Day 3

So yesterday Elsa spent the entire day at the vet again receiving IV fluids at a reduced rate while they tried to get her to eat various canned dog food with very minimal success although she ate mini Milk Bones like candy. They gave her some sort of shot to stimulate appetite but still had little success getting her to eat. I already told them how fussy she can be about eating but they seemed to think it was something else causing her not to eat. In addition to the appetite stimulant they sent me home with four bottles of pills to address various things related to appetite and one for pain/sleep. I was confident that her not eating was totally because of what they were trying to get her to eat, not because she was not hungry. Last night she proved me right.

My girlfriend cooked up chicken breast in a pan and mixed it with rice. Elsa ate a plate and a half of it. I did not give her any of the pills. She has kept the food down and her energy level seems good right now. Everything is not roses however, she had diarrhea when we brought her home but she was ok afterwards. She had a more solid BM at 3AM when I took her outside. Last night she had several times when her body was shaking. Each time it happened it stopped relatively quickly and I did not notice it this morning. That was another reason I wanted to not pump pills into her unnecessarily, who knows how they interact and what symptoms they could cause.

Her blood work numbers relating to kidney function have improved but are still in the danger zone. The big question is if there is significant permanent kidney damage. We won’t know that answer until more time passes and more blood measurements are done. When I talk to the vet yesterday she made an indirect reference to the possibility of Elsa ultimately not pulling through this which hit me hard. We certainly are not going to concede that outcome.

This morning I was back at the vet. They removed the IV port but wanted to inject fluid under her skin to assist in keeping her hydrated. She emerged with a big bubble on her back which looked odd. I took her back home. I am a bit nervous leaving her alone but I will be skipping the gym to go check on her over my lunch hour. I also set up an indoor Ring cam so I can monitor the main living space to see how she is doing.

It already has come in handy when I used it to see that she had drug out a few things from under a table that I forgot to put out of her reach. I immediately ran home, fearing she chewed/ate something again. Luckily it appeared she did not.

My girlfriend and I will keep doing whatever we can to weather this health storm for Elsa. It’s been challenging so far and I expect more challenges to come.