Dooks to all, and my sincere condolences to all who have sick babies, or
who have lost their beloved fuzzies.
 
Last week Bailey (the Bop) had her exploratory surgery.  She started out
well after the surgery, but she s gone down hill on me.  She was sick to
her stomach on Sunday, so I gave her a little peach juice and she seemed
all right.  I ve been making her drink duck soup and water from an eye
dropper when I didn t think she was drinking water.  Yesterday she didn t
seem like she felt good, so I drove to the vet and asked if he had anything
I could entice her to eat (thought maybe he d have A/D).  He asked if I had
her with me, I said yes.  So he gave her a vitamin/steroid shot to help
perk her up.  I got her to eat a little more soup.  This morning she seemed
really hungry and ate a lot and then was deathly ill.  I got her to work
and she still was sick.  So I got a coke and flattened it, gave her a
little of it at a time.  (I d checked with the vet to make sure this was
all right) I called and asked if I could bring her in, she had the dry
heaves.
 
I had spoke with one of the exotic vets at the Purdue Vet clinic on Monday
(Dr. Steve Thompson), and he said to try feeding her tuna fish, they do
this with ferrets that have been ill and in the clinic.  I told him all
that had transpired from her exploratory and he told me she probably has
the beginnings of adrenal even though the exploratory showed nothing.  He
also told me about Iams Recovery Diet, but since she wasn t a Purdue
patient there was no way I could get some.  Today I spoke with Dr. Alondra
Martin there at the clinic (the other exotic vet) and she told me the same,
but suggested getting Iams Recovery diet.  I told her I couldn t because
Bailey wasn t their patient.  She then told me, she knew I had a vet but
she would be more than happy to work Bailey in, that it was up to me.  She
also said they were going to get Lupron there and since Bailey didn t
tolerate surgery well, this would be her option.  She suggested running all
the blood work and everything, and I know that my regular vet hadn t done
this.
 
Well, I got to thinking about it, and used my head secretary as my second
conscience.  By the time I was through running this through my head I had
cancelled my appointment with the regular vet and had Bailey into the Vet
Clinic.  They took her back for blood work and I went back to work.  I
heard from Dr. Martin at 4:00pm.  It doesn t look good for my Bailey.  She
has kidney disease (possibly), at the least her kidneys are working against
her..  Even with all I ve been doing she s dehydrated, her blood is very
dark red, she s slightly anemic.  The reason she was vomiting was that she
was going into uremic poisoning.  So Dr. Martin and I talked-they have her
on a heating pad, covered with towels.  They did feed her the recovery food
to which she almost tore it out of their hands and she hadn t been sick.
So I gave permission for them to keep her over night with IV fluids going
to her.  Dr. Martin said it s possible that the level of things (sorry, so
upset can t think of the terms) in her blood caused by the kidneys could go
down.  I thought she was urinating when she pooped, but they couldn t even
get a urine specimen from her today.  Dr. Martin told me she wasn t going
to try to get my hopes up too much-but that this could turn around.  She
said that Bailey could have had kidney disease and the surgery just
triggered it into this.  Also that if the vet had given her injectable
antisthesia and that might have caused something.  I thought he d given
Bailey an IV but Dr. Martin said no sign of that.
 
So tonight my Bailey the Bop fights for herself.  And I have to ask all of
you to send really good thoughts to her, any prayers you can.  She s such a
tough little girl, and I can see her racing around, huge empty pill bottle
in her mouth, rearraging her bottle collection.  I ve been crying so much,
and feel that if I hadn t had this surgery she d be all right-that this
wouldn t have happened to her.  I feel that this is all my fault, but Larry
and Sara keep telling me it s not, I did what I thought was best, what
would help her.  I feel so totally helpless at this moment for her.  I went
upstairs and all the rest of the Crew must have known, because they acted
extra silly for me, but right now, sitting here typing this, I m kicking
myself all over.  Please, please send your good thoughts and prayers to
Bailey.  She needs them so much to help her through this.
 
Rebecca & the Crew of Merry Mayhem
 Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste
 good with ketchup
[Posted in FML issue 3054]