October 27, 2006 Ups & Downs

Well, we have been through a number of ups and downs with Grover since my last email. Here's where we find ourselves now - Grover's biopsy confirmed that he does NOT have cancer. Very good news! He has had a serious and life threatening pancreatitus attack though. On Tuesday his liver and kidney values were pretty messed up too - and that was a serious concern to my vets (all three of the Westlock Clinic's small animal specialists are working on Grover's case). Yesterday showed improvement in his pancreas values and recovery on his liver and kidney values. He is drinking water and able to hold it down.  He ate a little bit of food Tuesday evening, but promptly threw it back up - and that is the big issue now, we simply cannot get him to eat. This appears to now be the roadblock to his recovery. 

Yesterday afternoon, because of low protein levels Grover got a blood transfusion - and after that was done I managed to convince Dr. Lawrence to let him bring him home for the night. He hates the vet clinic and we hoped bringing him home might perk him up enough that we could get some food into him. It hasn't, but he does seem much happier here at home.

He's a pretty funny boy, being home is good in his books, but where he really wants to be is in the dog yard. At feeding time I did put him out on his chain - and by including him in the normal feeding routine, we did manage to get him to eat a bit of soup, which was good. When it was time to come back to the house, I practically had to drag him back in. Once in, he paced for a bit and scratched at the sliding doors before settling down. He slept comfortably beside our bed last night.

I've got to have him back at the Clinic at 9:30 this morning and I'm going to talk to them about starting to force feed him, as we have tried just about everything else.

I thank everyone that has emailed with good wishes and kind thoughts. It means alot. He's such a special part of my life, it is very reassuring to know that their are folks that understand that and are pulling for him.  We aren't out of the woods yet, but the path is looking relatively promising.

With gratitude,
Karen