miracles for you.

[Sandra]

I'm so sorry to hear this. Sending good thoughts your way.

[lovemylabby]

I am so very sorry to hear about your dear, sweet Toby.

Sending lots of prayers and good wishes for him.

No dog deserves this...

[Annette47]

Poor Toby - sending him good thoughts.

In some ways you are right, he has had some very bad luck, but in one way he is one of the luckiest dogs around - he found you to help him and be on his side.

[Maxx&Emma]

How awful, poor baby. Sending good thoughts and prayers for Toby.

[POPTOP]

So, so sorry for Toby and you. His life until coming to you certainly was not an easy one. Even with his illness, he was so lucky to join your family.

Sending tons of mojo and prayers.

Hugs to you.