I immediately emailed Dr. Grissom and continued to email/text her throughout the weekend (yes, we have an awesome vet - two of them actually)! Puddin was eating very little, even refusing the chicken and rice Tracy made for her. We took her in on Monday and they fit us in with Dr. Green (the other amazing vet). As soon as she saw Puddin, who had lost 4 pounds in 10 days and was very weak and dehydrated, she began to discuss quality of life and said it was probably time that we start thinking about euthanasia. My eyes instantly filled with tears. I was trying to accept the reality of the situation, knowing it was coming yet still feeling intense pain in my heart at hearing the words.
They did a blood test....since she was diagnosed with IMT three years ago she has had countless blood tests, poor thing has been stabbed so much. I took a picture, knowing this was likely her last one. Tracy was obviously saddened at the turn of events as well.
We waited for the results with broken hearts as I tried to grasp the fact that we were at this point. We agreed that if necessary we would try to get someone to come out to the house the next day. However, to our surprise, the bloodwork actually came back pretty good. Platelet count was still a little low, but the bruising was almost completely gone and everything else looked good! Dr. Green, while still very concerned, said maybe we shouldn't give up yet. She gave Puddin fluids through an IV in her leg and subcutaneous fluid in her back, lowered the dose of predisone (from 60 mg per day back down to 20 mg) since Puddin's body clearly could not take the extremely high dose, and prescribed two new medicines - one for diarrhea and the other to coat her stomach.
We came home still feeling defeated, but also optimistic that she may bounce back (again!). And guess what? She did! At least temporarily! All of the medicines were working together nicely, there was no more throwing up, no more diarrhea, her appetite returned, she looked better almost instantly after getting fluids and she perked up, when we got home she jumped out of the van on her own and grabbed a bully stick on the floor on the way to her bed!
Over the last week, we have spent more time giving her extra love and lots of chicken and/or hamburger - all three seem to be happy about that! 🙂
She still snapped at Woody a couple times when he got out of line and she still pawed at us for more attention when we stopped petting her, just like she's always done. She even mustered enough energy the jump up in my daughter's chair at the table to grab a few bites of french toast and lick some syrup left behind! I was feeling really good and was so glad we didn't give up on her last week! The vet said she's one tough little girl and she's right about that! I even posted an update on Facebook just a couple days about how happy I was at her progress.
I moved down to the living room to sleep on the couch so I could be with her at night - she's far too weak to even attempt climbing the stairs to our bedroom at night. Each night over the last week, no matter where she was laying when I got all settled in on the couch she would come over and lay on the rug in front of the couch. She got extra love and hugs and it made me feel happy to know that she enjoyed my company with her. She did this every night, until Sunday night.
And now...another setback 😟 Sunday night she began limping out of nowhere and has barely been able to walk! We were back at the vet yesterday. She got more fluids and x-rays on her chest (to look for signs of cancer) and her foot/leg (to look for possible fractures). The x-rays did not show anything that would explain why she's not putting weight on one foot. She does have two toes that are swollen so they prescribed pain medicine this time. She is so, so weak and trying to compensate for one leg while the others are already unstable is not going well. Dr. Green said she's not sure she has it in her to rally again and so we are right back in the same situation and are faced with that terrible decision again. We will see how things go, the girls and I are scheduled to go to Disney World on Wednesday and I'm just praying she can at least hold on until we get back.
I ended my FB post with "So...we are counting our blessings and enjoying every day we have with her...hoping they are many, but realizing they could be very limited." And suddenly, the days once again seem to be very limited. It's just so hard...and the tears are once again flowing.
1 comment:
(((HUGS)))
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