Erik

[cellio]

I talked with the surgeon. Erik is not coming home tonight. Probably tomorrow.

Biopsy report: severe cholangial hepatitis, severe pancreatitis, and by the way they found e coli in his gallbladder but IIUC the drugs they're giving him are knocking that down. Usually you starve e coli, he said, but (in his words) "we need to keep pushing the groceries into him".

White blood cell count is normal. He's anemic, but apparently that's normal given his condition. (I don't know if that means normal for this surgery, normal for one of the conditions he has, or what.)

He said probably the way to treat the pancreatitis is with steroids, but that can't start until he's healed up from the surgery. There's nothing we can do right now.

He was already being treated for the hepatitis; dunno if there's a dosage change coming or what. I need to review all of this with his regular vet, of course.

He declined to make a call on prognosis for all of this.

Meanwhile, I've talked with my manager about ways to accommodate the need for feedings every six hours (for a week or so). I'd been assuming mid-day runs home, but asked optimistically about taking over a small unused room and just bringing him in with me. (Probably won't work, but we need to ask the powers that be.) He suggested working half-days from home; I'll have to see if I can make that work.

Comments

[jhayman.livejournal.com]

Hopefully somebody explained that hepatitis=liver inflammation, in this case resulting from blocked bile duct/gall bladder?

Anyway, best of luck to little Eric. If he's come this far, he's a tough little guy.

[cellio]

He previously had a diagnosis of "possible cholangial hepatitis" (based on previous bloodwork and an ultrasound). There are no medical bad consequences of treating it even if he doesn't have it, so we've been treating it. Today was the first time I heard an adjective like "severe", so I'm really hoping that's an acute condition brought on by the problem with his bile duct (now fixed).

Anyway, best of luck to little Eric. If he's come this far, he's a tough little guy.

Thanks. Yeah, he must be a tough little guy. And yet everyone at the clinic who's talked with me has commented on how well-behaved and affectionate he is, even through this. When I saw him (oh so briefly) last night he looked thoroughly dejected, but maybe being carried around by unfamiliar people does that. I think being back home will be a help for him as well as for me, so I hope that's soon.