Sam & I went to see his new vet Dr. Monteforte, on Thursday, December 6th. Sammy had the microfilaria test done, it's the one that checks for heartworm baby's. He was negative for baby's. Sam had his rabbies shot.
The lump under his chin on neck is called salivary mucosa, the hard lump on his face is a cyst.
He has a grade 3-4 heart murmur, a cardiac workup is suggested. The murmur is on the left side, but otherwise his heart seemed ok. She felt he looked older than he really was. The cataract in his left eye is just starting. Not too bad... right eye seemed good, little cloudy, but she could see the retina and pupils were dialiting ok.
She also felt that his leg was non-painful at THIS time, and that it's been like that for a long time. Not much can be done with it, besides amputation. He does use it -- skips a little and flaps, but he can manage to walk and get down steps and up on the couch or bed.
When we left the vets office we felt pretty good about his test coming back negative for baby heartworms. BUT, later that evening, my vet called and said that the Antigen test came back positive. My heart sank. This means there is at least one adult female, however, we don't know if it's a single sex colony or how many we are talking about in his little heart.
She is not comfortable giving him more Immiticide (poison) because of his heart murmur. She would rather me put him on preventitive (Heartguard or Interceptor) as a precaution so that it never gets worse. Eventually all will die off.. however, we don't know how long that will take.
His surgery site from the hernia looks good, and his temp was 101, which is perfect. After his visit we went to see a friend and he was loved on and got treats. It's so easy to please Sammy. Sam's appointment has been scheduled for next Thursday the 13th. We'll do a cardiac workup to see how much damage has been done to his heart.
UPDATE 12/14/01
Sammy had his tests, and at first, we were afraind he had Addison's disease. Today, we found out he does not have this.
According to the cardiologist, he has a slight enlargement, which will be treated with an ACE inhibitor. We are doing the happy cocker dance here and happy to hear things are not as bad as we first thought they were. **Murmur has been downgraded to a 2-3 -- happy dance.
NEWS - Sammy's new mom is flying in on January 2nd to meet him. She can't wait. She'll get to stay here with him for a week. See Sammy with his mom to be on the right :-) |
