Lilly Hospitalized, Big Tests Pending
We’ve had a tough, tough, tough week. Look for short updates posted on our Champion of My Heart Facebook Fan Page, but the headline is that Lilly has gotten increasingly sicker since her rabies vaccine given January 23. Over the weekend, she developed all sorts of scary symptoms, including:
- High fever
- Extreme lethargy
- Inability to walk (that got worse and worse)
- Slow cognitive responses (that also got worse over night)
Lilly felt ooky Monday-Thursday last week, but that is NOT all that unusual for her after a vaccine. So, we didn’t worry too much.
Friday, we started seeing some mobility issues. Saturday, she slept all day and by evening could barely walk. Sunday morning, she was much, much worse.
SO, we spent Sunday (1/29) in the nearest ER, but they let her come home with our own round-the-clock nursing overnight.Lilly’s temperature stayed stable, but her mobility got much worse overnight into Monday morning.
We saw our regular veterinarian first thing Monday morning, and she sent us straight to one of three board-certified veterinary neurologists in Colorado … who thankfully isn’t that far and had time to see Lilly right away.
Lilly is now hospitalized and will have an MRI and spinal tap Tuesday (1/31) morning. The goal is for her neurologist to determine what’s causing all this.
So, we probably won’t know anything until midday Tuesday.
We found out today via complete neuro exam that she has multi-focal neurological issues (brain stem, cervical spine, lumbar spine), likely caused by inflammation (whose source is still unknown … though it could be a bad vaccine reaction or something stirred up by a bad vaccine reaction … or not).
Please keep Lilly in your hearts. She is VERY scared and VERY sick.