After a very rough night Saturday with Sibella, I was pretty much resigned to taking her to the emergency vet clinic to be euthanized. Sunday morning she seemed a bit perkier. She ate small amounts of tuna which was more than she had eaten all weekend. I kept setting small goals for her like, if she gets up to drink some water and have a wee in the next 45 minutes I'll wait a bit longer or if she responds when I say her name I'll wait...all day Sunday that went on. I went into work today and finally got the call from the vet's office. Kidney failure AND a urinary tract infection. The vet said if it were based just on the blood work she would recommend euthanizing her, but since there is a UTI that could be skewing things she thought it could be worth it to treat the UTI with antibiotics and keep her hydrated with sub-cutaneous fluids and keep her appetite up with a stimulant. Of course they wanted to keep her there for 4 days to the tune of $450-$750. In reality what is happening is she will be at home and be given injections of 150ccs of fluid from an IV bag daily. So, I am cautiously optimistic that the treatment for the UTI will clear up some of the issues and then we'll manage the kidney disease issue for as long as possible. It is so hard to know what the right thing to do is sometimes. I vowed after a long drawn out ordeal with my rabbit Chloe that I would never subject an animal to pointless treatments but here I am in the thick of it and I might very well be doing that. Just so everyone knows, Sib sleeps a lot by the heaters, she is as comfortable as I can make her and she is able to walk and is more responsive (it seems, fingers crossed). She seems frail and that is heartbreaking but dodders around and she isn't as vocal as she was on Friday and Sat. My thanks to those that left comments earlier. Blaize, once we've gotten to the other side of this ordeal I will be asking for some advice on food. Thanks!
2 comments:
Awwww, sorry to hear. It's so hard to know how much to treat a pet's medical needs, when you are in the middle of things. Hugs.
xo
Aly
I had no idea, I've been behind again in my reading! I'm so sorry you had to go through this. It's what we do with pets though. It is so tough to know when to provide mercy and when to hang on. I had the same issue when Ozark was dying. Looking back I want to say just what you did, that I won't let the death drag out so long next time. But how can we know? You have to do what feels right to you in that situation and not kick yourself later no matter what decisions you made.
Poor Sibella!!
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