Today, however he began the day with a lot more energy. When Russ went out of the bedroom to get breakfast, there were three little puppy heads at the end of the bed waiting for him to come back in the room. We took Kirby outside and Russ turned around and there was Kirby already up the steps at the top one waiting to come back in the den! All day he has walked around...down the hall and into the bedroom door without bumping into anything. Outside, he still has bumped into boundary objects but has gotten around with a lot more energy and purpose. When we came back from church, he was at the door with the other two dogs waiting as usual. In fact, the second time we came home Kirby just about slipped out the door which would have been a real disaster since he's not wearing a collar or tags due to the healing jugular catheter spot.
Yesterday, we didn't get the needle into the right depth of the subcutaneous spot in the nap of his neck and the fluid went in but just a little bit. We tried and tried and it just dripped a slow drip even though we squeezed the bag. We searched the internet. We appeared to be doing everything right and up until yesterday, it had worked. Kirby had begun to express some discomfort when we stuck him so we were worried. Then on the way to church I remembered the vet student telling us that if we didn't go deep enough the fluid would just barely go in. When we got home from church we tried it again and sure enough that was the problem. The fluid went in quickly and effortlessly and Kirby napped while we did it. Thank you God for answering our prayers.
Tonight while we were finishing watching the news in the den, Kirby barked for us to go back to the bedroom. Anytime he is barking orders, we know he's feeling better and are thrilled that he is. If we can just get out of this one bad day, one good day routine and have several good days in a row...things will begin to look up significantly. Of course, it has only been seven days out of ICC so he's doing very well.
Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be cool again so we can spend more time outside. We take him back to the vet at MSU on Tuesday to do repeat blood work to see how his kidney values (BUN and creatinine) are doing. We are sure praying that they have decreased and that we might be able to decrease the amount of ringers lactate we are giving daily. It's hard to stick needles in him multiple times a day in the same spot without the area getting tender and the cost of the bag of ringer's lactate is about $15 a day. If his kidneys can keep his toxins flushed out more efficiently, we will be able to reduce the amount over time. With the cost of the prescription dog food and the frequent blood tests and vet visits, we could use a little break. We are going to begin making his special food just as soon as we get a consultation with the Ohio State Vet School referred by MSU to learn exactly how much protein to use for his body weight and all the vitamins and other ingredients we need. That will be both less expensive and we will use organic foods without preservatives. His kidneys need as few things to filter as possible.
If you are working with a dog with kidney failure, we will be sure to post what we learn about creating a special diet. We hope that our blog will help others going through a similar experience. We have been blessed by our facebook friends praying for Kirby's recovery. I think most everyone who reads Kirby's blog is an animal lover and understands why he is so important to our family. Before we had Kirby nine and a half years ago we had no idea how much we could love a pet. We had no idea why people would refuse to leave their pets during Katrina. We just had no idea. Period. Now we've become those people.
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