Gio Update - Monday

Sorry for the delay in updates. I know some people have been wondering how Gio is today, but I just didn't have an opportunity at work to update the blog.

Some good and some bad news today.

First, the good. Gio looks FABULOUS! Compared to how he has been the past couple of days, he looks great! High spirits, happy wagging tail and kissy-facing. He's peeing like normal (but still just for me, not the kennel staff). They offered him a few bites of wet food today and not only did he eat it but he kept it down! No puking at all today! And when I went this evening for a visit, he had a tiny little healthy looking poop. The waiting room was nearly empty and he looked a little antsy, so I tried out some very informal loose heel patterns in the open areas. He was so keen to work, very sloppy in his performance, but the attitude was all there! Not reluctant to sit or do his fancy hind-end movements, so at least I know he is not uncomfortable or in pain. He looked so happy to work again, even just that little bit of heeling and sits in the waiting room!

The bad, or at least "not so good", is that some of the tests they ran today came back less than stellar. They redid the ultrasound to check out his pancreas, and the pancreas is more swollen than it was on Thursday. His stomach is also full of fluid, and it appears as if he has eaten a couple small pieces of his kennel pads. Because his pancreas is more swollen, it has actually constricted around his gall bladder, causing a bit of a back up and an overflow of bilirubin into his bloodstream. The vet says that this isn't a huge deal, and once the swelling goes down then it will all even itself out again.

Gio's case has been transfered to a different doctor as his original doctor had to leave town on a family emergency. This new doctor is much more scientific and "to the point" than the original doctor, but because of that she seems to be a little more pessimistic as well. So I think she may be wording things as if they are worse than they really are. Not trying to fool anyone (or myself) into thinking things are fine, of course. Gio is still a very sick puppy. But I find that the vets at the college here seem to project to the worst case scenario right away. Just a trend they all seem to follow.

I have a theory ... call me naive or stupid for trying to reason around this, but hear me out.

Gio had the initial ultrasound on Thrusday and they found minimal swelling. He went downhill over the course of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, to the point that he looked like death warmed over on the weekend. Then today he looks great (comparatively), and when they do the ultrasound again they find that the pancreas is more swollen than it was on Thursday. My theory is that he was at his worst, so the most swollen, over the weekend, and that caused him to feel worse and look as bad as he did. But now, if the swelling is going down, maybe he is looking and feeling better because of it. So maybe (hopefully) his pancreas was at its worst on the weekend, but they didn't catch it because they didn't redo the ultrasound until today. If it is starting to trend to the positive again now, then he would naturally be feeling and acting better, right?

Like I say, maybe I am just naive and fooling myself here. But I have to have hope. Everyone that has been following this has been so supportive and optimistic, that I cannot be otherwise. I have to have hope.

They are going to redo some bloodwork tomorrow, and hopefully it will prove my theory and show that the swelling is going back down again as compared to the last bloodwork done on Saturday.

So fingers crossed for more eating, less puking, lower bilirubin scores, and decreased pancreatic enzymes in the blood work compared to Saturday.