Poor Nellie

[sueb]

Nellies is now 11 and has definitely slowed up in the last few months. She still came to Pets at Home for fundraising last weekend.

However, on Tuesday she kept being sick and the vet took bloods and gave her meds. Unfortunately, he rang yesterday to say she has pancreatitis and associated liver problems. He is recommending 3 days of IV fluids and a number of other meds. Poor old Nellie, I worry about her being away from us, as I think she still has issues from being returned to kennels after 3 years in a home. Even after 5 years with us when we went to the "new" kennels when we introduced Willow she was trembling at the kennels, no doubt thinking it was happening again.

Our vet is a one man band & so does not do overnight care, but I think is contracted to another vets for this, so I will have to explore how this will work & maybe if they have a cage big enough to take me as well! I do so love that dog!

[katie]

Oh Sue very sorry to hear that Nellie is unwell, hopefully a few days of fluids will brighten her up. They do like to worry us these hounds!

[suethejam]

I hope she perks up soon - hate them being away from home :-(

Didn't realise she was 11 - she's a puppy in my eyes :-)

[dawnsteve]

I hope she feels better soon. Much Love
D

[sallyannh]

Hope she's feeling better soon Sue, Darcy and Roma send many sniffs her way!

[patshep]

Oh Sue, so sorry to hear about poor Nellie. It's a shame that she's away from you just now but fingers crossed she might have bucked up after the IV fluids. If it is anything like Pancreatitis in hoomans, it can flare up very quickly and just as quickly go away. It doesn't help that you are both fretting!

[sueb]

Thanks for your good wishes, everyone.

Update on Nellie: she was on a drip at the vets during the day and we collected her in the evening to take her to the out of hours/hospital. When we got to the vets he told us she was very anxious and we were shocked when we saw her as she didn't recognise us, was quivering, heavily panting and almost collapsing. I was worried about taking her like that and asked if she would be OK, or needed something to calm her a little. He gave her more morphine (which he said is used for the pain of pancreatitis, although Nellie didnt seem in that much pain beforehand).

By the time we got to the hospital both Tony & I were worried we might loose her there and then, as she was even worse. Thankfully the vet there knew that greyhounds can sometimes react badly to the morphine ( we didn't know this) and we had a discussion about the treatment making her worse than the actual illness.

We had a call at 1 am this morning to ask permission for a scan, as they had found some blood in Nellies urine. We are awaiting a call from the vet to update us, have to say with heavy hearts.........

[caz]

Oh no poor Nellie. I really hope she is ok. Will be thinking of you. Xxxx

[suethejam]

Oh Sue!

We're rooting for Nellie here - being greyhounds, they can sink very low but have an amazing capacity to bounce back - hope Nellie pulls through...

[sueb]

Thanks, Caz & Sue.

The vet this am says the problem is mainly the gall bladder, which is v inflamed, but also caused a form of hepatitis in the liver, she couldn't see the pancreas on the scan, so doesn't think this is the problem. She seemed hopeful that with a special diet and medication she could be OK. They let us visit her this am, she had developed a slight temperature, is still poorly, but thankfully knew we were there and not in the horrendous state she was last night.

I guess it's a waiting game.
Willow is also missing Nellie, she was screaming when Ellie & I left the house to take Nellie to the vets on Wednesday & yesterday and wouldn't come to me at first this morning. Sadly, Brennan finds Willow more of an annoyance at times.

[suethejam]

Thanks for the update - I've been thinking about her all day - fingers still crossed that they get to the bottom of what's wrong and fix her up quickly.

If Brennan wants some peace and quiet he can come here with Alex!

[dawnsteve]

Hi Sue,

I hope Nellie is feeling better and we wish her a speedy (excuse the pun) recovery.

Love
Dawn
x

[sueb]

Thanks, Sue and Dawn

Sadly our precious Nellie didn't make it and we had her put to sleep this morning, I've written a "tribute" in the memories section.

[jofisher]

Oh no,  I must express my deepest sympathy for you.

This is such sad news, my thoughts are with you.

Jo and Olle

xxx

[dawnsteve]

I'm so sorry to hear Sue, my deepest sympathy and thoughts are with you at this awful time

Dawn
xx