well Murphy still high and flat - his pre shot levels are slowing coming down - maybe in a day or two they will be pink so tomorrow am - 1.75 or skinny 2?
Re: The dose for tomorrow morning: Either one should be okay, Carol ... I mean, a fat 1.75 is more or less a skinny 2.0, right? Or even a 2.0. It's worth a try ...
To answer Rachel's question, I have a house call only vet - she was last here October 9th - said Murphy had a little gingivitis but nothing too bad and didn't need a dental at the moment. He has had a terrible ragweed season and lately bad post nasal drip - occasionally he'll sneeze some grey looking stuff - he was started on doxycycline suspension last Friday for that (presumed nasal/sinus issue) He seems better but intermittently is congested still. I don't think he has a UTI - I use those glucose urine strips that also test for blood and white blood cells in addition to ketones - his urine has no microscopic blood or white blood cells - besides the doxycycline should take care of a UTI So I can't think of an active infection he could have.
Carol, I'm not trying to be an alarmist here, and this is only an opinion (so take what you need and leave the rest
), but I must admit that I'm a little concerned about the possibility of some type of hidden infection/inflammatory process, given that Murphy has remained at these higher preshot #s (pinks & reds) since 10/9 (with only three exceptions) regardless of any dose adjustments you've tried. Did your traveling vet draw blood to do a full panel on Murphy on that last visit? Because if that
didn't happen, I don't know that I'd want to rely on a urine strip to give me confirmation that there's no active infection somewhere that maybe could have been missed. The other thing is that certain bacteria have become increasingly antibiotic-resistant, which means that you've no guarantee that doxycycline is really doing the trick. (It took
three different antibiotics before we cleared Bat's UTI a few years back, for example.)
I guess what I'm saying is this: If Murphy were mine, if I didn't see any really significant improvement by early next week, I'd be seriously considering taking him in to a vet clinic where they can run a full blood panel and urinalysis (w/culture)
and take another look inside his mouth to see if that gingivitis your vet had mentioned needs more attention. Just my two-cents worth...
