One Last Chance

Hi bloggers, I want you to know that I've been reading your posts whenever I get some spare time even though I haven't been able to leave many comments. I'm trying to get back to my normal blogging time, but things have been a little hectic around here.

I want to let you all know where things stand with Samba's illness. The Tylan didn't work for either Samba or Sky. Samba has continued to go downhill, refusing to eat anything or to take meds except by force. The diarrhea also continues for both of them. Bailey and Tess are both doing much better and by the end of next week should be back to normal.

I made the decision on Wednesday that next Monday morning we'll put Samba down. I called the vet and told him. On Friday morning he called and asked if I still felt the same and I said that I had not changed my mind. He asked me to bring her in, that he wanted to examine her and talk to me.

Samba is down to 30 pounds now and is very frail. His examination showed that she is not in pain and is not running a fever. He said if I'm determined to euthanize her on Monday, there's one last thing he wanted to try. If it works it could save her, if it doesn't work she'll spike a fever, become  very sick, perhaps collapse and we'll have to let her go immediately. He said that if it fails and we lose her, we'll know that we tried everything we could do. I listened to his plan and agreed to try it.

He gave Samba an injection of Dexamethasone and one of Vitamin B12. He wants me to give her a high dose of Prednisone every day plus an antibiotic and some B12. We'll know in just a few days if this will work. The high amounts of steroids will bring back lots of side effects such as thirst, frequent urination, tremors, etc. One of the good effects might be increased appetite.

Dr B also listed several foods he wanted me to try and feed her, things he doesn't usually recommend such as chicken liver breaded and fried in olive oil and tuna packed in oil. He wants her to get lots of calories.

So what's happening? Last night Samba got hungry. She ate about half a dozen boiled shrimp and at bedtime had a small bowl of yogurt. This morning she ate some dog food and half a can of tuna. Mid morning she tried some of the fried liver. She's being much more cooperative about taking her meds today, too. So far there's no fever and she's resting comfortably.

As for Sky, Dr B says he's in no danger as of now. He had a bit of a fever yesterday and is now taking an antibiotic. He hasn't lost any weight and the doctor thinks the diarrhea will improve soon.

So now we wait.