BayWing

Ritka has DIC (Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation), probably triggered by heat stress from coursing jack rabbits at the Yolo Wildlife area near Davis on Tuesday 15 August. I’ve tried to tell her that she is supposed to point them – but she had too much fun playing with the whippets last year. She disappeared for about […]

Dr. Groff said that before he left Tues night at midnight, Ritka was feeling better, sitting up and climbing in the laps of the techs. On Wed 16 August I had a dentist appointment at 9:30 am and then went into sit with Ritka at the emergency clinic. Because they had a meeting, they set […]

Wesley went by the emergency hospital first on Aug 17 Thurs am. I did a bit more to get ready to spend the day with Ritka. But when I got there the Vets were discussing sending her to UC Davis. Her blood pressure went down to 128 last night, but back up to 15? later. […]

I talked to the resident assigned to Ritka, Julien Guillaumin at 10:30 on Friday 18 August. Her platelets were 22,000. However I’ve been told that the margin for error is such that this might not indicate that platelets are really going up. There is that much error in the tests. The blood in her eyes […]

I had a call from the weekend vet student, Laura Whitehead, about 10:30 on Saturday 19 August. Ritka vomited twice since last night about 3 am and about 6 am. She gets up and tries to leave her bed to vomit. She also pushed on the x-pen door when Laura approached with a leash. So […]

The vet student, Laura Whitehead, called 06 Aug 20 Sunday morning to give us a status report. They felt she no longer needed to be in the ICU and moved her to the regular wards. I’m not sure what they based it on since they had no new lab work. She is vomiting less often, […]

Laura Whitehead, our vet student, called this AM and left a message. She said Ritka seemed to feel better and was no longer dripping diarrhea. Her eyes were open and she was much more alert. She still did not want to eat, but had not vomited again since I left. I was a bit frustrated […]

Renae called about 10 am to up date us on Ritka. She was not feeling well this morning. She had her third eyelids closed again. She did not want to even look at food and was generally lethargic. Renea called ophthalmology to look at her eyes. I worried all day today, but decided not to […]

One of the reasons that we think of Ritka as a very special dog has to do with the story that goes with this photo: The dog playing with Ritka here had not been properly socialized as a puppy. It had some tendency toward aggressive behavior, as is typical of insecure dogs when forced into […]

Renae called about 9:30 this am. The bad news was that Ritka had vomited about 3 am. But otherwise she looked good. They were happy with her willingness to eat. They planned to take her to ophthalmology today. They said they may take her feeding tube out today. We had a 6:45PM appointment to see […]