"We took Chomper in to see Dr. Maas today for the first time in about 6 weeks, just for a check-up - although I guess it's not JUST a check-up when you already know the animal is sick. He's been on this new medication for a week and a half, and seems to be doing better in all ways except his weight. Which, confirming our suspicions, is now 2/3 what it was six weeks ago. Dr. Maas also did a PAC (to check overall cell level in his blood) and found that he's now anemic - the next progressive step in the suspected leukemia. So Dr. Maas wanted to do a white blood count, which we agreed to, telling him that we may get the results and then make the decision to relinquish him to the office and, ultimately Rabbit Haven. Obviously we'd had to do some soul-searching for this one, but concluded that it would be better for Chomper to be with people who could really care for him 24/7, which we can't, and better for us not to have to watch him decline over the next few months.
So we're sitting in the waiting room, crying, when Dr. Maas comes back and asks whether we'd like some good news. Apparently, Chomper's white blood cell count was not only lower than it had been six weeks ago, it was within the normal range, and so was his lymphocyte level! This was better than even Dr. Maas had hoped - he said he ran the test twice just to be sure there wasn't some mistake. He said the medication he'd given us is one of those ones that, "we're not quite sure what exactly it does, we just know it does good," and that, although he won't say we're out of the woods yet, we're definitely making progress toward getting there. So he sent us with three more meds: a very low dose of steroid to treat the anemia, something to calm down Chomper's immune system (he found a slight auto-immune reaction in his blood - that the system was attacking whatever disease he has or had, and just kept going), and then an anti-biotic to prevent a secondary infection that could result from the immune-calming med. And we're switching him back to alfalfa pellets and a tablespoon of oats per day, to try and get the weight back on him, then bringing him back a week from today to do another weight check and see where we're at. Obviously, we - Dr. Maas included, I think - are all over the moon about this."
Chomper's the white one sticking out his tongue.
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