I'm grateful..

I'm grateful that Janine is better. How do I know she is still doing well on only 10 mg of Pred? She got into a fight with Teddy and none of her boo-boos ended up bleeding all night or swelling into giant hematomas. (Teddy is limping.)

I'm grateful that the Imuran is working for her and that she can get off Prednisone.

I'm grateful that I can afford to pay for her care.

I'm grateful that she has become a snuggle bunny in the last month. I don't know if it was being sick or being gone for three days or just finding out, when she wasn't feeling well, that cuddling was nice, but she used to be a very independent girl and now she likes to cuddle more.

Good news

After eleven days on half as much Pred, Janine's numbers are good. Platelets are normal, PCV is normal, ALT is normal, WBC is normal. RBC is a bit under normal but that may be the vet's office's machine. So we are going to try cutting to half again, which puts her (19.6 lbs) at 10 mg a day, still a healthy dose of Pred. She'll stay on the same dose of Azothiaprine for now.

Maybe we can make some inroads on that muscle loss and potbelly!

Effects of Prednisone

Janine is still doing well but you can see she is getting the Pred potbelly, poor girl! We will be trying to reduce the dose soon and hopefully that will diminish somewhat. She has always had such a sleek figure.

A new cuddlebug?

I don't know if Janine just doesn't feel so good or has gotten to like it, but she is turning into a cuddle bug. She has never been one to come cuddle so this is new and very nice. She has always liked hugs from anybody but then was very independent and doing her own thing outside or at the door. Now she likes to snuggle up with me.

I noticed the vet's office clipped her nails. I'm glad they are cut but not too happy that they did it before they knew her platelets were up, and that they did it without asking me. But it does save me from Dremeling them this weekend so I guess its a toss-up.

A corgi's dream...

Janine is living every corgi's dream- she gets to eat as much as she wants! Not whatever she wants, but as of yesterday she has her vet's okay to eat whatever she can. Starting today she is getting three meals. We are trying to put some weight back on her. Weight loss could mean cancer, but it also might be a result of the drugs and of not feeling really great. Over the summer, I deliberately kept her weight down since she was limping off and on. So now we will see if three squares a day will get her back up. Luckily she is ravenous due to the Prednisone.

My vet says if it IS cancer, the drugs seem to be working, so for now we'll stay with it. The plan is to go 10 more days and then try to decrease the Prednisone since it seems like the Azathiaprine is what is helping the most.

I really want to get her to Christmas so she can chase bunnies at least one more time, even if it turns out to be leukemia.

Vet visit 10/30

We just got back from the vet. Janine's platelets are back up, but so is her white blood count. Liver is doing okay. Hematocrit is still low but coming up. She's still losing weight, though, despite extra food, so that is a concern. The plan is ten more days on the current regimen, then cut the Pred in half for ten more days, then recheck. If anything is off in the meantime I'll bring her in.

The good news is that platelets normal means I can grind her nails! yay!

Janine is doing very well, by appearances. She seems to feel good and looks good. The muscle loss from Prednisone is showing but otherwise she looks the same. Her nails desperately need grinding but not until I'm sure her platelets are back up.