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Carina Trey - Allergic Reaction?

Posted By: glidrz5

Carina Trey - Allergic Reaction? - 10/18/07 12:59 AM

I'll make a post about Rena's life in Real Stories later, but I did want to post about the health aspect of what happened to her here in the hopes that maybe another precious life can be saved from what happened to her. I believe that Rena had a severe reaction to her medication or combination of medications. However it was not until later that all of her symptoms pointed to that. I'm going to post her last few days chronologically to give you a better idea of what happened.

On Monday Carina went in for her 5th surgery in 2 months. My vet took samples to run a cytology, to check for fungal infection & took a small "odd" looking piece of tissue for analysis. He also asked that I give her baytril in addition to the other meds she was on. After this surgery, Rena had a large opening in her cheek rather than the small slit that the incisions had been in the past, so she was uncomfortable. She was given torb for pain management. She had her first dose of meds at 7:30pm. On Monday night Rena was very active. She went to work with me & explored the office counter at work & climbed all over me while I was doing my audit work.
On Tuesday, she was given her second dose of medication at @ 7:30/8:00am and was given some Ensure before bed. I did put her cagemate Baxter in with her as a snuggle buddy.
Tuesday night when I got Rena out to give her medication & food at 7:00pm she was slightly lethargic. She didn't seem to have as much control of her front arms as she normally did, tho her grip with her hand/feet was very strong. By the 10:00 when I gave Rena her second feeding & she was no better, I became concerned because her behavior/coordination had not improved. I talked with Jen on the phone & we thought it may have been slight dehydration (tho her tent test did not confirm this) or a reaction to her medication. We decided to try hydrating her as well as attempting to flush the meds out of her system or at least dilute them by giving her water throughout the night.
Every hour I was giving Rena a little bit of food to keep her strength up as well as water to hydrate/flush her system.
At @ 2:00 she started getting a bit itchy. It didn't seem unusual since I was brushing her at the time & I assumed it was in reaction to that. I did notice that her nose was slightly purple, but she would get stressed when I would hold her to feed & seemed to pink up when I'd put her down.
At 3:00 when I went to give her water she didn't want to take it and was more lethargic than earlier. Her nose was also still purple when I was holding her. I put her in my bra to keep an eye on her while I was doing my work since I needed both hands at that point.
At 4:00 she started sneezing a bit and sounded slightly stuffy. She was also still itchy. At this point I was becoming very concerned.
By 5:00 it was getting worse. Her breathing was raspy & she was clearly having trouble. I was becoming frantic, but was feeling very helpless at the same time. I was at work alone & couldn't leave since there was no one else at the hotel. Not to mention that we don't have a 24 hour vet who is open & while I could have called it would have taken time for them to get either to me at the hotel or to the vets office. Not knowing what else to do I called my Mom, waking her up, and asked her to go to the store & get benedril for her. I also got Jen's phone number & called her to get a dosage. I was hoping that we could get the benedril into her system to hold her long enough to get her to the vets office at 7;30 for emergency treatment.
Unfortunately by this time it was too late. Rena crossed the bridge between 6:00 & 6:15. She passed before my Mom could arrive and minutes after I hung up the phone with Jen. She was in my bra at the time, so was close to my heart & as warm as I could keep her.

I wish I had been able to do more for my baby, but by the time we were sure what was going on it was too late for her. It escalated so very quickly at that point. At least now she isn't in pain any more & is whole & well. I know that my other angels will watch over her until it is my time to join them once more.
Posted By: Xfilefan

Re: Carina Trey - Allergic Reaction? - 10/18/07 01:42 AM

Chris, I didn't think allergy with the Baytril the first time because she'd had it before, but it is possible the combo caused a problem. But later when you called it definitely sounded like an allergic reaction to something. That could be coincidental, or not. It's also possible the infection changed direction...the swelling on top her head in combination with the odd Xray makes it suspicious whether it was going into bone in there, too, and possibly draining down her throat into her chest, plus how it suddenly changed in her face. I know when Riker was bad, he had slight facial swelling-in his case his eye bulged some from the pressure behind it, but it was diffused in his face-nothing to drain. He also had the wet/snotty sounding sneezes, and dark nose along with his abnormal Xrays. Hopefully the fluid and tissue samples the vet sent to test will give some better answers as to what was going on in there. hug2 hug2

And you know she'll be waiting for you...riding around with her own personal kitty limousine daring anyone to bother her. heart I'm here if you need me. hug2
Posted By: sugarglidersuz

Re: Carina Trey - Allergic Reaction? - 10/18/07 10:53 AM

The severe itching does sound like a probable allergic reaction frown What Jen says makes sense though, that it's also possibly that the infection got too advanced and moved down into her lungs. Hopefully the tissue sample testing will give some answers in regards to that aspect of it.

A reminder to everyone...
Chris has started a thread in Rainbow Memorials where your sympathies can be expressed to her: For My Carina Trey. The previously posted sympathy expressions have been merged with that thread and can be viewed by scrolling UP from Chris' post...
Please do not post sympathies in this thread. This one is for a discussion of the medical condition which resulted in her passing away. The Admin's would like this thread to be able to remain here in Health & Hygiene, so it is important that the posts remain on-topic with the medical aspect.
Thanks for your cooperation...
Posted By: glidrz5

Re: Carina Trey - Allergic Reaction? - 10/20/07 12:53 AM

I spoke with Dr Kaiser today. He had some of the results in from the samples he had taken. The cytology indicated a massive bacterial infection. They recommended doing a C&S which we had already done which was negative with no sign of bacteria present. The Biopsy on the tissue sample said there was no sign of cancer, but did show that there was a conjuctivitis infection....so again a bacterial infection.
In otherwords nothing we didn't already know. He didn't have the results in from the fungal analysis yet but will let me know when the results come in.
As for what caused her to cross the bridge. He agreed that it did sound like a possible allergic reaction. Even tho she had taken the medications previously it's possible that over time her system developed an allergy to it. It's also possible that her infection had gone systemic and that combined with a sensitivity threw her into an allergic reaction. With her already compromised immune system & the stress that she'd had on her body for the past 2 months she simply didn't have the strength to fight it off.
Posted By: sugarglidersuz

Re: Carina Trey - Allergic Reaction? - 10/20/07 01:18 AM

Chris, although it's too late to help Rena, I'm sure that having a few answers is of some comfort at this point. Hopefully this will help us all to learn more about gliders and their long-term care in treating persistent infections.
hug2
Posted By: Xfilefan

Re: Carina Trey - Allergic Reaction? - 10/20/07 02:10 AM

Chris, is it possible the lab missed something on that first C&S?
Quote:
The cytology indicated a massive bacterial infection.


Quote:
They recommended doing a C&S which we had already done which was negative with no sign of bacteria present


If the sample had bacteria in it, they should have been able to grow something.
It wouldn't be the first time something had happened to a sample between the vets office and the lab. Once it goes out the door with the courier who knows what conditions it's in, or if they make an error in handling, they won't say and it just looks like nothing is there. It might be something Dr. Kaiser wants to follow up on for the sake of other patients, if the courier or lab is not handling samples properly. When this happened to me, in 2004, the vet said there were two possibilities-we must have been mistaken on the first result, since the culture came back negative (nothing there)-which he didn't think because he did see SOME bacteria under the microscope, OR it was mishandled en route, and with the couriers/labs here that would not be uncommon (in UT)-he'd had issues before-and I got this same warning from two different vets. We just switched meds, and a later sample came back with a specific bacteria, but not until Riker had been sick another couple months. It sounds like poor little Rena's system just couldn't wait. hug2

I'm interested in the conjunctivitis and other also...I know some bacteria when ON the skin are annoying but relatively harmless, but if they get into tissue can be deadly quick-type A strep comes to mind (personal experience with that one). It's frequently in the mouth/throat as a common everyday thing in low levels, kept under control by the immune system, but if you get it UNDER the skin (and all it takes is a pinhole), you end up with systemic infection, blood poisoning, and necrotizing tissue in hours. So these were actually IN the tissue?
Posted By: glidrz5

Re: Carina Trey - Allergic Reaction? - 10/20/07 07:18 AM

I did ask about the possibility of mishandlement of her culture. He said he doubted it, but I did put the bug into his ear. As for the conjunctivitis, he said that was because the tissue was surrounding her eye socket that it came back with that result. I also asked about the possibility of a staph infection since there has been so much lately about antibiotic resistant infections. He didn't think that was the case & that if she had gotten a staph infection that the antibiotics would have taken care of it.
Posted By: Xfilefan

Re: Carina Trey - Allergic Reaction? - 10/20/07 08:04 AM

I think I'll mention it to mine anyway. If the skin cells came from within the eye socket itself, I could see it, but not down in her cheek. Does he know what the other one was at all, or will that come back with the culture?
Posted By: glidrz5

Re: Carina Trey - Allergic Reaction? - 10/20/07 10:05 AM

He didn't take cultures from where the top of her head had been swelling. when she went in, that swelling had vanished.
Posted By: Xfilefan

Re: Carina Trey - Allergic Reaction? - 10/20/07 11:02 AM

I know, I was talking about what came out of her face this last time. Chances are, it's the same thing, and that's where it drained to.
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