All is not well with Harper. She has not been eating well
over the last few weeks, usually only eating a few mouthfuls a day, and
sometimes only just 2-3 pieces of meat. Even roast duck, KFC and chicken nuggets
don't tempt her enough to eat. Feeding Harper has always been a challenge.
Harper does not like liquids. She has been on a subcutaneous drip for the past year as she was diagnosed with kidney disease before. Her kidney readings are back
to normal but she continues to be on drip due to her continued aversion to
water, milk or broth.
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| Harper at the vet this afternoon |
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| Her liver readings are off-the-charts |
We brought Harper to the vet today as her lack of appetite
was concerning us. The results of the blood test were devastating. Her liver
has failed, the readings so off-the-charts that the machine could not record
them. The vet's first suspicion was poisoning but Harper did not show any other
signs such as vomiting or diarrhea. Besides, Harper being such a picky eater,
it is unlikely that she ate something off the floor on her walks. Her liver
failure is acute, and the vet concluded that it could be due to diet or is
congenital. Given that Harper was born with a lot of deformities, including
smaller organs, it is likely to be the latter. Despite her ailments, Harper is,
at least, still alert, active and cheeky, and stills shows great joy on her daily walks and weekly dips at the beach in Sentosa.
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| Harper's slaves taking her for a dip last week |
Harper being the fussy eater, imagine the struggle to get
her to eat her meds which total 8 tablets! She struggles so much each time that
it looks like she is having a seizure. Today the vet recommended that she be put on a low protein diet, which must be as unappealing as it sounds as she would not even go near.
The food needs to be blended and fed to Harper through a syringe. She does not
like that very much and 70% of the food ends up on her fosterer's clothes then
in Harper's tummy where it should be.
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| Harper drawing blood for tests |
Dr Ly has ordered an ultrasound to try and identify the
cause of Harper's liver failure. As much as we want to get it done
sooner, it is only scheduled for tomorrow afternoon as the ultrasound technician
is away today.
Today’s
vet bill was $560 and tomorrow’s
ultrasound will set us back by another $420.
We do not have any funds left but how do we tell Harper we can’t afford it
because Raphael and Sugar had utilized all our funds?
We
hope she pulls through this because we all know she’s a little fighter, so we
need to give her a fighting chance. Email hopedogrescue@singnet.com.sg
if you can help with Harper's vet bills.
