Micah is on the upswing in his health!!  Finally!!

Then it happened!  On March 8, 2017 (Wednesday), I got home from work (around 7:30 p).  Reached down to pet him and there was a golf ball size swollen area under his left ear (where the lymph nodes are) and a tennis ball swollen area under his chin (the middle of his chin area).  When I touched him – he whimpered.  Now what…

I emailed Dr. McGuffin at 8:30 p and at 9:00 p he responded that he needed to see him.  I could drop him off or see him the next day at 8:30 a.  I thanked him…

Dr. McGuffin called me…  Micah had a fever.  The blood work showed his neutrophils were at at 90 (normal is between 3000-12000).  Micah was fighting an infection – and losing.  He put him on an antibiotic IV, aspirated the two swollen areas and sent it for testing.  The area by the ear had pus… the area under the chin was fluid.   He consulted with other vets at the practice… the infection – they thought – was in the parotid gland.  The culture came back as e-coli (a resistant form of e-coli with few antibiotics that can fight it).  He stayed overnight.  When I picked him up… he was still swollen (and was through the following Monday).   Had antibiotics (“Oh no!!  What will that do to his stool?? ”  Oh well… Micah needs help fighting this illness!!) and told me to lower the predisolone from 10 mg to 5 mg.  He thought that the dosage of predisolone played a role in him not being able to fight the infection.

It took until Sunday before he wanted to play again and wanted to eat again – and boy did he eat!!  The doctor put him on more antibiotics after the weekend…  in order to truly kill the infection (as he didn’t want a relapse).

Went back for a recheck… the infection appears to be gone (but his temperature was still up a bit).  He lowered the dosage again of predisolone to 2.5 mg once a day.  Micah’s weight went from 17.8 lbs. when he came home after being sick (down from 20.4) to his highest weight ever… 21.4 lbs.

One more joyful thing… throughout the antibiotics – he had firm stools!!  So although we were messing with the good bacteria in his gastrointestinal system – the probiotics must have kept it balanced!!   We will need to go back again for a recheck…  hopefully I can wait until spring break!

Again… we are on the upswing!!