Our Casper has Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia

by Pam
(Fort Worth, TX)

Casper, a few months ago

Casper is our close friend and companion; he is a precious American Eskimo that we first fostered then adopted 11 years ago. He's been a great dog for us and we really consider him our child since the human kids have grown up. Not really ill, just prone to skin allergies and an ACL injury that healed pretty well with PT.

It all started with a lot of sneezing maybe 8 weeks ago which we attributed to seasonal allergies. We all love being outside. He quit eating his food and started eating the cat's kibble 4 weeks ago so we thought that he just needed a different flavor or softer food since he's older. He responded to the soft food and stayed out of the cat food so we thought, 'problem solved'.

A couple weeks ago we noticed he was breathing heavily and took him in for a checkup. His nose was getting crusty and the vet just attributed it to allergies when we mentioned the sneezing and prescribed antihistamine, a steroid shot and an antibiotic cream for the nose.

Last week he suddenly got really weak and wobbly, we got him into the vet on Thursday for blood work. On Friday our vet called and told us that he has Addison's Disease. I quickly researched and was overjoyed to discover that while it's not curable, this is certainly treatable with Prednisone. We felt such relief!

On Saturday morning, the vet called again with the grave news. Casper has acute lymphocytic leukemia and that it is unlikely that he can withstand chemo because of his age and weakened state.

I'm so distraught, I can barely think. I'm so glad that we found this forum. We really just need a shoulder right now. Of course we will not let him suffer but making that 'when' call is nearly unbearable.

Thank you for letting me share Casper's story.

(Submitted Monday, June 10, 2013)