Hi all,

Thank you all so much for your love and support these past few days. Many people who have met Icy, seen pics (and even some who have never even knew I had a dog!), have sent their best wishes.. Thank you all so much..

Saturday evening was awful, with my partner and I crying at home, wishing our little boy was back at home. In fact late Saturday evening I ended up crying myself to sleep in my partners arms.

But come Sunday morning we were back at the hospital and my little boy was looking slightly brighter and alert when we walked up to his cage. That was all the good news though. His breathing was coarse and labored, and we found out he was not eating all his roast chicken meal (which he LOVES), and sometimes vomiting his food back up. The vet advised he was still stable, but not improving much more at the moment. We however were sure that, at least to our eyes, his body language was brighter and that he felt better in himself. My partner and I felt much happier after the morning visit due to this. I just hoped it wasn't some wishful thinking..

We then visited him not long before the hospital shut it's doors for the evening. Icy was still much the same, which disappointed me a little. The previous half day had shown him brighter, but the 10 or so hours of care did not seem to make an impact on his health this time. We stayed with him for about 1.5 hours, hand-feeding him chicken. While we did this, we checked with another new vet who was on duty over the long weekend, to get a general run-down of his health since the morning. She again said much the same as the last vet - no marked improvement. In fact his temperature had come up again, even with the antibiotics in his IV.

His little cough was also becoming more frequent, though it seemed to me that it was his little body attempting to clear his chest/lungs of mucus etc. My assumption is that this is good, as it means his body is fighting any infections he has in his lungs. I should really check if that is true..

We left the hospital, being advised to come back around lunchtime on Monday (public holiday) to visit him and speak 1-on-1 with the vet (the original one who we saw Thursday). The hours of the hospital were reduced to 9am-6pm, making our lunchtime visit, the only one for the day.

So today we had a small visit with him. Again he looked brighter still, his breathing better, but the cough worse. His walking has come back a little too - now no longer swaying and walking "drunk". My partner and I discussed last night that we should try to take him across the road from the hospital for some fresh air and sun in the park, and so asked if he could do so. She said he could go out for 30 mins only, so he was taken off his IV and we took our little boy out.

He enjoyed the park - in fact when we placed him down, he ran a 1 metre or so, pee-ed on a tree, scratched the ground with his hind legs, then sat down. We were a bit astonished by this, as he was being so lethargic in the hospital. But admittedly, he very quickly ran out of steam, and was soon lying on a blanket, sniffing the breeze and watching the passers by.

My partner had to leave for work, so I spent a little more time with him back in the hospital in a consultation room. We had a cuddle and curled up together on the floor. His coughing was terrible, but I noticed when I rubbed his back a little, with a gentle pat, his coughing seemed to improve. The vet came in to advise he should get back on to the drip and have some rest in his cage. I mentioned that his coughing got better with the gentle pats to his chest. She said its quite a common way to help lungs loosen the mucus and it was obviously helping him. So I will be doing some more of it next time I see him!

After settling him in to his new cage, I headed home.

Im so glad he will be heading to the specialist animal hospital tomorrow. Its been horrible keeping him as is, while we wait for the long weekend to finish. Anyway, here's hoping that things will start looking up with the new day and new working week..

As always, I will keep you posted...

Thanks again for your support everyone!

Shelley
xxx