Could use some good thots...Snickers has IMHA

$750 a month?!  Yikes!

I'm glad she's having a better day and eating too!  Yay!  Continued good thoughts for recovery and to be able to come home! 

Doctor Bailey was willing to sell cyclosporine to me for his cost (which truly -- vets don't make much on their meds).  Just make *sure* you use Atopica and not the human drug.  I've seen MANY cautions on the various IMHA websites *not* to use the human drug.  It's just not formulated to absorb right and they get sick on it.

  This is a very good update; I hope she keeps improving.

What's Snickers' dosage on the Cyclo?  I may have a very few 25s left; if so, I'd be happy to send them on....Emma was on 2x35 mg and 2x10 mg per day, and it was still about $200 a month for her; I don't know what I would have done had she been a big dog who required three times that much. :(  (Well, no, that's a lie--my credit card would just be warmer than it is now! XD)

There's also a rebate thing you can get from the manufacturer if you send in a receipt and barcode from a package of Atopica; I don't remember whether it's a coupon for a discount on your next purchase or a cash refund, though I think it's the former.  I never sent mine in because I wasn't sure what they were going to be doing with her dosage; don't know whether it's too late to do this and send you a coupon or not--
 

 She is on 100 mg twice daily :( Though I'd be happy to use the coupon if you have it :) I really appreciate it!

We'll get through this, one day at a time. Snickers today is hovering around 24 at the new place. She's been picking at her food and in ok spirits. I've decided to leave her one more night to get her checked tomorrow morning again just to be sure she's not going to crash very soon. I miss her terribly and will go visit her tomorrow regardless after I run the dog sled tours.

Boy this cold/flu is hitting me hard, I have a nasty fever, aches, sore throat and am weak all over...  guess this is what beating my body up with stress all week will do to me.

 Back to bed...
 

We're sending good vibes for Snickers to keep battling, and for you to feel better, too.

 I am glad she is doing better, and you need to take care of you too please. Saying prayers here for a continued improvement.

IMHA is one of those weird ones--yes, it's true that they can crash without warning, BUT it's also true that they can go along and go along and you just don't know that they're going to improve--and then they do!  The e-vet had told me that Emma probably wouldn't regenerate, because after five days she still wasn't making those reticulocytes.  I remember just being so terrified that, even if we could pull her through the first bit of all this, there might be something even worse, long-term, waiting around the corner. :(  And then, when she was at the outside edge of when they're supposed to be able to show regeneration, she started making those baby red blood cells.

We're all pulling for you and for Snickers.  I wish I had lots of good advice to give you, like Callie does, but please do know that we're rooting for you here, as well! 

Just wanted to say you continue to be in my thoughts and prayers.

Atopica comes in 100, 50, 25, and 10 mg.  So as you wean off everything comes in multples of those somehow. 

The coupon rebates back to your vet which is supposed to give you money towards your next purchase.  So what ... will you go get her tonight (thinking you have school tomorrow?)

Take care -- Callie

.. Snickers is home! Her levels held at 24 yesterday 25 today and she is home now at my feet as I type this. She is very weak and has lost a lot of weight, but her spirits are great... she ROLLED in the snow when she got here. I just gave her a handful of kibble and she ATE IT! Her jaundicey yellow eyes are way better and her tongue is light pink again, not white.
She's not out of the woods yet but she is hanging in there. we need to get through another week of all these meds and then hopefully we'll start to see the levels rise rise rise.
Here's hoping...
DH had to drive me to Portland and back to get her... the flu has hit me so bad.

No school tomorrow thank goodness... I have ALL Week off for spring break. I can care for my girl and try and get better myself. Off to make some steamed chicken for her, yum.

Also, to steal a tip from Callie (and I LOVED IT when Pirate was sick) was that I got two of those weekly medicine boxes (with 7 compartments) and laid out the meds for a whole week at a time, one for the morning and one for at night. That way I could make SURE I wasn't forgetting/misdosing him. It also made the countdown through the week easier.

Yep -- Wal-mart to the rescue and I STILL use them.  IMHA is daunting in the amount of meds and trying to make sure you do them all 'right'. 

Given the pancreatitis issue you can't put meds in cheese (dairy can make her sick and it also inhibits the cyclosporine absorption), BUT baby food works great.

I wish I was flushed enough to use organic, but I just get Gerber.  I mix a jar of meat with a rectangular container of veg and rotate among beef, chicken, lamb and all the veggies.  Drop the pills in the babyfood mix, use a plastic spoon and scoop up and let her lick it off the spoon.  But you will be able to give several pills at once (with another lick of baby food in between) ... AND I let Luna and Kee have a lick too (so they think meds are 'great' AND it keeps that competition thing going. 

You may not want Koahle in on the equation but it would work with Oliver I'm sure. 

YAY!  Go, Snickers!

And I just have to say--that is the EARLIEST I have EVER heard of a school having Spring Break!  Ours isn't until April!  Gotta be an answer to prayer, seriously.

Get well, yourself, please!  Take lots of naps with Miss Snickers--it'll be healing for both of you. :)

<3 Wendy and Emma