A Sick Baby

I know i haven’t posted in several days but that is because I've been taking care of a sick baby.  Lucy our beloved is very sick.  It started when we were at Big Cypress.  We thought it was just a bug like the rest of the dogs had.  The water there was very salty and so the dogs got a bit of diarrhea and started potting more.  After we left there we put the dogs on bottled water and after a few weeks they seem to clear up.  Well .. all but Lucy.  She hasn’t acted like she felt good but nothing serious.  She has been losing weight and eating a lot less.  Which we had been trying to slim her down so we didn’t think much about it.  This past week she went down hill fast.  She basically stopped eating anything except for some ham. 

I did some calling around and finally on Friday i was able to get her into a vet.  Blood, urine and a stool sample were taken and $275 poorer we left the vet still not knowing what was wrong with our baby. All we really knew when we left the vet was that our baby had lost 13 lbs lately, she is half the size she use to be.  She still needs to lose about 5 lbs or so they tell us.

Saturday morning the vet called with the dreaded news that Lucy has diabetes and appears to be in the late stages.  Apparently she has had this for some time and we were not aware of it.

We headed back to the vet for her medication and yes another bill for the prescription food and her medications.  It's been a very expensive few days.

Lucy will be on Insulin the rest of her life and will need to be on a controlled special diet and is now on prescription food only. She was also prescribed an anti biotic.  The problem is the anti biotic they have given her is making her sick to her tummy and so now we are fighting vomiting.  Her outlook appears to be not so good and the vet here has basically told us to make her as comfortable as we can and there is no telling how long before her end is near. 

I have called my vet back home and on Monday i will be faxing him a copy of the test results and then we will discuss our options.  We may be returning home even though winter is not over.

If she get’s much worse we have several decisions to make....

1. Do we pack up and head straight home even though it’s just the beginning of March and there can still be some severe weather there?

2.  Do we pay the thousands of dollars it will take to have her admitted to the doggie hospital to get intervenes fluids and treatment which is still no guarantee she is going to make it even if we do the treatment?

3.  Do we just have her put down here (although for me this is not really an option as i want her buried back home)

We have spent most of the day with a heart filled with sadness.  It’s a gloomy day outside, it rained a bit this morning, the wind is blowing hard and gusting at times.  The temps have dropped to 65 and it’s cold.  My back is aching and we are spending every hour trying to get water and a bit of food down our baby. I’m still in my jammies, it’s been a hard day for us.

Please remember our baby in your prayers, we are very sad and just sick having to watch her suffer through this.