Missyisms

Reggie and the Cardinal and His Family

For a larger version of the image (and slightly better view of the cardinal), click here. Reggie usually ignores birds, but this time he charged. The cardinal wasn't too scared, he jumped the fence and showed us his superior profile.

For all his bravery at simply clearing the fence, Reggie lost interest and set off to tour his kingdom yard. Since Reggie had moved on, the cardinal took to being a daddy and came back into my yard and feed one of his babes up in the tree.

Mommy figured her work was finished and watched from the fence. No word on the other babies. (Click for larger views at Flickr.)

I sure wish I had a camera with a better zoom.

Reggie and Pancreatitis

Late last week Reggie got sick again with another bout of pancreatitis. It's probably my fault...I was thinking he was doing great! Silly me for thinking that way. Luckily we caught it earlier and he didn't get as sick as last time, which is great. However, the vets decided he needed to be on an IV again. Since Reg wasn't as sick, Reg didn't want to just lie around and Reg wouldn't calm down when the vets put him in a crate. After listening to him whine, cry, pace, dig, and howl for a little while, the vets decided I should take Reggie home and keep him on the IV here. Since Reggie wasn't as sick as last time, Reggie didn't want to lay in the crate here either, so keeping him still was a big challenge and at one point when I was taking him out he charged away from me yanking his IV so hard it bleed. It was not an easy time.

Thankfully, since he wasn't as sick, the IV stayed on for less than 24 hours and he was switched to oral anti-biotics. The vets are hoping that these frequent bouts of pancreatitis are because of the prednisone, which we hope to lower his dosage again late next week.

Oh, when they decide to hook Reg to an IV, they really wrap him up. Here he is in the car on our way back to the vets to have the catheter removed. They practically put his leg in a cast...a good thing I guess since he yanked it so hard.

The Good and the Not So Good

Reggie woke me up at 5:00 A.M. needing to go out. This was the first time since last Monday's crash that he did this. And, he was straining to have a bowel movement, which was a sign of problems last week. This made me nervous heading into his 10:00 A.M. vet appointment. Reggie is also not eating his regular dog food.

The vets did several blood tests and a biopsy on the lump on his chest/shoulder area. All his blood counts are better, and some are even within normal ranges, but a few are still high. Not high like they were last week...one count was over 6,000 and should have been below 1,800...but still too high. All good news. Also, the lump is a fatty deposit and benign, so nothing to worry about. Because Reggie had bowel problems and isn't eating properly, they switched him to canned food, which I am disappointed, but resigned, about. He's been eating better today.

Monday and Tuesday of this week Reggie's energy levels had been increasing and he'd been very cheerful and sweet. Today, Reggie has slept and been devoid of energy.

So, mostly good news, with some concerns mixed in. But as the vet pointed out, last week Reggie almost died...he's definitely improved since then!

Oh, the vets decided to be cautious and gave me another week's worth of anti-biotics for Reggie. Reggie's pills are a little mind-boggling at the moment:

• Two drugs Reggie takes the whole pill.
• One drug he takes 3/4 of the pill.
• Two drugs he takes half a pill.
• One drug he takes 1/4 of the pill.
• Two of the drugs I have to cut.
• Two of the drugs the vets cut for me.
• One drug Reggie only takes at night.
• One drug Reggie only takes in the morning.
• One drug has to be taken about 20 minutes after the others or he'll vomit.

How many drugs does Reggie take? Just kidding, this isn't a math test.

Life on the Rush

Since Reggie's illness last week I've been scrambling to get caught up. I don't know if I'll ever make it, but I'm trying. If I owe you an email or a call, I hope it will be coming soon.

Tomorrow morning Reggie and I go back to the vet's for follow-up blood work. Late last week Reggie's liver, kidney and pancreas counts were no longer off the charts, but they weren't very good either. (Reggie's liver counts haven't been good for years.) Also, Reggie's red-blood cell count had dropped since Monday's reading and his white blood cell count was elevated. Hopefully, the anti-biotic medications and the Prednisone will have helped improved these numbers.

Reggie's liver is so big it's pressing against his heart. This might, or might not, be caused by the Prednisone. Last Monday we lowered the Preds, but since then his red-blood cell count dropped...but that might be because we lowered the Preds or because of his infection...we don't know. He also has a lump near his elbow/chest. Since Reggie first got IMHA and started on Prednisone in November, his body mass has changed. So I don't know if this lump is new or just part of the way the steriods are affecting his body.

I don't know what Reggie's future holds, but I strongly suspect there will be a lot of monitoring via the vets.

Reggie Shocker

Reggie is home and resting peacefully.

Wow! Just yesterday morning they were asking me how much effort I wanted to put into keeping him alive. That was when they suspected leukemia or cancer. Once those were eliminated, and the focus shifted to severe pancreatitis and bad infection, his chances improved, but they are still shocked at how much better he got today.

He's off the IV. I've been giving him about a teaspoon of food every half hour to see if he can hold down food since he hasn't eaten since Monday. He's taken a few of his medicines in pill form instead of via the IV. If he starts throwing up or gets worse again, he'll have to go back on the IV. Many of his liver, kidney and pancreas counts are still high, but not off the chart like they were earlier. He's been peppy and happy, and is now sound asleep.

He's pretty weak and can't jump into his favorite chairs, which annoys him. And more seriously, his liver is so swollen it is pressing against his heart. He'll be on anti-biotics for a while. They also noticed a lump near one of his shoulders, but we didn't get really get to explore that. And his voice is raspy.

I don't know the long-, or even, short-term effects of all of this, but right now he is miraculously better! Thanks for all your comments and emails!

In other news, the HVAC people were so late and I had to leave at 5:00, so they only installed the furnace and will have to come back to re-connect the humidifier and install the a/c. This is rather annoying. I've also noticed that there is a high pitched noise coming out of one of the cold air returns that was never there before. They'll have to fix that. It also makes a humming noise when it isn't running. You have to be in the utility room to hear this, but shouldn't it be completely silent when it isn't running? Does anybody have a similar issue?

I hope Reggie and I can sleep through the night. We're both exhausted. We need a quiet weekend...lately that hasn't happened, but maybe this time.

Travels with Reggie, Update

Reggie and I both are wiped out exhausted, but he's the only one smart enough to be in bed sleeping. Sigh.

A quick update. Reggie was not well this morning, so the vets changed his anti-biotic. This seemed to help. His temperature has dropped some...very good...and he looks better. His ultra sound showed an enlarged liver and pancreas, but the other organs, including the kidneys and spleen, looked good. No sign of leukemia or cancer...excellent news.

Right now the vets think Reggie has severe pancreatitis and an infection. And though he's better, he's not out of danger yet; the kidneys need to start working properly. He drank some water when we got home, which I think is a good sign. He's been sleeping ever since we got home, but I'll need to get him to go out soon.

Reggie will spend tomorrow at the vets again. This is good because tomorrow my new furnace and a/c are being installed and the house is going to get cold. My good buddy CP is coming over in the morning so I can leave the workers in the house and take Reggie to the vets. God bless her!!! Hopefully they'll be finished with the install by 5:00 PM so I can return to the vets and get Reggie before they close. I don't know what the weekend will hold for us.

Thanks for your prayers and well-wishes. Keep 'em going. (The IV bag is under a black bag because there is B12 in the fluid. Although why that means it has to be under a bag, I don't know!)

Travels with Reggie

Reggie had been doing pretty well; except needing to go out more often because of his new dog food. But then...powie.

Reg woke me up at 3:17 AM Monday morning to go out. He seemed fine, but when we went in for his already scheduled vet appoinment at 10 AM Monday morning I warned the vet that sometimes Reggie's nightly calls were the beginning of something bad. The vet gave Reggie a quick physical check and tested his red-blood cell (RBC) count. The RBC was about the same as it was the last time, so we lowered his Prednisone dosage.

Everything seemed fine, but Monday evening Reggie started vomiting. A lot. I actually put him in bed with me and covered him up, something he usually never allows, because he was shivering so bad. He eventually got over the vomiting, but was fretful and uncomfortable the rest of the night. Neither of us got much sleep that night. I went to the vets to get more anti-vomiting medication and they decided to also give me an anti-biotic for him. Since Reggie had been in the morning before, the vets didn't check him at this point, which was fine with me.

Only, Reggie got worse. He didn't want to move around, at my parents' house he found a door to hide behind and sleep...something else he never does...and he was straining to go to the bathroom. They said to call if he got worse...so I did and we went in this morning. Reggie went from 15.4 pounds Monday morning to 14.6 pounds Wednesday morning and he was getting listless. They did a full blood panel and discovered several of his pancreas, liver and kidney counts were off the chart. (But his RBC was actually up a bit.) Reggie's liver counts are usually off, but this was much, much worse. X-rays showed that his pancreas is inflamed/swollen and his liver is enlarged. We're hoping his pancreatitis is the cause of all this.

He's home now, but on an IV drip. I've never operated an IV drip before and it's both very easy and very difficult. Reggie is exhausted and has only left his open crate when I've carried him outside. When I go to bed I'll close up the crate just to be safe and will get up every few hours.

Well, I'm thankful we caught this before it got even worse. I wish I knew what caused it, because it hit so fast. I don't know what this means long term for Reggie.

Feeding Time

Since you couldn't really get the full effect of Reggie's haircut in yesterday's picture, here's another photo. In this Reggie demonstrates his eating style: snarfing, not savoring.

Don't you wish you had a Reggie too?

Before and After

Reggie finally got groomed today. It was desperately needed, but kept getting delayed because of his health. Here's how shaggy he looked right before we left.

And here's how he looks now:

It's hard to tell in this picture, but I think they over scalped him; however, he's feeling better and it will grow. He looks nicer than the picture suggests.

Snow Elephant

My parents took me to see an elephant today.

This is about 1.5 blocks from my parent's home. It's apparently been on the local news, but I never saw it. I wish I had seen it before it started to melt; nevertheless, it's still very impressive! I'm afraid it will be completely gone in a few days as the snow is now rapidly melting.