I rang the vet and said I had to bring him in this morning, she said they were full but if I went there and then and was willing to wait then they could fit me in at the end of morning surgery. After a short wait we got to see Malan, she gave Nico a thorough going over but found very little immediately wrong with him. She agreed that he had lost condition and that is spine was protruding. There was some pain in his spine but nothing in his joints and no prostate problems, but like us she could see Nico was clearly unwell. She said she could hear an abnormality in his chest and gave us two options, to give him pain relief and antibiotics and see how we got on or to do blood work. We both agreed there was no point going home without knowing what we were dealing with and we opted to have the bloods done there and then. The results would take less than 30 mins and at least then we'd know where we stand.
Nico has two different types of raised white blood cells, the type that show infection and the type that show something more serious/sinister is going on, and the obvious conclusion was that that was the abnormality in his chest. Though Nico didn't have a raised temperature we have decided to give him a chance and see if antibiotics and painkillers will help, but the old boy is really not well and the prognosis is not good. Malan said he may or may not respond to the treatment but that if her diagnosis is correct then the discomfort will sadly return. I've already started Nico on his medication, 2 lots of the strongest antibiotics, with loxicom and gabpentin for pain relief. I believe that no one could or should leave a dog feeling the way Nico does today, quality of life is paramount, so lets hope for some relief and some happy times ahead for us with our wonderful Nico.
