Tuesday, November 23, 2010

I don't have good news to post.

I'm going to make this short, since I've got a pounding stress headache...

I took Kaswyn to OSU last night and dropped him off. This morning as I was heading over to the vet hospital the surgeon called and said his blood work came back with a low white cell count. She said this is indicative of an increased amount of endotoxin in his bloodstream, which can develop into diarrhea that could potentially be fatal. She did not feel comfortable operating on him today, even though she says he appears to be fine in all other aspects. She will repeat the blood work this evening and tomorrow morning, since it's possible to get a low count with a normal sample as kind of a fluke. If the white count is normal both times, she will operate. If it is not, then she will begin treating him for the endotoxins and he will stay at the hospital until his condition stabilizes (when the white count is normal). Then I have to take him home for two weeks and we can try this again.

I debated staying in Columbus but she said that even if she did the surgery tomorrow that she would want to keep him until Thursday just to make sure he was okay. So the earliest he could come home is Thursday, and he might have to stay longer until his white count is up enough.

I decided to leave him there, since I really should be back at work tomorrow. I cried for an hour and a half on the way home. Now, I'm not a weepy kind of girl, and I hate for people to see me cry, so it was really best that I cried in the car without anyone there. Now my eyes are all red and puffy - I look fabulous!

Anyhow, there is a long list of things that could have caused this, but a few are - shipping stress, change of environment, and antibiotics. Well, I had just driven him 2.5 hours to get down there, he choked on December 1st and then was on 10 days of antibiotics. So, yeah, great.

Right now I'm waiting to hear about this afternoon's blood work. I hope they call soon. Not knowing is really hard for me. And thinking about my poor boy down there alone without me makes me so sad. I asked the student who is assigned to him if she could get him out and walk him around a bit if he had to be there for a few days. She said she would.

So that's the update. I wish it were good news. But right now, it's not so great.

3 comments:

Mac v Mac said...

Chin up Sheri! Some positive Australian vibes being sent your way =)

Anonymous said...

Sending good thoughts that the first test was a fluke and the vet will be able to take care of him.

Achieve1dream said...

My goodness! I feel bad that I did not read this in time to give you comforting words, but I'm also glad that I didn't because it would have upset me! Thankfully I've been following his progress on Facebook (although I missed any news of this), so I knew he was okay. I'm still sending him good thoughts regardless. I hope he is home and happy. I am so behind I don't even know right now.

 
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