12_15 Update

Whew! What a day.

We stopped in for Dr. Walthall to check over Elvis since her last time to see him was last week in the middle of the night. From what she could hear, his heart sounds good (for what we're working with here), but his lungs sound like the Rice Krispie guys. Snap. Crackle. Pop.

His medicine was refilled and didn't particularly change. He's got 1.5 ml Lasix (that's been .75 twice a day, but I think I'm going to split this into three doses and see if it helps. He can have a morning, lunch, dinner dosing). His Guafinisen stays at three 1/2 pills a day. His Enalapril (heart med) will stay at 1/4 pill twice a day and his Torbutrol will stay at 1/2 pill before bed, and another 1/4 during the day if he needs it. He'll end his anti-biotic tomorrow night, so that that will be one less pill to fool with.

Dr. Walthall wanted to consult with another vet about possibly using steroids on him for his wheezy breathing. The concern here is that it could thicken the fluid he's got with his congestive heart failure, but I suspect we may try it for at least a little while if we can. His breathing is really bad.

He's also going to get a monthly heartworm treatment like the rest of the house does. I want to talk to her about that again, because the shelter doesn't provide the treatment for fosters, and I use Ivomec liquid. He would get a tiny dose, but I'm going to have to get a 1 cc syringe before I can do much. My syringe isn't calibrated that finely.

So that's where we are right now. There's no question he's improved over last week, but I really would like something that would help ease his breathing because that seems to be what triggers his bad coughing spells.

Not sure if I'll update tomorrow or not. A lot depends on what I hear about his steroids and if his sleeping habits change (we're back to sleeping through the night which is MUCH appreciate).

I'm hoping to get a few pictures in the next week. I'd hoped to get some before now, but there's not much point when he hasn't felt well. He's feeling much better now, though, so pointing a camera in his direction is more likely. :)