Well... I got too paranoid. I decided to make the vet appointment. I figured at the very least I could scope her and KNOW for sure if she had ulcers or not and then I could stop stressing. So... we made the appointment and it worked out beautifully. They could see her at 3:30 Tuesday afternoon so we didn't have to wait forever. Plus, if we decided to scope, she could stay overnight and get fasted there and get scoped in the morning. I have to work Wednesday but i'ts down the road and usually doesn't take all day and the shockwave I was supposed to do cancelled, so... I should be able to finagle it to get her picked back up without her having to wait ALL day long. So.. yay! And I did adjust her Monday night after work so that she wouldn't be all wonky at her vet appointment. She wasn't back sore.. just in her SI joints. And she had a LOT going on chiro-wise... Jeesh... when was the last time I did her?? It took forever. I did get some good releases though!
Tuesday afternoon we headed over to Dr. Barrows office and she was a good girl. I basically told Dr. Barrow that I had no idea what was wrong... I was suspicious of her stifles, because she didn't want to sit and slow her tempo (but this has also been her whole life) and because of her stifle ocd history. But that I also thought she had ulcers... but that I also thought she might have an angry ovary...And oh by the way, she's also still super itchy. And bless her! She remembered it all and worked through it all.
We started with a lameness exam. She thought she looked pretty good trotting but felt like she did have some mild effusion in her stifles. She flexed her and Funny was pretty fussy for the flexing. She didn't try to kick but she kept trying to pull away, especially on the right one. And... I thought she looked the same but Dr. Barrow thought she was positive. So... she said it wouldn't hurt to inject her stifles.
Then we sedated her and she ultrasounded her ovaries. No CL's but mild uterine edema and she looked like she was wanting to go into heat. So... she suggested that I take her off regumate... let her have a heat cycle and then wait 5ish days and start her back on regumate... to "reset" her more or less.
Then we talked about scoping her. And... ultimately, we decided to not. We decided it wasn't worth the stress of leaving her overnight, fasting her, etc, when she's already been treated for almost 3 weeks. Plus she had reasons to be ulcery (stifles, itching, ovaries) but also.. she had reasons to be naughty (stifles, itching, ovaries). So.. ultimately I decided to inject her stifles with prostride and platelet plasma pour (PPP... plasma??? Is that the third p?). She said that with the platelet extender she felt like she got fairly quick results, so in theory I should know if she's improved or not within a week or two. Then, in another week or two after that, we should get some resolution with the ovary pain... so I should be able to separate the two to determine which helped the most. And if in a month to month and a half, she's still awful... then we definitely need to scope! So... that plan sounded reasonable so we went with that. She was a good girl for her injections and I just turned her out. She's not going to be as stupid turned out as she would in a stall for 3 days, so.. out she went.
I am stressing a little bit because she's been so bad about taking the ompeprazole paste, I gave up and switched her to the powder. Which... I don't know that I think it'll even potentially work as it's powdered... given with grain... but I'm tired of fighting with her. So I guess the good news is that if she gets WORSE... then I'll be much more suspicious of ulcers. And at that point, I'll probably just order the injectable and do that.
And then, Dr. Barrow also had the non-chewable apoquel so I was going to buy a bottle or two of that, but... then I panicked at the amount of money I'm spending so told her I wanted to wait on it if she didn't mind and see if maybe Laura Edison could order it for me. Which, she can't... but Kim Keeton ordered me a giant bottle... to the tune of another $450. Egads.. but still.. .cost, which I'm grateful for. (And I'm grateful for the discounts that Dr. Barrow gives me too!) So... I'll do that too. And hopefully between those not being chewable and beef flavored she won't notice them in her feed and I can get her eating well again.
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