Sports Challenge Winner & Update on Snow

Congratulations

Maria of Joyful Stamper

You are the winner of a $10 gift certificate of Sunflowers and Dragonflies line of stamps

Update on Snow

I have received so many personal messages on concern regarding Snow.  Thank you all so much.

It has been one month since Snow was found unconscious and spent the weekend in the London emergency clinic.  We found a new, and well loved vet, who put her on a trial of holistic medicine and food.  Aside from finding blood in her stool, she has been perky and happy.  Until today.

This morning we woke up and found Snow lethargic and slowly slipping away once again.  She couldn’t walk, hold her head up, or keep her eyes open.

Unfortunately, our new vet was out of town.  Lucky for us, another vet (in a nearby town) looks after things when my vet is out of town, and as luck would have it, she just attended a Vegas conference on portosystemic shunts.  Basically, Snow’s system is not cleaning out the bad things via the liver, so she is poisoning herself.

The vet told us that Snow is a very unusual case because she presented with a shunt problem at an early age.  Typically shunts do not appear for 3 to 4 years.  Typically the symptoms Snow showed today, show up after a meal.  Snow’s symptoms show up on an empty stomach.  Because Snow isn’t a textbook shunt case, liver disease and an ulcer is suspected.  Blood work was done and showed the same problems that she had in London a month ago.

An ultrasound will be arranged at the teaching university in Guelph, 200 km (160 miles) away.  Hopefully we can have it within the month.

Late afternoon, the vet called to speak with me to get an update on Snow, and made herself available if we need her through the evening or night.

Snow was started on her lifetime regime today:  2 antibiotics, 1/4 tablet of pepsid (a full size pill is smaller than 1/4″), and special canned reduced protein diet.  Snow won’t be able to enjoy her pea-sized pieces of cheese or scrambled eggs any more.  I was very happy to hear that Snow can continue to eat her favourite snack–raw carrots.

Her Medi Cal diet pushes everything through her system very quickly which is extremely important with liver disease.

It’s now bedtime, and I’m heading to bed with Snow.  She is happy and ate two big bowls of food in the afternoon and evening.  After a good nights rest, she will be back on her feet begging to be picked up and loved.

Needless to say, that shortly after you read this, I will be making a thank you card for the Vet in Forest.  She and her staff were terrific.

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