Without going into the long-detailed story, we have a girl who is in dire need of some good thoughts and prayers.
Kamara is my parents' dog, but I have known her since the day she was whelped in our home. She was in the first Schnauzer litter that my parents ever bred, so she holds a particularly special place.
Her health has been progressively worsening for the last several weeks, and nobody knew why. It started with muscle degeneration in the face, followed by overall weight loss, followed by some other behavioural symptoms that weren't quite right. They tested for everything in the book, including EPI, Eosinophilic Myositis, Myasthenia Gravis. They did muscle biopsies (requiring anaesthesia) and sent them to the University of California-Davis to test for neuromuscular disorders. They even ended up doing a distance consult/conference with a neurologist to discuss her case, and there still was no definitive conclusion.
A couple of days ago her left eye became seriously infected, inflamed, and today she had to go for surgery to have it removed. The condition had a name, but I don't know it offhand but basically her pupil stopped functioning and was just a pinpoint dot and her eye was no longer working properly. The vet did not want to do the surgery considering her condition ongoing, but in the end they had no choice.
However, we now know the cause of her illness. The neurologist's guess at a brain tumor was confirmed today after her eye was removed and the tumor was right there. It is quite large. The vet sent off samples for analysis, although really there's not much that can be done at this point.
We don't know what will happen in the coming days, weeks, or months, or how long we have, but Kamara has been such a trooper and she is such a fighter, trying so hard to keep good spirits throughout. She is tenacious until the end. Please keep her in your thoughts to ease any pain and help her through at this time.