Tuesday September 19, 2000 - 10:06 AM

I want to update Precious' story. Back in August, I had a scare. I took her in for a PCV level check and it had dropped again. Her temperature was elevated to 104.9 due to nerves. Since she is still in a false pregnancy (since April) She is fully engorged with milk. The Vet felt lumpy mastitis and felt that we should draw fluid if her PCV doesn't turn around next week at the check up. Well, her PCV was still down so we drew fluid. Thankfully it wasn't a tumor (my biggest fear) but milk ducts inflammed. Well we had to get her down to every other day of prednisone before spay is possible with out the anemia returning.

After 2 more weeks, her PCV returned to the normal range and maintained it while titering her Prednisone. She now could get spayed if she stayed within the reference range until next week. She did! It was 39! So she got spayed September 13th. She did great. She was a little tired that night but other than that she was fine. Her incision is only 1 inch!

Anyways, our next big step is to drop the Imuran drug at the end of September. Then 2 weeks into October we'll recheck the PCV before cutting the Prednisone to 5 mg every other day.

Behaviorially, she is getting more comfy at the Vet's, but her temp still elevates. She is quite the ham at home though. I've been waiting to really work outside the home with her as I don't want to compromise her health in any way. She still loves to eat and the day she was spayed she topped the scales at 43 lbs., which is over 10 lbs. more than what she came in weighing. She also loves to bunny hop upstairs. She can clear 8 stairs up only touching down on the 4th step. I do think she has an awful lot of Stafforshire Terrier in her. It's really apparent in her little face. She also loves to sleep under my bed at night. She goes to my closet and raids the dirty clothes hamper to make a pillow for herself. It's really cute to see her trying to "sneak" across the room dragging clothes in her mouth! Thank you to everyone that has been sending messages of encouragement and love toward her during this time. It really shows how many kind hearted people visit the PBRC site.

Megan

January 7, 2001

From what I've gathered from the people on duty at the Vet Hospital when I picked her up, Precious may be keeping her PCV level up this time. We will continue to titer off the imuran and recheck the PCV in the next few weeks.

Once she was free from the hospital she became her goofy self. She also won over the heart of Francesca, one of the vet techs at the hospital. She and Precious were friends. I wish her immune system was stronger to try to piggy back these experiences on top of one another. Even though the bill was several hundred, it's better than the $1,000 to remove her spleen. When I heard the price, I once again mulled over the options and considered euthanasia.

While away on vacation, I thought it over and decided to recommit to her, again, even before hearing that she maybe able to hold her own. This may sound harsh, but before vacation, I was feeling like I was sinking money into a sinking ship, then Tootsie was lost after one day of placement, etc. I'm now rejuvenated and am looking forward to helping Precious kick this AIHA.

She has decided that accompanying me out the front door and down the street to the mailbox is FUN! She used to fear this (and everything else).

Megan