Artemis update
So, we took Artemis in for her follow-up on the 17th. Damn the place was busy, but it was the best time we could get at the time.
She was down another 5 ounces, putting her at 7lbs, 1oz. The doctor wanted to do some more bloodwork, try to figure out what the problem was. So we did that, and got the results on Monday. Nothing really conclusive, so he decided to do an ultrasound.
The only day that they do ultrasounds is on Tuesday, and they couldn't specify a time. So we dropped her off yesterday morning, and picked her up early last evening.
The good news: she doesn't have any tumors. So no cancer, at least, not well advanced cancer. The bad news: she doesn't have fatty liver disease, which is easily treatable. The ultrasound tech indicated that it could be a number of things, one of which was hepatitis. The only way to CONFIRM that is to take a liver biopsy, which has the chance of making her bleed out, which would lead to, like, death. So, no.
It's possible she has a number of other things, but we're going with what we can treat at the moment.
The vet treated us well and explained everything. He also highly recommended that we move them to a wet food diet, not a dry one. So he gave us some cans of a/d and k/d (though indicated k/d would be better if they would eat it) along with amoxicillin with prednisone and another amoxicillin with something for the hep in it. We give her one in the morning and the other at night, and are keeping her on the metrowhatever it is pills once a day.
She hadn't eaten anything all day, so when we got her home, we gave her a quarter can of the wet k/d, and she chowed down hard on it. Seriously. The vet was concerned since we've always fed them dry that she wouldn't eat wet, but she tore into it like a house afire. So we gave some to Athena when she came out, and Artemis tried to go for hers! I had to put Athena in our bedroom with the door closed so she could eat in peace, and then Lou gave Artemis another quarter can later, which she also pretty much polished off.
The vet also gave us a different syringe thing for the amoxicillin, which has made delivering it so much better. Not an eyedropper, but a little syringe without a needle on the end, so we just push it all out into her mouth at once. So much easier.
We're still giving her treats after her pills, but the last few days she hasn't really been interested in them. We had to buy some new ones, but we got the exact same brand, and Artemis is kinda meh. So we may stop those soon, since Athena gets them to not show favoritism, and she's basically eating them all. And SHE does not need to gain ANY weight, Ms. 14lbs!
I'll be taking Artemis back next Tuesday for a follow-up. Hopefully her levels will be good and she'll have gained weight back. *crosses fingers*
She was down another 5 ounces, putting her at 7lbs, 1oz. The doctor wanted to do some more bloodwork, try to figure out what the problem was. So we did that, and got the results on Monday. Nothing really conclusive, so he decided to do an ultrasound.
The only day that they do ultrasounds is on Tuesday, and they couldn't specify a time. So we dropped her off yesterday morning, and picked her up early last evening.
The good news: she doesn't have any tumors. So no cancer, at least, not well advanced cancer. The bad news: she doesn't have fatty liver disease, which is easily treatable. The ultrasound tech indicated that it could be a number of things, one of which was hepatitis. The only way to CONFIRM that is to take a liver biopsy, which has the chance of making her bleed out, which would lead to, like, death. So, no.
It's possible she has a number of other things, but we're going with what we can treat at the moment.
The vet treated us well and explained everything. He also highly recommended that we move them to a wet food diet, not a dry one. So he gave us some cans of a/d and k/d (though indicated k/d would be better if they would eat it) along with amoxicillin with prednisone and another amoxicillin with something for the hep in it. We give her one in the morning and the other at night, and are keeping her on the metrowhatever it is pills once a day.
She hadn't eaten anything all day, so when we got her home, we gave her a quarter can of the wet k/d, and she chowed down hard on it. Seriously. The vet was concerned since we've always fed them dry that she wouldn't eat wet, but she tore into it like a house afire. So we gave some to Athena when she came out, and Artemis tried to go for hers! I had to put Athena in our bedroom with the door closed so she could eat in peace, and then Lou gave Artemis another quarter can later, which she also pretty much polished off.
The vet also gave us a different syringe thing for the amoxicillin, which has made delivering it so much better. Not an eyedropper, but a little syringe without a needle on the end, so we just push it all out into her mouth at once. So much easier.
We're still giving her treats after her pills, but the last few days she hasn't really been interested in them. We had to buy some new ones, but we got the exact same brand, and Artemis is kinda meh. So we may stop those soon, since Athena gets them to not show favoritism, and she's basically eating them all. And SHE does not need to gain ANY weight, Ms. 14lbs!
I'll be taking Artemis back next Tuesday for a follow-up. Hopefully her levels will be good and she'll have gained weight back. *crosses fingers*