Ritka and Heat Stroke 20 Aug
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, but still twice a day. We have an appointment to see her at 8:30 pm. They also took her urinary catheter out which Ritka seems to appreciate. She is able to go outside to pee and is feeling well enough not to pee in her bed.
Near dusk, we took Rusty (Harris Hawk) and Farli (13 year old Vizsla) out for a walk. We only found one jack rabbit which Rusty ignored and Farli did not see. We have had trouble finding good places to hunt in the bay area.
We saw Julien Guillaumin when we were waiting for Laura Sunday evening. He said that part of the reason to move Ritka was to reduce our cost a bit. The good news is that her Platelet count is up to 58,000 and her creatinine is down to near normal. The liver enzymes look like they are still responding to the damage done last week. The bad news is that Ritka is continuously dripping diarrhea and won’t eat. Laura walked Ritka down the hall toward the waiting room area. I heard Laura’s voice and went to see – Ritka was visiting another client waiting in the hall way. Ritka immediately started wagging her tail and came over to see me. I sat on the floor and we snuggled a bit there in the hall.
Wesley and Dr. Guillaumin came over to see and Wesley brought the supply of tempting food we had brought back to the exam room Laura had prepped for our visit. Laura had layers of soft blankets covered with absorbent bed pads. Ritka lay on the pads and we tried to tempt her with several foods but she turned everything down. Ritka had her eyes closed most of the time. Even when she opened the outer lids the third eyelid was usually closed. The insides of Ritka’s ears and around her eyes were yellow from the liver damage. Her eyes also seem sunken. Since she has nothing in her gut, she looks starved behind her ribs.
After a bit, Ritka got up and walked into bare floor to vomit. She vomited up quite a bit for a dog that has not eaten since last Tuesday. She lay down for a bit and then got up and walked into the corner to vomit one more time. After that she stood. She was obviously very tired, but I think she was afraid she’d throw up again. She still wanted to be petted. Eventually she wanted to lay down in my lap. Laura came by and gave her another dose of her anti-nausea medicine and left us to cuddle. Wesley slept in the chair and Ritka and I rested on the floor for a bit. We turned out the lights to help everyone relax. When Laura came back it seemed time for Wesley and I to go home to bed and for Ritka to her hospital bed. Ritka did not want to go with Laura back to the ward.
December 18th, 2006 at 5:20 am
Even when she opened the outer lids the third eyelid was usually closed.