PUPdate

Here is the latest on Baxter, as of this morning.

To recap, Baxter is 12 years old, with known kidney issues, for which he has been doing well on a special kidney-diet dog food.

On Saturday, he started losing his appetite and showing signs of nausea and soft bowel movements. This continued through Sunday. His appetite stayed down, to the point where we were handfeeding him on Sunday and Monday. I have some over-the-counter meds for upset tummy and gave it to Baxter, but the symptoms didn't abate.

We brought him to University of Penn's emergency vet yesterday, because I know they can do labs and get answers back right away. When you go to a regular vet, it can take a couple days for the bloodwork numbers to return, and I didn't think that was a good idea with his history of funky kidney numbers. The hospital admitted him for testing and supportive care.

I just got a Baxter update:

Kidney and liver numbers are off. He also has a heart murmur (which we knew), but he will have an echocardiogram to see just how much treatment he can tolerate for the kidneys without causing heart failure.

The liver numbers were unexpected. They are also giving antibiotics just in case there is an infection hitting both kidneys and liver, even though there is not anything pointing strongly toward infection.

The trouble with the heart/kidney issue combo is that the treatment for one is bad for the other. So it's a waiting game until we establish just what is the cause of the symptoms, and just how to handle both situations without causing a crisis.

And if all the worst answers come back and palliation is not an option, they will allow me to be there with him. I made sure of that.

But right now, we are just looking at finding a source of the symptoms, so we can figure out if there are any treatment options and what they are, and getting him feeling better in the meantime.

Everybody at the hospital loves him. They're all making a point of telling him how sweet and handsome he is. So I know they are taking care of that aspect of his needs, as well.

The cats are walking around calling for him. They were too busy playing last night, but now they are certain that their brother isn't here. They love their doggie brother.

I am worried about my little munchkin. I know when our furbabies age, we have to face the fact that they aren't going to be with us forever, but I am hoping we will be able to have him with us a while longer. I love that little bitty guy.

The vet will call later with another update.