If I wrote this post Friday or Saturday or even yesterday morning I would be telling you how we are kicking Cushing's ass and expect internet high fives all around. Thursday we got her on a couple of meds to get her GI issues under control and she was perky and happy and EATING which was a huge win. Actually about 45 minutes after giving her the first pill to help with her appetite she looked up at Nick, kept her eye on him as she slowly leaned down, grabbed a treat she had ignored for days, and ate it. Since then it was this crazy improvement of eating more, feeling better, looking better... "OH MY GOD THIS IS WORKING" moments between Nick and I. It was good.
Then yesterday afternoon and evening she wouldn't eat again. Same story this morning. But she still looked pretty good, so I wasn't overly concerned. Just seemed like something we should drop in on the vet to discuss in order to prevent any major back sliding on our progress. He looked at her and thought all seemed well since she looked so good, but gave us a couple of suggestions to try... oh, and he thought we should rerun the basic blood-work, just to be safe.
Kidney failure.
WTF
Apparently she has had it for a long time and it is not related to the Cushing's. Actually, in a random and confusing twist of fate, the Cushing's actually TREATED the kidney issue for the last few years. Even in her blood work from two weeks ago her kidney numbers were slightly elevated but overall fine. Now the numbers are completely off the charts awful.
So... we have options. We are thinking them over. There isn't a cure. This isn't something she could bounce back from like the Cushing's, which by the way, the blood-work showed is looking much better based on her liver enzymes, so we really were in fact kicking Cushing's ass. We can continue to give her fluids and a medication that will help in the short term and could buy her some quality time. We have decided to try it for now, even if it's just to give us time to process and think. Yesterday she was getting better, today she is dying of kidney failure. Wednesday Henry starts kindergarten. Not that it matters, but it totally matters. We want this week to be about school and excitement and fun... not explaining once again about heaven and illness and how sometimes people and animals just don't get better, no matter how hard you try.
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