Follow-up vet visit

Yesterday (Monday) we took Schatzi for a follow-up appointment, her first since Dr. Skellenger diagnosed microvascular dysplasia. Today, Tuesday Sept. 11, 2012, Shawn posted this update to her blog. The dates that posts appear are shown in the upper left corner of each post.

Since we changed her food to a low-protein brand, Schatzi's weird behavior had become less severe. Yesterday, in the veterinarian's office, she was acting so normal that it was almost as if she had no symptoms at all. But since we'd still seen some of the strange craning of the neck that is a symptom of Schatzi's illness, the vet suggested that we reduce her rations to just two-thirds of a cup per day, and increased the amount of Lactulose from two milliliters per day to four. He also gave her some antibiotics. Within hours, Schatzi was exhibiting the more severe signs again. Most notably, she cranes her neck up and back, several times per minute. Shawn shot this video this morning:

Other behaviors that we noticed becoming more severe this evening were:

• Schatzi runs suddenly from one room to another, then slams to the floor in a curled-up ball
• She dashes from one den to another, running from under a low chair to diving under the bed to under the computer desk, and so on
• She spins around rapidly before suddenly settling down and then becomes unresponsive
• She is more withdrawn and isolates in a distant room (usually Schatzi follows people around)

If you scroll down, you can review Schatzi's adventures on this blog. Each entry is dated, so you know when the events reported in that post took place.