Hi everyone! Sorry that it has been such a long time since our last diary on Blackie's progress but things have been quiet on her journey to recovery. In other words, no news is great news! For those who are members of the Daily Kos chapter of her fan club we know that you have been patiently waiting for any news.
What makes this update even more special is that it has been one month since her surgery. We want to share with everyone the progress that she is making.
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(This picture was taken two days ago.)
As you are all aware, Blackie underwent major surgery four weeks ago for chyle. Chyle is rare and a very insidious disease that can be fatal if not treated.
Chylothorax is a condition where a characteristic type of lymph fluid called chyle accumulates in the chest cavity and causes difficulty breathing. Lymph is the fluid that is drained from tissues and functions to carry protein and cells from the tissues to the bloodstream via small vessels, known as lymphatics. When the lymph is drained from the intestines, it contains a high quantity of fat and is known as chyle. Thus, chylothorax is a collection of chyle in the chest cavity. The accumulation of chyle in the chest cavity leads to difficulty breathing because the lungs cannot expand normally to take in oxygen.
We tried controlling her disease through the use of a low-fat diet and Rutin but in November she started having very labored breathing again. Surgery was her only option.
Post-surgery was an extremely rough time for her and us as she was very critical. We were visiting her every day hoping that she would pull through. Adding to the complications was the fact that her temperature dropped to 60 when normal temperature for pooties is 100.
Things were going from bad to worse and it culminated on Christmas Eve. She was continuing to produce large amounts of fluid and that was being deposited in her lungs. In short she was drowning. The prognosis at that time was guarded to poor. We drove to Portland to pick her up thinking that we had very little time with her. We believed that she would be crossing Rainbow Bridge. My husband cried and if you knew him you would know that crying is not something he does.
Maybe bringing Blackie home was the best thing for her. In the next few days the fluid production stopped and she began eating again. Dad was shoveling pootie treats down her to get her to eat anything. Subsequent re-checks showed that the fluid production was slowing down and her last chest tap was New Year's Eve.
The next exam which was January 2 showed her lungs were clear. Subsequent exams have shown that there is no fluid! The decision was made to begin reducing her pain medication from three times a day to twice a day. Her anti-inflammatory medicine was reduced to one a day. That was later reduced to once every other day.
Her pain medicine is now once daily and the anti-inflammatory is now once every three days. Her appetite has picked up. She continues to show more interest in activites and her surroundings. She is a lot more playful and was dive-bombing a towel a couple of days ago. Her breathing is not labored. All of these are very good signs for her and us. We continue to have more hope that she will recover and that her illness has been controlled.
(Special thanks to Ekaterin for making this.)
The love, support, pictures, healing mojo and candles that everyone has shown Blackie has been incredible. This has been a very long hard ordeal for us, Blackie and the members of her fan-club. We can't begin to thank everyone enough. We know that this has been important for Blackie's healing. We know that with the continued support of the Kossack community, she will recover.
Thanks again for your support of Blackie.
Blackie and her parents.
P.S. We want to ask that you think of no weasel's Madison and Iddybud's pootie. We are lighting a candle for both of them and ask that you do too.
Update: We took Blackie to the vet this afternoon. We have more good news to report. It has been nearly three weeks and she has not required any chest taps. Her lungs are clear and she continues to breathe normally.
As a result of today's check-up, she is now off the pain medication. She has two more dosages of her anti-inflamatory medicine that we will give her on Sunday and next Thursday. Then she will be finished with that one. She will continue to get her Rutin three times a day and a low-fat diet.
The vet told us this afternoon that if she starts to have problems breathing, quits eating or acts like she is in pain to bring her in. We will need to make sure she does not gain too much more weight as we don't want any fat deposits around her heart or lungs. But for now she is doing fine. This is wonderful as Blackie won't have to visit the vet on a weekly basis and is another sign that she may just beat this.
We are thrilled at today's news. We knew that you would be too. Again, thanks to all of you for following her story. We will update the story of her progress, from time to time. We started this journey together and it is important that we finish it together.
Again, thanks to everyone.
Blackie and her parents.