Dusty is doing better--today he had some necrotic tissue removed from his belly-incision.  He's still pretty drugged and of course still has his bladder cath in.  We're all getting very weary in my house from having to change his diapers (yep) every so often--night and day.  Despite all the frustration and drama, I am SO glad that my puppy is still alive and doing better by the day.

more later maybe...i'm weary, as I said...

no word on granddad lately...keep praying on the front.

update on Dusty

We took Dusty to an emergency vet clinic on new years day, which is open when other vets aren't--this weekend 24 hours a day until Monday morning.  they ran blood work again, which was normal on Wednesday, but Thursday had skyrocketing levels of creatanine (spelling??) and one other that indicated his bladder had ruptured or was leaking--something we tried to test for in the beginning (see last post).

After an exploratory surgery, we learned his bladder is fine--why we didn't catch something wrong the first time on x-rays.  He had a hole in his urethra!!  So when we had the first cath in to air up his bladder, it was working fine--his bladder function is fine--just it's leaking into his body cavity when he does urinate.  They ended up getting over a gallon of urine out of his body cavity--which explanes why he was swolen up like a tick.

The lady who did the surgery, was a stranger to us and very pessimistic of Dusty's outcome--we were worried and wished our trusted vet could do it, but thankfully Gregg (our horse vet--who's been taking care of all this) came by after bowling with his son up the street and, with permission, watched a bit of the surgery.  He said Dusty's insides looked like hamburger meat and that it would be tough due to swelling, but very possible to fix him!.  He also shared bear-hugs all around which really was helpful when you're worried your dog might die. 

They ended up putting in another cathedar--backwards, because they couldn't get it to go in from outside-in correctly without poking through this "hole" where-ever-it-may-be.  He is recovering at their clinic in a ICU ward with round the clock service and care now.  They said this morning that they are "cautiously optimistic" that he will be okay now.

What a ride!!! and thank goodness he is doing okay.  He's my baby you know.

No word lately on Granddad--last I heard they still had him hooked to IV fluids and he was doing okay. not great, but okay. which we'll take