Kota medical journal

Those who are close to us are aware that shortly after we were married we added an amazing addition to our family. A beautiful fawn colored baby Boxer. Kota has been a significant part of our lives for over 8 years. This entry is a small journal of her medical history, in case I ever need to remember.

The first bit of tragedy happened when Kota was about 3 months. We learned the scary way that she was highly allergic to bee stings. After a trip to the Emergency Vet, we learned to keep benedryl close by. Cost: $250.

Shortly after that we learned Kota was also allergic to the sun. One of her favorite things to do is to bask in the sun for hours, however she always returned with little hives covering her back. Just causing the hair to stand up in little spotty areas. The benedryl helped when they seemed bothersome but that was only required a couple of times. The rest of the sun instances have taken care of themselves within 30 minutes or so.

At about 3 years old, she started losing the hair on her back. After many vet visits and a special canine skin doctor we learned that she was allergic to the changing seasons. Apparently her body thought it was not time yet for a new season, so a little Melatonin was prescribed to help her body realize that it was time for a season change. Cost $950.

At 6 years old, we noticed a lump on her back. At first it was just like all of the other little hives she would get from the sun, but unlike the other sun bumps this one did not go away- at all. Within a couple of months it seemed to stick out a little more and changed to a blackish-purple color, it was also now joined by a second little "bump" thing, so I took her into the vet. The vet said "Just like humans, Dogs get warts and moles. These are nothing to be concerned about." Cost: $85.

At 7 years old we went camping where Kota saw another dog whom she decided she did not like and began to growl and bark. As she got more excited about this other dog, I noticed a walnut sized lump on her side near her belly. Within a couple of minutes after Kota had calmed down, the lump had shrank and was just a flat piece of skin, like a soft flat wart looking thing.

Within a couple of days, I had seen this lump each time Kota got upset or angry, so I took her back to the vet. This time I learned that the doctor (same office, different doctor) actually was concerned about the lump on her side, AND the two on her back. He wanted to take them out and have them tested. Within a week we learned that all three lumps were Mast Cell Tumors. Kota had Stage 1 cancer. At this point we needed to widen the margins of the cells removed, she needed more surgery and bigger cuts. Cost:$3500.

At 8 years old, Kota wet the bed. She had never done this before, ever. This happened several times within a week. We took her to the vet, who did blood and urine tests. All came back negative so they marked it off to old age and sent us home with pills to help strengthen her pee muscle (I forgot what it is called). Cost $190.00

Within a few weeks, the urinating had subsided a bit but not completely, and we noticed she had started drinking TONS of water. We stopped giving her the pills and within a week she was peeing everywhere, every time she went to sleep; so we put her back on the pills and took her back to the vet who wanted to do more tests. Apparently the first set of urine tests were diluted and they would need to start over. Again they found nothing and suggested X-ray's. Cost: $250.

It was within the X-ray's that they found a tumor in Kota's chest. After this, they felt it important to inform us that her white blood cell count was up during that first set of tests, which could mean cancer is in her blood stream and her organs. In order to find out, they would need to do an ultra sound. They would also need to extract fluid from the tumor and to do this, she would need to be sedated. Suggested cost: $1200. Keep in mind, this would only tell us if it is cancer and where it might be in her body, this has nothing to do with treating anything they find.

The following weekend (while we were to discuss if we wanted to do these tests), we took Kota camping. The whole time, she drank and drank and drank and within 2 days, she had stopped eating. Kota is the kind of dog who, if you leave her alone, she will steal a loaf of bread off the counter and eat the whole thing, so this was very out of the ordinary for her.

This was just this last weekend and as of this afternoon Kota has started eating again, perhaps she was tired and/or stressed from the camping surroundings.

We decided not to do the tests as we feel it will just add to our stress and to hers. She hates the vet and is miserable and stressed to the max with each visit. I thought it may be good to at least know where the cancer was so we could have an idea as to how much longer we would have with her. But, to what end? I don't get to choose how long she stays with us.

It breaks my heart to think our time with her is limited, but I am proud to know that she has and will continue to live an amazing life for as long as we can keep her.