Dear Steve: We had abdominal fluid drained from one of our Cavaliers for about a year and a half. At the beginning, we could go 8 weeks between drainings, at the end it was every 10 days. While it may sound cruel, our experience was that Glory seemed to feel no real discomfort and felt wonderful after the draining was over. We were told to keep her quiet for a few hours after each draining but that usually proved to be impossible. She would nap on the way home (the cardiologist was an hour away), wake up when we got home and was ready to go and steal cat food and guard chewies as soon as she got in the door.
You do have to be careful that your vet realizes that the amount of fluid must be carefully monitored-it too much is removed all at one time it can cause a serious reaction. Sometimes, the drainings need to be done a few days apart to avoid problems. Also, be sure your vet realizes that often Cavaliers can tolerate much higher doses of diuretics and other medications used for MVD than is standard. Kidney function has to be carefully monitored as this is what most commonly goes wrong with higher dosages, but many Cavaliers can do quite well on fairly massive dosages. Our vet warned us that one day Glory simply would not recover from a draining and would go downhill quickly after that and that it is exactly what happened. But she had about an extra year and a half of a very high quality life and we have never regretted our choice. Anne Shapiro Shadowlawn Cavaliers Las Vegas, Nevada www.shadowlawn-cavaliers.com --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? NEW from Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month. Yahoo! by Phone. ========================================================= "Magic Commands": to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL to start it up gain click here: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 1999 by its original author.
