Jun 052013
 

Rushed to the emergency vet again last night…Minsc was extremely listless, unresponsive to most stimuli, and had a really low body temperature.

He’s warmed up now and they’re watching him closely. Doing an ultrasound and getting some samples…he’s got fluid in his abdomen, which is not a good sign. We’ll know more when they finish the testing.

Update, 1pm

The ultrasound, with mild sedation to keep him still, revealed that Minsc has an enormous mass on his liver. Its large enough that it is displacing his gall bladder and pressing on other organs. He also has from freestanding blood in his abdominal cavity. The liver mass has a very high index of being a hemangiosarcoma, a rapidly growing, invasive cancer of the blood vessel linings. In essence, it is a time-bomb that could rupture and kill him at any moment. And they tend to be inoperable, but the only way to know for sure is to attempt surgery. He also has a heart murmur, and his body temperature is still extremely low when they don’t keep him in the incubator. I don’t know that he could even survive surgery, so we don’t think it’s the right choice in this case.

We’re driving up shortly to say goodbye. It’s just not fair…

Feb 062013
 

After a couple days of seemingly good recovery, Minion isn’t doing so well tonight. He has been a bit listless tonight, with little appetite, poor stools..and he threw up a little bit earlier. We’ve talked with our vet, and if he throws up again after this last feeding, he’s heading back in to see if there’s anything we can do for him. More as it develops.

Feb 022013
 

After several episodes of vomiting, severe lethargy, and unferrety behavior…Minion is back at the vet on another 3am visit. We just got home. He’s still there, getting stabilized with an IV and waiting to get in touch with his specialist vet. More details once she gets in to examine him…for now, I’ve not had much any sleep and desperately need some rest. Poor Michele is even worse off, she has to work in a couple hours. She was a real champ for Minion, lots of cuddles all evening before we decided he needed to go back to the vet.