Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Attikus Story

As most of you know in March Attikus was having problems with his belly. I took him into the vets to get checked out. They ran some tests and told me it was a bacteria infection that they would treat with a diet of rice and chicken and put him on a low dose anti-bacteria medication. By the time his medication ran out his symptoms were slowly fading. That was until the 2nd week when his belly was ballooning up. I brought him back into the vet where they took one look at him and said he is not well and more tests were ran. He had over one pound of fluid built up in his belly and after running his in depth blood work it was determined that the food he took in was not digesting properly nor was it getting into his blood stream. He was very weak, malnourished and anemic. The vet believed his bacteria infection triggered a protein deficiency. They kept him on his ant-bacteria meds, put him on a diuretic to help release the built up fluid, Pepcid AC, steroids and had me put him back on a low fat high protein diet. I then had to monitor him very close and bring him in for weekly blood work. Although I lost my job in January and was on VERY LIMITED funds, this was my baby and I was going to do what I could to make him well. I knew he had a tuff heart and lots of fight in him so went about the vet's recommendations and after a week, then a 2nd, 3rd and so on his condition was improving. The vet was surprised at the amount of improvement in a short period of time and contributed it to lots of TLC and prayers. Attikus is still on his medications except for the diuretic and added to the list of medications is milk thistle, vitamin E and a special prescription low residue food to mix into his special diet and I have to continue to bring him in for blood work every 2-3 weeks to make sure his levels are still improving. I am working on a small fundraiser for Attikus to help pay for his medications and blood work, stay tuned. Thanks for all of your love, prayers and positive thoughts! Attikus couldn't have made it thus far in his recovery without them all :)

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