Popper, turned purple (already been to vet)

I hate starting all these new threads, but other wise my updates seems to get lost.

Popper took a turn for the worse today. I found him with purple back feet, "lips" and half his tail. We gave him a nebulizer treatment and that helped a tiny bit. It just so happened that today is my son's birthday so I had to leave him since we had celebration plans. When we got back he looked better, but still had purplish coloration so we got him into the vet. They had him on oxygen and could tell by the lungs sounds his lungs are being more compressed. He pinked up in the oxygen. This doctor agreed with us and pred has been started since this will be the last thing to try. So he will be taking pred every 12 hours along with nebulizer treatments every 12 hours. They gave him a doxy shot that will last 7 days since the pred will lower his immune system. He will get another on Monday and we will continue the lasix although he doesn't sound like he has fluid in his lungs. If this doesn't work we will have to say good bye to our dear boy since we will not let him suffer. He does not look like he is in severe respiratory distress, but I'm sure he is compensating since he has been living with this mass since October. He also lost over 100 gram since November - again, I don't see it in him... Here's his other threads http://www.ratshackforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29612

I'm sorry he isn't doing well. It sounds as of everything that can be done is being done. Fingers crossed the pred helps him to feel better *hugs*

temblabamomo said:

I'm sorry he isn't doing well. It sounds as of everything that can be done is being done. Fingers crossed the pred helps him to feel better *hugs*

Click to expand...

He looked a bit better this am, but wasn't to happy to be woken up and put in a cage for his neb treatment... He hates those. Mom wasn't too happy to get up extra early either, but we do what we have to. :kisskiss:

Hope he is doing better ...

Poor baby, sending healing vibes.

He is currently in his "chamber" getting his evening neb treatment w/Grumpy. We figure since Grumps has a URI and sounds crummy it can't hurt and Popper has a friend. His tail looked good - not dark purple :dance: I will give him his pred after the neb treatment and hope he takes it. Holistics are on a if he wants them basis to not stress him out - and lasix I'll try later. I know this isn't a fix, but as long as he wants to be around we'll give him the chance.

He just had today's nightly neb treatment and he went in with no audible "wheezing" and came out sounding terrible. I don't know if the neb itself is making him worse or the stress from the neb is doing it. I certainly don't want to make what little life he has left stressful for him! His color is better, but after having him out today side by side with Throttle, I can see just how sick he is... He doesn't seem to really be eating much on his own anymore, but he will eat baby food off our fingers. Dang it why can't my babies just pass peacefully!!!!!

I know what that looks like next to Throttle, but its a gerber meat stick - one of the things Popper will still eat a tiny bit of. Throttle was snuggling his sick brother and it was so obvious he knows Popper is sick. He wouldn't touch any of the baby food in the dish until Popper was done and then earlier when Popper was laying on him Throttle keep trying to stretch his head to reach the dish because it seemed like he didn't want to get up and disturb Popper. I moved the dish so he could get it and not disturb him.

A lot of times nebs can 'knock stuff loose' from the bronchioles. If this is the case then I guess it's better to get the stuff up then leave it caked.

Sheldon said:

A lot of times nebs can 'knock stuff loose' from the bronchioles. If this is the case then I guess it's better to get the stuff up then leave it caked.

Click to expand...

I'm not really sure why we're doing the nebs at this point. He has a mass in his chest that is compression is lungs. He doesn't have a respiratory infection. I guess its to try and open his airways.

Did they do an xray to see this mass?

hopefloats said:

Did they do an xray to see this mass?

Click to expand...

Yes in October/November we had two done. They were only about two weeks apart and the second one was much clearer. Unknown if that was because the lasix removed any fluid that was around it or it had just grown larger in that time.

Can you feel the spot where it is? does it seem like it has gotten harder? I would assume you could tell the rib cages get tighter?

hopefloats said:

Can you feel the spot where it is? does it seem like it has gotten harder? I would assume you could tell the rib cages get tighter?

Click to expand...

We have only had it pointed out on x-ray. We have never felt for it and from what we've seen on the x-ray it seems to be under the rib cage so not sure what we would be feeling for. I can feel most of his bones now do to weight loss.

Need an opinion, I don't know if these neb treatments are helping or making things worse. I put him in in good condition, no audible sounds, good coloring and he comes out with audible sounds and dusky coloring. He hates being in there so its stressing him out plus after awhile he starts thrashing around.

I don't think he's really eating anymore unless we finger feed/spoon feed him baby food. He took a small amount of baby cereal last night out of a small dish that I placed directly in front of him. We've lowered all the water bottles so he will not have to make that much of an effort to get to them. I'd like to move him into a smaller cage so I can see how much he is actually eating, but don't want the move to stress him either and I don't want him to be away from his cage mates.

He has a follow up appointment on Monday and I'm afraid I may have to let him go his quality of life is fading.

Oh yea, opinion - do I continue the neb treatments or not.