and now, a lovely infection for the pup

Day 6 after ICU and Diagnosis, and she started to looking pretty lethargic. Day 7, and she was squatting multiple times, and getting me up every hour through the night to go out. I called the ER, and they said she could be blocked, could have an infection. 3am and I’m zooming with pup to the ER. They ultrasounded her, no blockage found, took a urine sample and did a UA and UC. A preliminary spin showed blood and white cells – infection, so given broad-spectrum antibiotics. They did more cultures to determine which bug it is and what will kill it.

It was an E Coli, super resistant, and they were pretty sure she caught it from the ICU. After 4 weeks of several cultures and tests, the one that would definitely wipe the bug out was Amikasen. This has the possible side effect of Kidney failure, is injected, and feels like a bee sting when given. Since her system had been so recently compromised, Dr. M also wanted her to get 1 liter of subcutaneous fluids every day. Timing was important – pup need the amikasen to stay in her system as long as possible to kill as many bugs as possible. The fluid needs to be given when I will be able to let her out to pee every hour or so. I finally figured out that the shot should given over lunch when I would bring M with me to massage pup’s ears while I stung her back end with antibiotic – subcutaneous, so it didn’t hurt as badly as it might if I had to inject straight into a muscle. Then every evening, I had pup lay next to me, and I gave her the fluids. I used my floor lamp as an IV stand, and discovered that if I insert the needle into the loose skin around her neck, I can get the whole liter into her in about 20 minutes.

And every other day, she had to go in to get a urine draw to check her kidney function. If her values changed at all, we would have to take her off the Amikasen and figure out something else. Every day, every night, I actually prayed to whatever is out there, to my sister, my grandmothers, my friends, anyone, to keep her kidneys strong, to let her get better, to kill the bugs, because if this didn’t work, what were the options? Were there any options? It took them 4 weeks to find Amikasen, so how long to find something else that worked? To get her through the Addison crisis only to have her die from a bladder infection seemed terribly cruel. 2 weeks of this, and it seemed interminable, made worse since I was getting little sleep, letting her out to pee through the night, and still so sick with worry about the unknown.

Side note: these were the visits that made her so wary of going to the vet's– each draw, they had her lay on her back (so vulnerable) while they took urine with a needle. Now whenever she sees a tech coming toward her, she crawls up onto my chair and hides behind me, sometimes she shakes with stress. I make sure she gets a little pred before each visit, no matter what they’re going to do.

Meanwhile, I was still easing her down off the pred. She started at 20mg a day, then to 10, then to 7.5, week by creeping week. She would bark crazily, and to say that about a pyr, the barking champion of all dogs, is saying a lot. But the memory of her being so sick and still and quiet tempered that, and I knew she wouldn’t be so loud forever. She’d also pant at a crazy rate, like she was having a hot flash. We started putting cold packs on her belly when they seemed particularly bad, and M even bought an especially designed bed with pockets for coldpacks. These helped quite a bit, but the bottom line was to get her off the pred as quickly and safely as possible.

Pup was eating with gusto, and at first I let her eat all she wanted to gain back some weight. I’m particularly sensitive to being underweight – I was sick for several years and became “scary-skinny”, made especially frightening because I couldn’t control it. I’m fine now, but old fears die hard. So pup gained her pounds back in a few weeks, plus a few – up to 113! Some was pred weight – it can puff one up. Dr. M wanted her to get back down to 105 or so, so the limits were made. This was new – a pup who really REALLY wanted more food but couldn’t have it! Luckily, one of her favorite treats is a bowl if ice, so she has several bowls a day, which is also really good for her kidneys.

A few more weeks, and a few more cultures, and she was clear of the infection. I could breathe a little better, but only with guarded optimism. Breathing became a hobby of those other people, those relaxed ones.