| Sissy's Story The Bullmastiff |
| Sissy Elizabeth Houde |
| Email: |
| I wanted to get Sissy's story out so it might help other dogs. Sissy was a bullmastiff that was loved and cherished. We got Sissy when she was five months old. She was actually born on 06/24/1999. I drove from Montgomery, Alabama to Tuscaloosa, Alabama and brought her from a breeder. I fell in love with her the first day. Within the second month of having her she developed red mange or demodectic mange (only localized-means located in one spot). I called the breeder immediately to let her know. The breeder offered to take Sissy back, but I refused because I loved her so much. Of course, I had her treated. The vet told me red mange came from hereditary factors. Poor Sissy also had the type of ovaries where she had more than one heat every 6 months (forgot the medical name for this). By the time she turned one year she had already had two heats. I decided to have her spaded because that would stop the heats, and it might also stop the mange from coming back. It did stop the mange from coming back because she never had it again. After that she was doing great. She would have bacteria infections here and there, but she was always happy. I almost thought about getting doggy insurance but decided against it (boy was that a mistake). In June 2002, she was diagnosis with having arthritis. She was somewhat overweight (she weighed about 115). It was also found that her thyroid levels were borderline so my vet put her on soloxine to help her. Yes, she had a thyroid problem, which is common in bullmastiffs. It was hard because I felt that she didn?t deserve to have arthritis at such an early age. She was only three years old. I put her on Rimadyl and it seemed to work. I researched the internet on the drug and got scared so I only put her on Rimadyl when she seemed to need it. On August 12, 2002, my boyfriend and I were awoken up to Sissy shaking and foaming at the mouth. I called the emergency vet and even though they said the seizure would be over by the time we got her there, we still took her. I will let you know the first time seeing your dog have a seizure is very scary. My boyfriend and I did not handle the situation correctly. He tried to pick her up but she was thrashing so much he dropped her, and she almost bit him because his hand got near her mouth. Remember that when a dog is having a seizure they cannot help what they do. The seizure ended before we even left the house. When we got to the emergency vet they examined her and they did not think it was the Rimadyl and said it might have been a one time event. They also mentioned it could be a brain tumor but it was virtually impossible because of her age and told me not to worry about that. I still took her off the Rimadyl just in case. I took her to my vet and he decided to put her on phenobarbital just in case and thought it could be idiopathic epilepsy. I wanted to take her to Auburn Hospital (one of the best vet schools/hospitals) but my vet told me to wait and see it the phenobarbital worked. About two weeks later, she had another seizure. We increased her medicine to see it would help. About another two weeks passed and she had a cluster of seizures, about four to be exact. My vet made an appointment with Auburn for me. When I went to Auburn, Alabama, they ran some blood tests and titers and decided it was idiopathic epilepsy. All the results to the tests came back normal. I wanted to do an MRI but they thought she did not fit the profile of having a tumor because of her age (I learned to always go with your intuition). I also called the breeder to let her know what was happening with Sissy having arthritis and epilepsy. I called her because I wanted her to know in case it ever came up in the future. I was not able to call her again to let her know about the tumors. Two weeks after her last cluster she had another cluster of seizures. Auburn put her on potassium bromide combined with the phenobarbital to see if it would help. I decided to take her to Auburn again and insist on an MRI. They finally did an MRI like I asked and they did see something. At the time they thought it might be on both sides of the brain so they ran a spinal tap for all infections. Nothing was found in the spinal tap and I was able to take Sissy home. Two weeks later she had a bad cluster of seizures and I freaked out and cried my heart out (16 in one day). I took her into Auburn the next day and the neurologist had decided that there was a tumor in the brain and only on one side. They had identified the tumor as oligodendroglioma (tumor made up of supporting brain cells). They did surgery that same day. She pulled through the surgery and my boyfriend and I went to visit her to see how she was doing. She stayed there about four days after the surgery to make sure there was no swelling. They did another MRI after the surgery and saw that they only got ½ of the tumor out. Radiation was scheduled to begin two weeks after she got to come home. When radiation started, I traveled back and forth between Auburn and Montgomery (about 124 miles-twice a day) three times a week. Sissy was having balancing problems, but she was doing great. We figured her balancing problems was due to the radiation treatment. After radiation was complete, it seemed like Sissy had a new life and she had no more balancing problems. She became her old self again. She was my baby girl. About several months later, she did develop incontinence (peeing lying down without realizing it). I truly believe it was from all the medication she was on. In April 2003, I took her back to get another MRI for recheck. There was no sign of the tumor whatsoever. The neurologist wrote it off as being gone! I was so excited but I had also decided I did not want to put her underneath again because she had a real difficult time waking up on this MRI. It took her longer to wake up with this one then when she was put underneath for surgery. They also thought she was trying to have a seizure but they decided it was just difficult for her to wake up. One thing I must say is she never had a seizure again after the brain surgery. Exactly a month later after the MRI, she got whipworms (I had her on the heartworm shot which does not protect against whipworms) and she started having tremors. I thought she was having tremors because she did not feel good and at first my vet kept telling me it was nothing to worry about. Well after a month of her having tremors, I contacted her neurologist. I sent video tape up to him and he wanted me to keep an eye on her, especially with the twitches and staring into space (she was doing that some on the video tape). No more than two weeks later she started having balancing problems again. I started to get scared. She would try to play and fall because her back legs would give out. I kept communicating with the neurologist and I let him know about her balancing and falling issues. The doctor and I did not believe it could be the tumor coming back that fast. I had my regular vet check her hips (one side was a little flat) and he also did a couple of x-rays on her back. It was found that she had syndyolosis (bridging of unstable vertabrae). I thought that could be causing her hind legs weakness. My vet put her on Deramaxx to see if it would help her. After being on the Deramaxx for a week, she had a spell of vomiting up everything she ate and my regular vet made me take her to Auburn because he felt it was all the medication she was on. Auburn could not find anything wrong and thought maybe the GI tract might have become irritated from medicine she was taking so I had to withhold food for 12 hours and then introduce it back slowly (I took her off the Deramaxx). She threw up some the next night but seemed to feel a lot better the next day after that. She did stop throwing up. The next day she seemed to weak in her back legs a lot more so I took her back to Auburn four days later because it became difficult for her to even get up. Auburn did some blood tests and decided she might have wobblers syndrome (disease where there is compression of the spinal cord usually in the neck area) so they put her on strict cage rest for 2 weeks. While we were at Auburn, the doctor noticed a green substance come from her nose, but told me just to keep an eye on it. Well, I tried to do the strict cage rest even though she was miserable. Less than two weeks later I had to take her back to Auburn because she got worse. She could barely stand and she was walking on top of her paws. They decided she was bad enough for me to leave her there and they would do a mylegram (injecting dye into the spinal cord to see any compression on the spinal cord). Later that same day the doctor called me and let me know that Sissy had pneumonia (they figured she got it when she had the vomiting spell by aspirating some of it into her lungs-I bet you that is where the green stuff from her nose came from). They treated her over the weekend for the pneumonia and held off on the mylegram. I went to go see her over the weekend and on Monday. She was doing great on Monday and she was able to stand up on her own; however, she developed a sever head tilt and would lean more one way when walking. The neurologist was afraid it had something to do with her brain. So Tuesday they did a CT scan to make sure it was nothing in her brain (brain looked good) and then they did a mylegram. What they found breaks my heart. She had a spinal tumor and it looked like it was intra and extra in the spinal cord. The doctor said he could do surgery, but it was very risky and dangerous because she could die on the table. I went up on Wednesday and she was not able to stand up because of the effects of the mylegram (if a dog has a problem with the spinal cord it irritates it more, but doctors have to do it to be able to locate the compression). She did not look good and I could not handle it. The doctor talked to me about how hard the rehabilitation would be on me but I really did not care about me as long as she did not suffer. I debated on rather or not to put her to sleep but I couldn't because I had to fight for her. I knew I had to at least try the surgery for her sake. On Thursday, July 31 she went into surgery. The doctor called me and told me he could not find any sign of the tumor on the outside and that all of the tumor was on the inside of the spinal cord. If he was to cut the spinal cord where the tumor was located she would either be paralyzed or not able to breathe on her own. He recommended to put her to sleep because there was nothing more that could be done. She might of lived a couple of more weeks if I decided not to put her to sleep, but she would have suffered and I did not want that for her. So, Sissy Elizabeth Houde passed away on July 31, 2003. She was only four years old. I am telling this story so other people are aware of the costs of having a dog. I believe if you get a dog, you should do everything in your power for him or her. Please check previous medical history on both sides for your dog's sake and ask the breeder of any problems. Also find out what tests they have done on the dog. That way at least you know what your dog will be at risk to get. Sometimes you might want to check out the breeder. Of all the money I spent on Sissy, I would not change anything except for her being here now with me. She will be forever in my heart because she was my child and always will be. Just an update. I got the final autopsy report and it showed she had one tumor in her brainstem and four more in her spinal cord. They were all the same tumor from the primary tumor. The final autopsy showed that Sissy had mestastatic oligodendroglioma. |
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