SHADOW HILLS RV RESORT - INDIO, CA

Day 59

Too much going on yesterday to update as promised.
We did get our Gracie home at 9:30am.  Got the go-ahead to move into the unclaimed site so had to pack up and move.  And simply spent most of the remaining day seeing to her needs (and our needs to see, hold, and love her).

She is off the IV for now but on four separate meds to compensate - plus a special food for kindey diseased dogs.
She really does not like it and only eats nibbles of it if we hand feed it to her and "spice" it up a little with crumbs of doggie treats or chicken broth.  She seems very interested in the treats or our human food so I know she is hungry - she just won't eat the food she is allowed.  We have strict instructions to NOT give her what she wants - only what she has been prescribed.  The good part of this is she has kept down what little she has eaten.

She sleeps most of the time but does watch us if we are moving around the RV.  She does go to the door when she needs to "go out" - that's good!  If left out too long, however, she shivers - we think because she is weak and it's just too cool (for her) to simply lay still outside.  Once back inside she is fine.

She goes back to the vet on Monday morning for blood work to check her progress.  If stable or improving the Dr said she could have her knee repaired as early as late next week or the first of the following - about Feb 28th.

Gracies vet and his staff are unbelieveable.  She really is getting "star" treatment from them - 24 hour a day care while in their care - but we are in Palm Springs after all!

We walked in the door yesterday to pick her up and they had three large photos of her on the counter top.  You'll see them below.  The Doctor spent a great deal of time with us giving specific instructions (all typed out as well) for her med schedule and why she was needing each one.  He even followed up later in the day with a phone call to check her condition.

It's now 8:30am Saturday and so she has had her 7am and 8am meds.  She ate very little - only what I dosed with a little bit of goodie crumbs, but at least she ate something - and so far has kept everything down for 48 hours.  Great news.

For now our plans are to stay here in Indio -Palm Springs- (oh darn) for the next 30 days and ride this thing with Gracie out to its conclusion.  We are in a nice RV "resort" with pavement and grass - no dirt anywhere!  Pool, hot tub, exercise room, and close to anything and everything you could ever dream of.  With Gracie now with us we feel quite relieved, but still apprehensive about what may be in store for her in the future.  When we leave here we hope to be heading home with a happy and healthy girl.  Gracie can live with her damaged kidneys if we keep them stabilized with a very strict diet, and repairing her knee will allow her a fairly normal life after recovery and therapy.

Almost everyone here in the park knows about Gracie and they check up on her often.  She is a star!  That makes Ellen jealous because she is no longer the center of attention.

Thanks for all your concern and support!

Pictures follow.  But only a few.  It actually rained yesterday and most of the night and still cloudy today, so I won't take pictures of our new home until the sky is blue again.  They told us it never rains here!  Oh well.  It actually was kind of nice - reminded us of home.


The first three pictures were on the counter sitting in a picture holder at the vets' office when we picked her up:

this caption reads "What, me worry?  I'm Gracie!"

this one says "I love rabbits.  Thanks Mom and Dad!"

Wednesday when we learned she wasn't coming home for a few days we took her 'baby" to stay with her.

this one simply says "Smiling Gracie"

she's home at last

this one is a video of her coming out of the hospital with "Rocky" the rabbit but I can't get it to play right now.  I'll fix it later.