Thursday 26 March 2009

Cautiously optimistic!

First of all can I use this blog to say a massive thank you to everyone for their comments, e-mails, phone calls and positive vibes. All very much appreciated.

Things have moved on at a pace here and our emotions have been up and down like a couple of yo-yos. The latest situation is briefly as follows:

We got the blood test results from Monday yesterday and they were not good. I will not go into all the details but her PCV (packed cell volume) count was very low at 10 signifying severe anaemia. In other words for some reason Lily is dreadfully short of red blood cells.

The advice from several quarters was for a blood transfusion, yipes, crikey, very scared!

After a series of events which I will not bore you with we asked another vet for an opinion. Another blood sample was taken today and the results were given to us within an hour.

Lily's PCV count is now up to 12. Her liver and kidneys are functioning normally and she is actively regenerating red blood cells. All very good news. She is still deficient in iron and we still don't know why she was anaemic but things are looking up for the moment.

Lily herself has improved every day since she came home. She is no longer frothing at the mouth and appears stress free and happy. She is grazing more and more each day and yesterday stuck her head into a bucket of food I was holding and literally didn't come up for air for 10 minutes. I daren't move a muscle or make a noise. Just stood there with a stupid grin on my face.

Today she is grazing for up to 2 hours at a time and seems to be getting stronger by the day.

The vet's advice was to carry on doing what we have been doing since Monday and they will revisit next week possibly taking more blood samples.

I know there is a long way to go and we are not out of the woods yet but we are hacking our way through the trees and aiming for open spaces.

Our gorgeous beautiful Lily has not given up and we are all fighting to make sure she regains her health.

Bring it on, we are up for a scrap!

7 comments:

Amiryck said...

We are still keeping everything crossed for you but we are pleased things are looking up. Keep it up Lily (and Mark, Sue and Angus!!!)

Best wishes from the Amiryck lot.

Anonymous said...

Thank goodness! - hope she keeps improving.

Lucy said...

That is fantastic news. I think you did a lot for her just by bringing her back to her home turf so to speak. Maybe she had just had a bad run of things happening and her toe and being away were the last straw. Who knows how the psychology of animals works but they are probably a lot more sensitive than we imagine. How did her blood count go up so well? Was it simply the grazing and feeding or did something else happen? We were thinking about you and her all night after you posted. Sorcha and I kept asking each other, I wonder how Lily is doing..... so glad to hear she is getting a little better and fingers x she improves rapidly until she is back to normal. x

Debbie, Barnacre Alpacas said...

Great news, hopefully she has now turned the corner.

xx

Perry Wheeler said...

That is really good news Mark. We will keep our fingers crossed for her.

We have an girl that foams at the mouth regularly the vet is not sure if it is an ulcer or stress who knows it could be both but we are giving her Carafate 1gm per day. It has stopped the foaming and she even comes up for the daily drench.

Sarah and Perry

Zanzibah Alpacas said...

Everyone is rooting for you all the moment, Im sure Lily is constantly being thought of by all your followers with great expectations of a full recovery, as long as she continues to improve albeit slowly thats the main thing. Keep up the good work and remember never give up hope, where there is a will, there is a way, and it looks like Lily has the will and hopefully you will show her the way to a full recovery. Best wishes to you all especially at this worrying time....Jayne

Lorna Penfold said...

When Alan told me about your last post mark, Im afraid I could nt bring myself to read it, until now, when please God things are looking better. Keep your chin up Mark, I things continue to improve!
Love Lorna & Alan xxx