Hi All- I think I misunderstood what Cynthia was asking. There was blood work done when I took Pippa on Friday that determined that there were serious goings on with her liver. Her ALKP went from 28 U/L before surgery to 2973 U/L four days after surgery and six rimadyl tablets. Her ALT went from About bleeding into the lungs. The doctor who saw her on Saturday I believe said that her labored breathing was due to fluid in the lungs and that this was probably blood. How she determined that I do not know. In all of her gagging Pippa never coughed up any blood that I saw. This is what was determined through testing and observation: -X rays showed no GI obstruction -Ultrasound showed coarse liver- no other abnormalities -Diagnosis: acute liver failure, coagulopathy. Pippa was given a transfusion. Given poor prognosis. Pippa was given a lot of treatment in the form of IV fluid, Vitamin K, antibiotics, pain meds that would not affect her liver. She was able to stay home with me last night. She took a small amount of food through a syringe. She still had episodes of labored breathing but then there were also long stretches of relatively peaceful breathing while asleep. She even showed a little of her old personality when I put on her leash to take her out to pee. I took her back to the vet this morning where she will stay till 11:30 tonight. The vet called about an hour ago to let me know some good results. Her clotting times have returned to normal. Other levels are returning to normal. ALT now at 682 and ALKP now at 1400. Hopefully these will continue to go down. Also she has no fever today. She mentioned some other things but I don't have time to list all of it right now and some of it is a bit confusing for me honestly. She said she thinks Pippa suffered severe hepatotomy rather than acute liver failure. I hope I am relaying all of this correctly. I am so happy at the good news although the vet also did mention the possibility of chirossis developing further down the road. She kept mentioning Sega Palm poisoning over and over again. I don't know if that's what she thinks happened and when I told her I don't have any of the stuff in or around my house she said it was just an example. Then she just kept mentioning it some more. I'm thinking that they want to blame this on Sega Palm. I appreciate all the replies.

I just called the attention on a statement which is not 100% accurate, like: "There are much better drugs on the market now without the side effects of liver and kidney damage or failure." Are they really better ? no medication is 100% safe, that´s a fact, other drugs may not have the side effects of liver and/or kidney damage but they have other side effects that can be as undesirable as the possibility of liver and/or kidney failure. Why we know so much about Rimadyl now ? because it has been in the market long enough to be used extensively and as the medication is used and as there are more users the skeletons hiding in the closet begin to appear, other similar medications that have not been so long in the market apparently have no skeletons hiding in the closet, that doesn´t mean they are better/safer, that means the skeletons haven´t come out of the closet yet; as time goes by and the population of users increase the skeletons eventually appear. The history of pharmacology is filled with examples: penicilin, aspirin, cloramfenicol, gentamicin, kanamicin, enrofloxacin, carprofen, metamizol, etc, etc, etc, each and every one of them represents a potential risk if used, but if there´s no other option and the benefits are greater than the potential damage they are well worth taken in consideration. So it´s not THIS medication, it´s all the medications. And BTW, I don´t work for Pfizer nor have a large stock of their products.

Hey guys, Thanks to all that took the time to answer. I appreciate it. I know my post was long and I'm not very good at communicating this way. Yes, costs are a consideration... but not the main thing. We have had communication "issues" in the past with this vet and her office staff and we are trying to rectify this. Although, I don't think we are getting anywhere. For instance, when we took the new pups in for the second set of shots (the rescue shelter had given the pups the first set of shots, but we missed the time frame by 6 days (it was unavoidable on our part) so the vet insisted that the first shots wouldn't count). After the exam she sent in a vet tech to finish up and we specifically asked what would be needed on the next visit for puppy shots (what we considered the 3rd set but the vet said they were the second set) and we were told that there was no charge for the actual visit because there was no need for an exam, it was considered just a follow up visit, and then given a list of shots needed. I had it figured at 57 dollars... and that is after i told them that it wasn't just the money due that was the problem, it was not knowing ahead of time and we are not willing to face surprise charges (when possible, of course, we are not talking about emergency situations or diagnostics). So... here we are with the pups in the exam room, on time, according to the vets strict shedule for time allowed between sets of puppy shots and just to be doubly sure I mention this to the vet tech who sees us and the pups before the vet does. She tells me there must be some confusion (picture heavy sighs and eye rolls from DH and I.. here we go again) and I explained to her that the confusion must be on their part, not ours, because we specifically asked on the last visit about this. She tells me this is "impossible'. I tell her it is not only possible but, sadly, highly possible and par for the course. Geesh! She then asks me who the vet tech was on that visit. I tell her I don't know her name (it's hard to keep track, there are new and different employee's, including this one, every time we visit and this is, again, after we have told them that we want all communication on record and that we neeed to know what to expect, moneywise, beforehand... surprises are no longer accepted) but it should be on the record, no? Silly me, eh? We tell her we want to speak with the vet.. she scurries off and comes back just as quickly...says things will be straightened out. Starts to leave again, as she does we spot the vet tech from the previous visit. We tell her that is her, she's the one that gave us the info. Much wispering and not so whipering conversations going on in the hall. At this point it is bordering on the absurd. I open the door and ask the vet to talk to us.. she says take it up with the office manager and walks away. My DH was boiling. Anyway, office manager tells us same thing... it is impossible that anyone could have told us this. At this point door is opened and i see the vet again... she tells me that this is not up for discussion and that if I don't agree with the exam fee and a few other puppy shots that we were, also, told previously that were not needed, that we can go to petco! I was furious and told her that even petco has scheduled shot days and if we left now, the pups would, again, be off the allowed puppy shot period, thus forcing us to negate the 2nd set of shots just as we had to negate the first set. Her reply was that a week or so wouldn't matter!! My DH had taken us to the vets office directly from work... he works construction, very hard work... he had not even had a chance to take his boots off. He was tired to begin with. Now he was exhausted and pis*ed, too. We gave up in sheer frustration. What was supposed to cost 57 dollars now costs us 147 dollars! Ugh! We didn't even have 147 dollars. It simply wasn't in the budget for that week. Don't forget, we did try to budget for this. Also, on the Rimadyl thing, I struggled with the issue when Toby needed it. I knew it was a risk but he was in so much pain that if there were no relief I would have had to put him down. He was crying at night and could never find a comfortable position. The Rimadyl was a miracle drug for him. My concern for the pups is because the vets office says that there isn't much risk for young pups. I'm not sure I believe that. And I do know that there are lots of other meds out there. What I need to know is which ones to ask for and which ones will work with less risk. There, surely, must be standard meds for post surgical pain? As to folks who say that the pups won't need pain meds? Maybe not for 5 to 7 days...but I do believe that they will need some pain meds. I don't subscribe to the thought that they (animals) don't need them even for such things as dew claw removal, neutering and tail docking (as newborn pups or older) and such. I remember when hospitals routinely did circumcision (no anestectic) on human babies. I didn't understand THAT thought process then, never mind that it came from doctors. It took a nurse to prove just how excruciating the pain actually was/is. She instinctively knew that the cries from these babies were cries of pain. Nobody listened to her. She taped recorded the different cries of babies. Clearly, you could hear the terror and pain in the cries. It seems so foolish to me that doctors would think otherwise. I know that when I had abdominal surgery I was very, very sore and in pain for more than 24 hours. I won't over medicate them. I'll observe them and see what they need for how long. But I also won't under medicate them. Hey, maybe I will end up taking the pups somewhere else. Still, I'd like to know ahead of time what pain meds are effective and not risky. Thanks again, Silly

oh wow, nannygoat! talk about getting caught red **handed**!! olivia's teeth are none the worse for wear and i, too, got a good laugh out of it. ya know, it's just "stuff". in the grand scheme of things, "stuff" isn't all that important to me. i mean, i like to have nice "stuff" and i do go to great pains to keep my "stuff" nice but still, it's just "stuff". it doesn't compare to the delight i feel when i see my 9 year old great dane having the time of her life! <3 socks, i had no idea there would be performing pigs in the circus. how funny! my pigs eat pellets specially made for pot bellied pigs. they love fruit of any kind (they will nibble on the rinds but when they get dried up, i toss them over the fence for the coons and possums to finish). they also love anything sweet, most especially marshmallows. lilly takes rimadyl for arthritis and all i have to do is poke the pill into a big marshmallow and it goes right down the hatch. try as i might, i can't get any of them to eat veggies except canned green beans!