Well, we left Indy at the ICU at SVS today. SVS stands for Seattle Veterinary Specialists and things don't look good.
Right before Thanksgiving, she was a bit barfy -- not that big of a deal for Indy because she is a barfy dog. She has always had the tendency to eat too fast and eat whatever she finds (whether it is edible or not). That being said, we just assumed that it was just her being barfy. The Sunday after Thanksgiving, she barfed 2 times consecutively and that worried us. So, we decided to switch to a bland diet -- poached chicken and steamed rice.
The next few days, she rebounded like a champ and in no time she was back to normal. However, on Thursday (a week after Thanksgiving), she started getting worse. She would no longer eat poached chicken and steamed rice and it just kept getting worse. Getting Indy to eat was a challenge and it has NEVER been a challenge in the past. We watched her and by Friday she was very lethargic and not getting any better. Kristina called and got a vet appointment Saturday morning (5th).
We showed up and by this time, Indy's lymph nodes were very swollen and still not feeling well, but we could get her to eat a little bit here and there. The vet said she could just have an infection, or it could be cancer (even though she is only 6). That being said, blood tests needed to be run, so they collected for blood and aspirated all of her lymph nodes so that they could test those as well. Test results wouldn't be back until Monday evening, so we were just supposed to watch her.
Soon after the appointment, Jared had to leave to go to San Francisco for work over the weekend. So that left Indy in the care of Kristina. Indy was not good all weekend -- more and more lethargic and not eating. Jared came home Sunday night and he agreed that she didn't look good.
On Monday, Jared stayed home with Indy to await test results. The vet called late that evening (after Kristina had gotten home from work) and the blood work did not look good - liver enzymes were way off. The cancer test hadn't come back yet, but she said that things did not look good and suggested we see an oncologist. Ugh...here we go again, we lost Logan at Christmas time 4 years ago and we had just started to enjoy Christmas again. This can't be happening.
Early Tuesday morning, Jared called and we tried to get into the oncologist, but there were no available appointments until 12/21. We implored that she can't wait that long. So the woman on the phone suggested we come in through the emergency room and see the oncologist that way.
We arrived at the ER and you could tell by looking at the staff that things didn't look good. Dr. Newton, the ER vet, was pretty sure she had cancer, but they were going to re-run the test to make certain. Within an hour, it was confirmed, Indy has lymphoma (by the way, we still hadn't received the original test results back from the Saturday appointment). We left Indy in very capable hands, but it was difficult. However, she needed to stay -- she was not eating and they needed to get some nourishment into her. She had lost almost 10 lbs in just a week...not good for dog that only weights 65lbs to begin with (not that she couldn't have stood to lose a little weight). Things don't look good.
