Coltrane update

I'm sleeping - go away

Coltrane is doing much better this week.  He had his last seizure on March 28th, his 8th birthday, and finally went on medication.  The radiologists at UF vet school decided that the hydrocephalus was probably an active process so we began treating him for a brain infection.  Still, no one seems to know what sort of infection he has.

Of all the tests he received, everything from blood work, to CTs, to MRI's, and a spinal tap, the only thing which every showed up anything but normal were the images on the MRIs.  They revealed the hydrocephalus and two areas of his brain with problems.  We spent a week waiting for spinal tap results which we hoped would show if he had an infection or autoimmune/inflammatory disease.  Each test came back negative.  Finally he wasn't making enough progress and had his birthday seizure so the vet neurologist put him on prednisone and an antibiotic.  He is still taking thiamine (B1) and he gets a Pepsid AD to make sure all this stays down.  

Lots of pills!  The crazy little boy comes trotting in the room each time he hears the pill bottles rattle.  He wants peanut butter.  I really don't have to put much on each pill and he gobbles/sucks it down.  The fastest he moves all day is at feeding and pill time.

Coltrane & Mingus

He is walking much better. He is much more sure-footed and can walk a bit faster and even trot.  This week he started jumping up on all the furniture again and going down stairs sometimes, but he still doesn't want to go  up stairs.  His hind end seems to be a bit weak still and we think he may still have a vision problem.  To help him out I shaved the fur from the bottoms of his paws.  He had some big tufts growing between his pads and I thought this might make him lose traction on the wood floors.  He really didn't like the shaver at all, but it was Mingus who ran around barking and barking while I worked on Cole.  When I was done Cole grabbed Ming's leg and pulled to try to bother him into playing.  They had a great time playing much like they used to play.

I'm hopeful that he will recover.  Right now I'm concerned that when he comes off the meds the problem will come back.  For now, he still has almost two weeks of antibiotics and something like 22 days of prednisone so I will put off any serious worrying until then.