Day 43 – The Pudgening Begins

Zhora Day 43

So unlike almost everyone else on the planet, the camera actually SUBTRACTS weight from Zhora. In person she looks quite pregnant and round, her belly is almost touching the floor when she sits, and she is so long and lean I described her to a friend as looking kind of like a snake that swallowed an antelope. But in pictures she manages to look quite svelte still. She weighed 28.2 lbs today (her agility lean weight is 24.5), and the mothering hormones are in full swing since her blood draw for her weekly progesterone check today was the easiest, most laid back blood draw she’s ever had (she is a bit of a beast for blood draws, ask Simone). She is very content these days, happy to go for a walk (we just returned from one, in fact), but also happy to just snooze. She is snoozing a lot.

Her progesterone today was 10.2, still perfectly normal and safe number per the repro vet, so retest in a week unless something changes I don’t like. Fluctuation is normal too she says.

Poor Nina has confirmed pancreatitis (we had an ultrasound with the awesome Dr Linda Homco in Rochester yesterday and she confirmed that Nina’s insides mostly look quite healthy, but her pancreas is unhappy). She had a GI panel sent to Texas A&M last week which came back as consistent with pancreatitis, and she was painful in her upper abdomen so we were quite sure, but best to check there’s not something else brewing (I’d planned to take her to Dr Homco for a screening ultrasound soon anyway, since she turned 10, just to make sure there wasn’t anything I needed to do something about, so this forced my hand).

So she continues on her regimen of low fat food (she loves the Royal Canin one), famotidine (Pepcid) 10 mg twice daily (for indigestion), gabapentin 200mg three times daily (for pain, it’s quite painful, she was squirming when the doc was pressing on it with the ultrasound probe), Galliprant 20 mg once daily (for pain and inflammation) and simethicone as needed for gas (her digestive tract is unhappy). She seems to be feeling better and more herself today, so that’s good. She enjoyed her walk and was demanding treats like usual. We’ve been treating it for two weeks now, and the doc thinks it may have started, then started to heal, then come back, and may have been going on for 4 weeks. Poor Nina! She will get the best care.

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