Max update

By last weekend, Max could barely breathe, barely move.  He refused food and water.  We were drizzling Gatorade into his mouth with a syringe to keep him hydrated.  We said our goodbyes on Sunday.  I dropped him off at the vet on Monday morning, fully expecting not to bring him home. 

There are two vets in our practice.  Our "regular" vet, Dr. C., was not the one who diagnosed Max with CHF, but he was the one who saw him on Monday.  When I got the phone call that the tests were complete but Dr. C. wanted to meet with me, I assumed that was it.  Max was done.

Max, however, was not done. 

Medicine, Dr. C. says, is an art, not a science. 

(Translation:  Oops.)

Sometimes, Dr. C. says, you can have two conditions that present the same symptoms, and Max definitely does have something going on with his heart...

(The $600 you just dropped on X-rays and bloodwork was not totally wasted.)

...but these X-rays are clear; there's no sign of the fluid we would expect to see in a case of congestive heart failure.

(How 'bout those Pats?)

And the nasal congestion that has come up, well, it seems likely that he caught the same bacteria that we just treated Herman for, and the early symptoms of a sinus infection - nausea, coughing - those can look an awful lot like congestive heart failure.  And the medications for congestive heart failure could mask, or delay, the more obvious symptoms of a sinus infection.

(My associate effed up big time but I'm trying not to throw her under the bus.  Have I mentioned the $600 worth of tests gave us some really good information to go on?)

So what I'd like to do is cut the heart medication and diuretic to half of what Dr. D. prescribed last week - just in case -

(Because she might not be a totally out to lunch, overreactive, test-happy whack job... I suspect she is, but I'm trying to save face here...)

- and throw in this antibiotic that Herman responded so well to, and if all goes well after a week we can take Max off the heart medication completely and just monitor the murmur every few months or so.  Okay?

(Please don't ask too many questions.)

And so Max came home.  Within a day of starting the antibiotic, his activity level was almost back to normal.  He's eating like a truck driver.  He's harassing the dogs again.  He's sitting in the bathroom sink waiting for me to get out of the shower in the morning.  He's sleeping on the kids' beds.  Any moment now he'll catch a mouse, and then all will be right in the world.