Help - serious brain disease??

[jannas]

My dogs are like my children, I have 3. A 12 yr old pit bull, 7 yr old pit bull, and our newest addition - a 6 month old Akita/Mastiff mix named Bandit. She was Daddy's Christmas present to our almost 4 year old daughter and very quickly has become one of us.
I will try to keep it brief, I could write a book at this point... about a month ago (a very long month), she started having seizures. We did start her on KBR and she has been seizure free for 3 weeks now. That's the only good news I have though.
Slowly, over the past month, she began having trouble walking and has deteriorated like you wouldn't believe. We didn't really have the money for all the tests, all blood work and initial testing results were "impeccable". But she kept getting worse. Finally, after the 3rd hospitalization, I took out a 401K loan to be able to have the MRI and spinal tap done. Amazingly, we still do not have a 100% diagnosis, but the Veterinarian is almost certain she has GME (brain disease) or possibly Lymphoma with no obvious signs outside of the elevated whatever it is in her spinal fluid. We have her on steroids, KBR, and a chemo drug called Procarbazine.
She, at one point before starting the Procarbazine couldn't walk at all, was totally blind, etc. She stopped eating and drinking. Last Thurs, we had her follow up appt with her Neurologist, he is not optomistic anymore. I still am. I have devoted myself to her care - day and night. I now have her eating and drinking again (not easy, but she does it!!), her vision is coming back, at least on the right side and she can walk on her own, just prefers to hug the wall or stick her head in a corner. Feeding her is rough, she only recognizes the food in one spot and is only eating wet food, I have to lay her down and put the bowl or plate on her hind leg, she immediately smells it, but will only eat if she twists herself all the way to the right. Her aim is off and occasionally she bites at it. It's taking me about an hour each session between the eating, meds, taking outside (carrying, she can't do stairs), etc. I did get an elevated food and wate bowl thing so she could stand, she will drink if I help her a little, but all she does if I put food in it is try to bite the side of the metal bowl.
Has anyone gone through this? It is hard to find info and what I do find is awful. I'm not ready to give up and can't help but think there must be some sort of rehab out there, or maybe a second opinion? Every day she seems to progress in some small way and I just can't give up as long as she shows me hope.
Any ideas, experiences, etc. would be so greatly appreciated. I feel like I'm losing my mind and have no where to turn.

[cichlidfreak]

I have never been through that but I feel for you, I know thats not what you need to hear but that is all I can offer. I know it is hard to think of it (esspecially after the loan...) But I personally feel the humane thing to do (if she does not get better soon) is unfortunatly put her down
I HATE saying that but it sounds like she could be in a lot of pain and discomfort.
Of course if this is not at all an option for you, maybe ask the Veterinarian for something to make her a tad more comfy while she IS around.
Again I am so sorry to say this and I am even more sorry to hear about your poor dog

[muckgal]

I am so sad after reading this. I feel so sorry that she is suffering like that and that you and your family are having to watch her go through this. I know it is heartbreaking. Maybe she is getting better and will continue. You have already put a lot of time and money into her situation and as long as you are willing to keep it up and she is showing signs of improvement then continue on but if she starts degressing, then putting her to sleep would probably be best. Good luck and God bless.

[Tucker'sMom]

I wish I could help, but I can't. The only thing I can say is I know how helpless it can feel to watch a pet's health go down hill drastically. I am hoping for the best for your family.

[jannas]

Thank you for your responses and sympathy for us! I wanted to share the latest on Bandit. I did take her for a second opinion, I am lucky to live in the Boston area and it was a toss up between Tufts and Angell Memorial. I picked Angell and absolutely love her new nuerologist! The battle continues though, her new Dr. is not certain that she has the brain infection the first Dr. was pretty sure she had. Mostly becuase of her age, but also her breed. She is still a handful to take care of, but is still showing slow improvement so we are sticking it out. The new Dr. will not rule out lymphoma and infectious disease that we might not have found yet. I have learned there is a different way to test spinal fluid and we are actively fighting with the first lab to transfer her spinal slides to a lab in Colorodo that would allow us to rule out cancer. We also took her off one of her anitbiotics a week ago and she is still doing ok. We can't really touch any of the other meds though because we have no idea what's working - she's on so many and we picked the least likely to cause harm first.

She's trotting in the yard now and even broke in to a full run a few nights ago. She's much more alert and now spends time with us instead of sticking her head in the corner - she still does the corner thing, but breaks to come over and see us and even tries her best to get on the couch or bed. Feeding her is still very manual, she knows when there's food in the room, she just can't figure out how to get at it. She circles the food and water bowls but I'm still having to lay her down to give her food and water from the right side. We still don't know how this will all turn out, we're taking it with her day by day. Not knowing what is wrong is so difficult, and we can't tell what is or isn't permanent yet - I'm happy as long as she continues to show small improvement though. The hardest parts now are feeding and exercise to help us all sleep at night. I'm back at work now so she's crated (for her safety) during the day. She seems to be doing just fine with it, but I've found that it's very hard to get all the energy out of her with the few hours I have at night. She doesn't walk on a leash, it's more I have to put my hand under he chin and guide her so walks are a strain on me.

Her size is getting to be a problem, I'm tiny and she's gaining weight like you wouldn't believe. She has no idea how big she is (46 lbs yesterday) and gets stuck in every piece of furniture it seems so I have to watch her like a hawk. Carrying her when I have to is getting tough, which I have to do daily to get her to the yard + upstairs at night (oh, and back down, but I can sometimes "help" her and she does ok).

This has certainly been life changing for all of us and I'm so glad that I haven't yet been faced with the awful decision that I do never want to have to make.

Thank you again for your sympathy and support - we are still open to any suggestions or advice for care, feeding, exercise, etc. She certainly has a disability now to say the least and I find that I am running out of ideas for play.