No news would’ve been better than the news I got today. The vet called and Ripley’s white blood count was low (rather than high, which would be seen in an infection). Additionally, one of her kidney tests came back high, which means things aren’t working correctly there either. Due to the kidney numbers, I had to take her off the diuretic for now. She’s going to remain on the antibiotics because those won’t hurt anything, though it’s starting to look like she doesn’t have an infection. Really, the problem is that there are so many conflicting things going on, it’s hard to diagnose. The latest thing to rule out is a lymphosarcoma. The vet thinks it is quite possible that she has cancer in one of her organs and it spread to another. Great.
We had to run to the vet’s office again this afternoon, as she wanted to give Ripley some fluids to make her more comfortable over the weekend (since her kidneys aren’t functioning properly).
Ripley’s going to need to go to Monroeville for an ultrasound of the kidneys and chest. They will also do a chest tap so that the fluid in her chest can be tested. This has not been scheduled yet. I have to call the vet’s office on Monday with an update on her condition and then we’ll talk about scheduling it. I keep getting the idea that the vet thinks she’s going to go downhill fast and that’s why it was not scheduled today. Really, though, if you didn’t know Ripley, you wouldn’t even know anything was wrong with her. Not that that’s doing any of us any good right now.