Rabbit, rabbit!

Rabbit, rabbit! Good luck in May. As you can see by the date on the picture, good intentions have been in place...

It's been a tough road that we've been travelling with Louie in his battle against IMHA (Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia) with many ups and downs.

He has not responded to steroid treatment alone and other medications have been added along the way. The anemia seems to have stagnated in a not too terrible area of the PCV (red blood cell count) of 24-25, until this week. We had various bloodwork done, one of which was to check if Louie had a tick parasite, Bebesia, which he doesn't. His PCV has dropped down to 17.5, his lowest yet. I'm waiting to speak to the doctor in the am to see where we go from here. The results just came back this afternoon and we tried discussing it while I was at work - not a good idea.

It's been a tough almost three months - hopes rising and dashed. I still hold out hope that we get Louie through whatever lies ahead but we have some tough issues to confront. There may be internal GI bleeding, caused in large part by the meds needed to keep him alive quite possibly. All you can feel on his little body is skin and bones caused by the muscle waste that Prednisone (steroid) therapy causes. He has little or no energy and many times, he can make it just about one block for a walk before he demands to go home, often falling along the way.

So for today, Rabbit, rabbit, let's hope for some good luck for Louie in May. Good luck to you all too. Hope you're well. I'll try to be back with more news after I speak to the doctor. Thanks for your comments/emails along the way - it's meant a lot to me.

UPDATE: Louie is in the hospital for a blood transfusion(s) - hopefully only one is needed. I'll know in the morning how that went. I brought him in this afternoon about 1:00. He does have an ulcer which is causing the gi bleeding so we'll be treating that aggressively. The good news is that his body is still producing red blood cells and his bone marrow is in good working order so if the blood transfusion goes well, we can get him on a little better footing. I spoke to the doctor this evening. We love Louie's new doctor. He is in the very good hands of a specialist at Animal Medical Center in NYC. Keep good thoughts rolling his way and I promise to keep you updated.