We took Smokey to our vet 1st thing this morning.He perked up after the last visit, last week, and then had a rough few days.

Our vet checked him over. His kidneys were about the same. No better. He took blood and his hematocrit dropped down to 19. It was 25 6 days ago. So, he is anemic. He wants us to get him on Epogen.

He feels the Adriamycin is the strongest drug and if anything will help him this is it and so we did it. He got a dex and a Benadryl shot before it. And a B-12 shot afterwards. He had to put a catheter in and then do the Adria very slowly for about 15 min then run some IV fluids through it. We stayed w/ him the whole time. He took the catheter very well.

Smokey has been very congested. Our vet cleaned his nose out w/ those long Q-Tips and got a lot of crud out. Smokey breathed much better after that, thank God. We discussed the congestion at length. He is ok w/ trying mild neo-synephrine, and L-lysine too but didn’t think it would help. We will try and clean his nose at home and I am getting the nose drops... hopefully by Thurs.

He feels if we can get a hold of the lymphoma – that is the only way to really help him and the Adria is our best shot. If not, we are screwed.
We talked a lot about quality of life and how the last 5 days were not good. But if this helps he has a shot, if not, we are going down that awful decision road.

I got dex. injections. He gave me 7 shots, one a day, in the hopes that makes him feel better, and the Benadryl shot and B-12 today may help too.

Smokey is a fighter. He must be saving his strength up for times like this.
When we left today – I wasn’t sure we’d all be coming home. Last night was rough on all of us. I just hope and pray we can help him. He means the world to us. Please keep praying!


This pic was from New Year's Day.