Simone Update 9/30

Simone is doing well. She had a check-up Friday at the OSU Veterinary Hospital and was well received by her previous medical caregivers :) She has gained about a pound in the last week despite not wanting to eat much other than chicken, hot dogs, and canned tuna. The doctor prescribed an anti-nausea drug to give her three times a day, and has taken her off the antibiotic and one of the liver support drugs to see if that makes a difference. Her bloodwork came back as improved. Despite being down to one prednosone a day (her original vet had prescribed 8 pills a day), her platelet levels are still normal, so her thrombocytopenia is under control. Hooray! Her bilirubin was down to 1.7 (still more than twice as high as it should be, but considering that it was 16 about a week and a half ago, this is amazing!) Most of her liver enzyme values are lower than they were a week ago, with the exception of her ALT, which is about the same. The decrease in the other liver enzyme values was significant, but they still are elevated and still not in the normal range. We have been told this is just going to take some time. We forget that she's only been home a week!

She's still pretty weak, but is getting better at going up and down stairs. She decided she wanted to come upstairs today and did so with no assistance (just mom and dad on either end for support, but she didn't need it). She also made it back down okay. We're excited by the prospect that she is starting to get her strength back. We're still sleeping downstairs on the air mattress with her until we feel comfortable with her going up and down the stairs unsupervised. We'll probably still be camping downstairs for awhile, but it's nice to know we're getting closer to normal every day!

She's perked up quite a bit in the last 24 hours (probably thanks to the anti-nausea drug), and has been wagging her tail a lot more and wanting to play. She's been taunting us with her new teddy bear and squeaky car toys and chewing on her bones. She's also started burying things outside again, as evidenced from her muddy nose and missing bones/treats. We're so happy to see her coming back from this!