JJ update
Original sender: Eric----
JJ continued to improve over the weekend. I got at least 2 phone calls per day telling me about his progress, I usually got phone messages since I was judging in an area with very poor cell reception.
Saturday his BUN fell to 99 and he tried a little baby food.
Sunday his BUN fell to 45 (27ish the high end of normal; JJ’s record 395 on Wed) and he ate a whole jar of baby food and sampled some other food. He is still not eating like a normal dog (not even close to how a cattle dog eats). He walks outside to potty and his stool has progressed from diarrhea to soft. He still has a digested blood color to it that suggests some sort of ulceration; probably from the pain meds of a week ago. JJ has been helping to balance his fluids by drinking regularly on his own and is producing prodigious amounts of urine indicative of busy (if not effective) kidneys. The culture of his blood came back negative (nothing growing in his bloodstream). The culture of his wound (sampled Wed) is positive and they hope to identify the pathogen soon (today?) so they can verify that they have him on the appropriate antibiotics.
Today the surgery folks take over his care and will be removing his vacuum bandage. What they find in his wounds will determine what happens next. I have not spoken with them yet. He will be assigned a new student and a new vet. The internal medicine folks suggested (in the most guarded way) that if his leg is progressing well that we might make plans to bring him home towards the end of the week; certainly I need to figure out when I can visit him next. Given the way his condition has changed so quickly (good and bad) I won’t be making any big plans for a few days.
JJ continued to improve over the weekend. I got at least 2 phone calls per day telling me about his progress, I usually got phone messages since I was judging in an area with very poor cell reception.
Saturday his BUN fell to 99 and he tried a little baby food.
Sunday his BUN fell to 45 (27ish the high end of normal; JJ’s record 395 on Wed) and he ate a whole jar of baby food and sampled some other food. He is still not eating like a normal dog (not even close to how a cattle dog eats). He walks outside to potty and his stool has progressed from diarrhea to soft. He still has a digested blood color to it that suggests some sort of ulceration; probably from the pain meds of a week ago. JJ has been helping to balance his fluids by drinking regularly on his own and is producing prodigious amounts of urine indicative of busy (if not effective) kidneys. The culture of his blood came back negative (nothing growing in his bloodstream). The culture of his wound (sampled Wed) is positive and they hope to identify the pathogen soon (today?) so they can verify that they have him on the appropriate antibiotics.
Today the surgery folks take over his care and will be removing his vacuum bandage. What they find in his wounds will determine what happens next. I have not spoken with them yet. He will be assigned a new student and a new vet. The internal medicine folks suggested (in the most guarded way) that if his leg is progressing well that we might make plans to bring him home towards the end of the week; certainly I need to figure out when I can visit him next. Given the way his condition has changed so quickly (good and bad) I won’t be making any big plans for a few days.
posted by Elf at 9:43 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home