Our Pippin

Last week seems sort of like a parade at Disney compared to today. Pippin just hasn't seemed himself the last week and a half, very lethargic and we saw a lump around his stomach right at a week ago. He hasn't been very interested in enjoying the pretty weather outside, and has just been too calm. The lump didn't change (we thought it might be a bruise or something...) and he's become obsessed with eating dirt, so I made him an appointment for this afternoon with the vet.
As soon as she looked at him she immediately said "this isn't good". She had them do bloodwork asap, but was already throwing out words like kidney failure, liver disease, cancer, blood disorders all of it. So of course I break down crying (I was there alone while Brent was picking up Lilli). She came back in and said it was very bad, and showed me all his numbers. Most of his numbers were not even registering on charts, some blood level was at a 9, with lower numbers being worse, and they start blood transfusions at 15. Some other number was barely over 1 with 35 being a very low number. She couldn't even understand how a dog with numbers like his was even able to breath and walk on his own, much less lick their faces off while they were taking his blood, checking him, and clipping his nails. The first option was to spend several thousand and ship him off locally for some immediate blood transfusions, but the better option was to bring him back tomorrow for some heart and stomach ultrasounds they can do there, and then decide exactly what it is, and how/if to treat it. Either way he is described as extremely critical, which I believe, because he is just not himself, but he was still snorting around the table tonight for food, and I had to pick him up out of cleaning my dishwasher last night. It just doesn't register that he might literally have "days", but his lymphnoids are swollen, his gums white and his eyes are too yellow (all stuff I don't even know about).

They sent home a bag of meds (stomach acid stuff, antibiotic, steriod, etc) and we drop him off tomorrow first thing for more tests. Today he had Xrays and bloodwork, and she could see a large mass on his stomach. I was at the vet for over 2 hours and didn't get home until about 6:45 or so tonight. A long day. The vet techs were crying when I left, he really is a favorite there.

We don't know what tomorrow holds, but we're ready to do whatever we need to for our Pippin. This house just wouldn't be the same without him and that tongue of his.