Very high Calcium levels

[KarenCox]

My boxer girl is 8 years old and we discovered she had very high calcium levels last Friday (10th June). She actually went to the vet because she was drinking a lot etc and had a UTI which has since cleared up. She also had high white blood cell count.

She was put on antibiotics but she deteriorated over the weekend and I had to take her back on Monday, which is when they found the calcium levels. She was back in on Tuesday and the levels hadn't changed, so they xrayed and scanned her, in case of visible tumours - but there weren't any.

On Thursday she had to spend the day in on the drip to see if that would help, but it didn't make a difference really.

She is now on 18 steroids a day plus 6 diuretics. The steroids are to stop the body absorbing the calcium and will help slow the progress of a tumour if there is one.

She lost 3kg in one week, but thankfully today she maintained after a weekend of steroids.

They have sent more tests off for her parathyroid levels and are testing her white blood cells to make sure they are normal as those levels are really high too.

I haven't found anyone yet who has had experience of this and I am beginning to think I never will!

Has anyone had their boxer go through this, or know anyone who has please?
Thanks
Karen

 

[cooper22]

I just went throught this with my 5 year old boxer Tucker. In his case the high calcium was related to his lymphoma. My understanding from the vet was very high calcium levels are pretty much either lymphoma or a parathyroid tumer like you mentioned. I hope this isn't the case for your girl, but that was what happened with Tucker. Good luck.

 

[KarenCox]

You are the first person to have had any experience! Would you mind telling me what happened, how long etc please?

I don't want to carry on with lots of tests for her if there is no hope. Did you treat him? How well was he with the treatment?

I am sorry to hear you lost him, that must have been heartbreaking for you, so I understand if you would rather not talk about it.

Thanks
Karen

 

[cooper22]

We diagnosed Tucker at the very beginning of January with lymphoma (I didn't do an actual biopsy to see if it was T or B cell lymphoma but just a needle aspirate to confirm lymphoma). We decided to do chemo and prednisone since he was so young (not even 5 years old). He did 5 rounds of IV chemo along with oral chemo and prednisone. He didn't respond to the chemo, but did have a good quality of life right until the end. We put him down right at the end of April so he had about 4 good months of life. I would do the same thing all over again if given the opportunity even though he didn't respond to the chemo he was never very ill from it. The worst side effects were from the pred and that was only excessive hunger/thirst and urination right at the beginning. After his dose was tapered down he did very well and even ran and played right up until the day before we put him down. Once again hopefully this is not the case with your girl, but that was my experience. Good luck.

 

[apalance]

Same = lymphoma = my boxer gone...

I lost my boxer 3 weeks ago to lymphoma. 4 weeks ago I noticed excess water drinking. I took him in for blood work and urinalysis and expected diagnosis of UTI and cushings. He came back with lymphoma. His blood was originally draw on a Tuesday and I got the results Thursday. Friday we redrew the blood and ran it in house to confirm the diagnosis. His bone marrow was already nearly gone.. We did prednisone and baytril for uti. He had 2 good days of comfort. With no other option, he went to work with me on Sunday so I could bring him out often and provide water. That was his last day to work with me (I'm a trainer). On Monday morning, I made the decision to put him down. He was pale, lethargic, and although he ate his breakfast, he wasn't as excited about it as he's been his entire life. There was no real option for chemo since it moved so fast. Even with Chemo, all statistics say 2-6 months. I didn't want 2 months of him suffering so I opted to do the prednisone to help comfort him, hoping to get 1-2 months, or even 2 weeks of him feeling better. Instead he got 2 days. It moved really really fast and all in all, I am thankful for that. I don't question euth'ing him so quickly because the only thing that was coming for him was pain. I did NOT want him to be in pain. That day he kept going to the door and looking at me as if to tell me it was time to go.

I am so so so sorry you are going through this with your baby. Love that baby! Don't let them keep her at the vet's office - spend the time with her.

 

[AngelMom]

I am sorry for all your sadness. I am wondering if there is an update from the original poster. We are going through something similar with my baby Angel. Her blood test show elevated Calcium levels and her urine test showed a uti. She is on her third day of anti-biotics and so far has not had any loss of bladder control for 24 hours. The vet wants to do a more thorough blood workup. I am very upset. She is almost 9 and a very important member of our family.

 

[sasmeow]

My sisters Lab Sydney (RIP) had cancer of her anal glands (Anal sac adenocarcinoma) and had a high calcium level. It also spread to her lymph nodes. I hope they figure out what is going on with your baby and it can be treated. Please update us.

 

[finnboxer]

Calcium

I had a similar experience about 10 years ago with our first Boxer Hooligan, the high calcium levels were causing problems with his Kidneys and further testing revealed he had Lymphoma which was the cause of the raised calcium level. You may want to talk to your vet about testing for this. I hope its something else less serious though :(

 

[KarenCox]

Hi Everyone and sorry for not updating sooner.

Well things are good just now, but I just wanted to answer a couple of the threads previously too.

She was checked for Anal sac adenocarcinoma and, because her white blood cells were normal, lymphoma was also ruled out.

At the moment, we have managed to restore her calcium levels to normal and her kidney function tests have always been ok. The only other results that were high were her white blood cell count (normally low for lymphoma I believe) and her liver functions, but that was because of the high dose of steroids.

My vet spoke to the Head of Medicine at Glasgow Vet School to see if they could help, to avoid us having to take the five hour journey there to get her seen. They had apparently seen lungworm cases presenting with hypercalcemia, so she was treated for that. They had also heard of cases where it can just happen and then go away again!

My vet is of the opinion that she had a really bad UTI (which she did) and that had kicked her calcium levels up. The UTI cleared up really quickly, but the white blood cell count and calcium levels took longer to come down.

Whatever the cause was, we may never know, but those problems do seem to be behind us (fingers crossed)! She has now been weaned off all the steroids and finished her antibiotics which she was on for the duration and has a week of the liver recovery medication left to go.

Our only problem we have at the moment is that she seems to be off her food and is being periodically sick. We are keeping an eye on her, but the vets think it may just be a kick back from everything she has been through. We are a little worried because she has lost so much weight, but are hoping she continues to improve. I am just trying to stay positive!

Anglemom, I would highly recommend you get the full blood works done, just to make sure everything else is ok. Also, our girl was on Marbocyl for her antibiotics and its the one that seemed to make a difference.

My vet is absolutely amazed that she has come through this as most cases of hypercalcemia are cancer etc and they don't make it.

Thank you everyone for your posts