DAY 64

10:00am Thursday.

We were so upbeat about Gracie yesterday morning after such a good day Tuesday, but the first half of the day did not go so well.  She refused to eat yet again!  She began hacking several days ago and it appeared to be getting worse and some fluid was coming up.  Not vomit, just some fluid.  We were so down after being so up at the start of the day.

Good news, though, she began "perking up" later in the day.  The vet called to check her progress and we gave him all our worries.  He said the hacking and fluid and even a dripping nose were good signs as it meant she was getting a full dose of fluids - needed to clean out the kidneys.  Not to worry!

He also had a sample of a different kidney support food for us to try.  We loaded the girls up in the car and went for a drive to kill two hours before our scheduled appointment to pick up, not only the food samples, but another week's worth of medicines and IV fluid bags.  He wants to "stay the course" at least until Monday when he will do another blood workup.  Anyway, Gracie had her head out the window almost the entire trip.  She so loved to be out of the RV "prison".

Last night with fingers crossed we gave her some of the new dog food.  SHE ATE IT!  Still took a little trickery with a morsel of boiled chicken, but she actually somewhat likes it and even licked our fingers (we have to kind of ball it up for her into little bite sized pieces because it is a canned food).

This morning she continued to eat the new food, even some without the chicken.  Once again we are on a "high" about her condition.  The eating will be extremely beneficial if she has any hope to beat this problem and we are thrilled at this moment.  She ate some more a few hours later before taking one of her meds that needs some food in the stomach. Big test will come Monday with the blood work.  If after two weeks of Vet and home care of the aggressive therapy and no improvement of the kidney function then that would mean no surgery to fix the knee and some big decisions to be made by us about the quality of Gracie's future.

But for now - we are very hopeful the results will be great on Monday!  What else can we do?

Her Rx regiment requires 9 separate treatments each day along with multiple small "feedings" (that may be a lot easier now if she continues to accept the new food) leaving us without much time to get anything else done.  So time is flying.

Weather continues to be a bright spot for us.  Cool down and rain on the way for Saturday and Sunday, but warming into the 80's next week.

This area is truly "Country Club" valley.  Literally miles and miles of streets with one golf course community after another.  If Gracie continues to get better we will take more drives and take more pictures to share the opulence of the lifestyle out here for those who are "in the money" (there are a lot of them).