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Hello, all. New here.
My baby's name is Bella Grace. She is a 9YO Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, my furry soulmate, and the absolute love of my and her daddy's lives. She has been diagnosed with diabetes for about a year, with not too much success regulating it.
A few months ago, she came down with gastroenteritis, spent 3 days in the hospital, but made it out fine ($4,000 later, of course).
Two weeks ago, she became really sick again with high blood sugar, DKA, and acute pancreatitis. After 3 more days in the hospital and about $3,000 more, she again came home to us despite the "very poor to very guarded" prognosis of the hospital vets. She fought that battle hard and was absolutely determined to come home.
Starting this past Saturday, she began to refuse to eat, became nauseous, and began to become lethargic again. We took her in just to buy a glucometer and have the vet show us how to do it. By the time we left, she was back to her perky self (she absolutely hates it there now). However, Sunday/yesterday was a long, lethargic, not-doing-too hot day for her.
Her ribcage puffed out (she was bloated - I think the vet calls it "distended abdomen"), obviously retaining a lot of fluid, and not having much luck keeping down food. So, we switched her to tiny meals of boiled chicken, small portions of water, and ice chips. We also took her along (re: basically dragged with abundant encouragement) for longer walks to try and get everything moving down there. It seemed to work.
But this morning, she has only had water - is interested in food/boiled chicken, but vomits it back up with copious amounts of water and/or bile. She manages to keep food down for about 6-8 hours only to have it come back up.
She's on Prilosec (for nausea) and an antibiotic from her last hospital visit - the vet kindly extended her prescription. She's also very, very lethargic and clearly doesn't feel well at all. The swelling in her rib cage did go down significantly until Daddy let her drink too much water (she has mastered "The Look").
I am pretty confident it is her pancreatitis coming back to bite us since I've read that it takes about 5 weeks for that to fully resolve. However - here is our predicament. We have already sunk around $8,000 into our baby. We can NOT afford to take her back to the vet even for a visit for at least a month, if not longer.
In order to get her treated this last time we had to take out a payday-type loan and pawn all of my jewelry - including my engagement ring. The vet is aware of our situation and they are doing their best to help us by phone whenever they can - however, obviously they keep repeating that we should bring her in.
It's not that I don't want to take her back - it's that we positively can't. Also, despite her lethargy and general I-don't-feel-good demeanor, I can tell she is still in good spirits and has a good attitude. She still seems to like her walks, definitely wants to eat/drink, and perks up when we talk to her.
That all being said - I found this forum looking up pancreatitis comorbid with diabetes, and I noticed when exploring the forums that several of you have had the same/similar problems.
What is your advice concerning her current situation? Do I just withhold food and water for a couple of days? Do I keep trying to do small meals/portions of water/ice chips? I want her to be comfortable, but I also want her to feel better. She's a little dehydrated - but again, water doesn't seem to stay down (ice cubes do seem to help a bit).
In case it helps, she's on 7 units of Vetsulin twice a day and the glucometer we bought is the AlphaTrak2.
Any advice or similar experiences you have to offer would be amazing. I feel awful for not being able to take her in - but the small efforts I have tried on my own seem to be more-or-less helping in some way.
BelleBelle and I thank you in advance!
My baby's name is Bella Grace. She is a 9YO Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, my furry soulmate, and the absolute love of my and her daddy's lives. She has been diagnosed with diabetes for about a year, with not too much success regulating it.
A few months ago, she came down with gastroenteritis, spent 3 days in the hospital, but made it out fine ($4,000 later, of course).
Two weeks ago, she became really sick again with high blood sugar, DKA, and acute pancreatitis. After 3 more days in the hospital and about $3,000 more, she again came home to us despite the "very poor to very guarded" prognosis of the hospital vets. She fought that battle hard and was absolutely determined to come home.
Starting this past Saturday, she began to refuse to eat, became nauseous, and began to become lethargic again. We took her in just to buy a glucometer and have the vet show us how to do it. By the time we left, she was back to her perky self (she absolutely hates it there now). However, Sunday/yesterday was a long, lethargic, not-doing-too hot day for her.
Her ribcage puffed out (she was bloated - I think the vet calls it "distended abdomen"), obviously retaining a lot of fluid, and not having much luck keeping down food. So, we switched her to tiny meals of boiled chicken, small portions of water, and ice chips. We also took her along (re: basically dragged with abundant encouragement) for longer walks to try and get everything moving down there. It seemed to work.
But this morning, she has only had water - is interested in food/boiled chicken, but vomits it back up with copious amounts of water and/or bile. She manages to keep food down for about 6-8 hours only to have it come back up.
She's on Prilosec (for nausea) and an antibiotic from her last hospital visit - the vet kindly extended her prescription. She's also very, very lethargic and clearly doesn't feel well at all. The swelling in her rib cage did go down significantly until Daddy let her drink too much water (she has mastered "The Look").
I am pretty confident it is her pancreatitis coming back to bite us since I've read that it takes about 5 weeks for that to fully resolve. However - here is our predicament. We have already sunk around $8,000 into our baby. We can NOT afford to take her back to the vet even for a visit for at least a month, if not longer.
In order to get her treated this last time we had to take out a payday-type loan and pawn all of my jewelry - including my engagement ring. The vet is aware of our situation and they are doing their best to help us by phone whenever they can - however, obviously they keep repeating that we should bring her in.
It's not that I don't want to take her back - it's that we positively can't. Also, despite her lethargy and general I-don't-feel-good demeanor, I can tell she is still in good spirits and has a good attitude. She still seems to like her walks, definitely wants to eat/drink, and perks up when we talk to her.
That all being said - I found this forum looking up pancreatitis comorbid with diabetes, and I noticed when exploring the forums that several of you have had the same/similar problems.
What is your advice concerning her current situation? Do I just withhold food and water for a couple of days? Do I keep trying to do small meals/portions of water/ice chips? I want her to be comfortable, but I also want her to feel better. She's a little dehydrated - but again, water doesn't seem to stay down (ice cubes do seem to help a bit).
In case it helps, she's on 7 units of Vetsulin twice a day and the glucometer we bought is the AlphaTrak2.
Any advice or similar experiences you have to offer would be amazing. I feel awful for not being able to take her in - but the small efforts I have tried on my own seem to be more-or-less helping in some way.
BelleBelle and I thank you in advance!
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