Sorry for the delay. We did get Chronos' lab results back-and don't know a whole lot, other than this was something he's had progressing likely more than 2 years. Here is what the
vet had to say:
Severe Fibrosis (cirrhosis, or scarring) of the liver
It was 'culchesine' (sp?) <-this one really threw me and no clue if I got the spelling at all close...it means slow scarring, or over quite a bit of time
also that the hepatic fibrosis was progressive
hepatic=pertaining to the liver
fibrosis=a proliferation of fibrous connective tissue. The process occurs normally in the formation of scar tissue to replace tissue lost through injury or infection.
There was severe hyperplasia of the bile ducts (no stone, tumor or obstruction could be found).
Hyperplasia (definition): an increase in the number of cells of a body part that results from an increased rate of cellular division. Types of hyperplasia include compensatory, hormonal, and pathologic
compensatory-an increase in the size or the function of an organ or part to counteract a structural or functional defect
hormonal-pertaining to or resembling horomones
pathologic-pertaining to a condition that is caused by or involves a disease process
They could not identify an underlying cause due to the fact that there was absolutely no normal tissue remaining in the liver to test. Again, that it could even function at all was shocking.
Theories: exposure to a toxin or poison when he was young. It could be a number of them that could have done it.
Long term infection-ie, his anal glands/uti. We have no idea how long before we got him he had the problem with those. I do wish we could have pinpointed and treated it better earlier-we did treat on/off, but without the abscesses draining, it did little good, and took us nearly a year to discover the abscesses and pinpoint the problem.
There wasn't any physical malformation of the organs themselves, other than what was caused by the cirrhosis/nodules, and the enlargement of the gall bladder after it closed itself off.
The
vet did say if he had to do it again, he would have. The surgery was truly his only chance.
**I wish we knew more to share with you all, but this may help point someone in the right direction at least, at an earlier stage than where Chronos was, and has told what untreated infection over time is capapble of, if that was the underlying cause. We think of poisons or toxins mostly, but an untreated or poorly treated infection apparently can be just as dangerous to our guys, and take their life just as surely.
Also, I've never before received a card when an animal died from a
vet's office. I got one in the mail a few days ago.
Not only did they send one, they did more than sign it, and each office member who'd met him left a personal note-that's what made it really special. Had my in tears all over again! Just thought I'd share the pics of it with you here:
Mods-you can close this thread now at your convenience.