UPDATE 1/27/11
The good news: Pumpkin has gained a full pound in week! He is bright, energetic, feisty & vocal. The hernia is stable and not causing any trouble, though his bladder did get caught in it. So today we were having it massaged and he leaked a bit on the table. Then he thought, "well, while I'm at it I'm going to pinch one off for the vet" and had a good poo-fest right there for the doctor. LOL.
The not so good: The vets can't get a handle on what is causing his red blood cell count to remain unchanged. It is still too low to consider surgery. If the hernia became an immediate issue they would have to give him a transfusion at the time of surgery. Another complication arose when they were changing his splint bandages. Apparently a week go his paw was too swollen to tell, but there was an abscess of his joint on his front, right paw. Today when they were changing the dressings it bursts and it goes very deep down to the joint. They sedated him a bit, and cleaned it all out. It is dressed (no splint) and we just have to monitor it for any oozing or swelling through the bandages. So, until that front paw wound heals that paw is out of the running for surgery. We have another followup appt set for Tuesday morning. I am most likely going to not be able to go, because I can't take off work again. However, my house mate has authorization and our carecard info to put any charges on there.
We have to do what we can within reason. We have the option of doing expensive surgery on the hind leg + hernia (the hernia just by itself. The combination is what is costly). Then, splinting the front leg and hoping for the best. I believe that is where we are right now, but all of this is dependent on being free from infection with that front paw wound. So that's the update. I know its long and if you made it this far you get lots of cookies. :)
