Big Scare

Friday, Leo nearly died.

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When we got up that morning, he wouldn't move and was whining a lot.  Jon had to carry him to the vet, where we dropped him off and waited to hear back what they thought the deal was.  Two phone calls, and a lot of questions, later the vet told me that an infection, possibly from a tick or spider bite, was attacking Leo's joints causing them to swell with fluid build up.  The swelling came on while Leo was at the vet's, so, obviously his system was being attacked hard and fast.  The vet told me, "This is serious... This could be life threatening."

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Leo was give shots of steroids and antibiotics.  He was also put on IV fluids to keep his body hydrated as he was so sedated he couldn't do much of anything and was not interested in food nor drink.  Jon and I visited him before they closed, Friday evening, and all we could do is love on him and pray he got to the vet's and received care soon enough.

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Saturday morning rolled around and I got a very welcomed call from the vet's office.  Leo was walking around, and while he had fluid build up in one leg, the other joints were looking good.  He got another round of steroids and antibiotics and they would give me pills to give him at home.  We thankfully picked him up and have been spoiling him rotten since.

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He's slowly on the mend, everyday returning more and more to his usual goofy, sweet self. A sample of the fluid in his joints have been sent off to a lab to be cultured and tested so we can figure out what in the world caused such an aggressive infection.  For now, we will treat him with what we have an change drugs mid-stream if the tests indicate that we should, but, at the very least it's helping.  Right now, it's a one day at a time situation, but, at least with every day that has come since this ordeal, Leo has been improving.  And I cannot thank God enough for that.