Layla Update

Layla's a little bit better today.  She's not falling over as much, but she's still definitely unsteady on her feet. She's eating decently well and drinking a lot (seems like a bit more than usual).  She was active this morning, but is now curled up asleep next to me.

We were all set to make the call to bring her to Garden State, but my mom had reservations about it - not that she didn't want to bring her, just that she thought that we should try treating the most benign possible cause first (an ear infection) before jumping to MRIs and neurological testing.  Going there is definitely an emotional strain (it's not even about the money) on all of us, including my cat. I told her I'd only wait if my vet said it was okay.  She called him, and he said it wouldn't be harmful to wait a week (I initially proposed just waiting the weekend).  So, Layla is on Clindamycin antibiotic pills and will get more blood drawn on Thursday  After that, we'll decide whether or not she needs to see a specialist.

There are lots of things it could be: a neurological disorder, vestibular disease, stroke, inner ear infection. My vet said to both my mom and I, "If she has a brain tumor, you're probably not going to operate." I'm not sure why he said that; I just know that that's the worst case scenario.  He said he did have a cat once who presented symptoms kind of like these and he simply had an ear infection.  Layla's ears are REALLY itchy and she does have some brown buildup inside of them, so maybe, maybe, it's something like that.

I really appreciate your good thoughts.  Keep them coming for my little girl.

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Tomorrow's the agility trial.  I went to the trial site today.  It was extremely cold (good for Marge!) and there weren't a lot of tents set up (also good for Marge!).  We'll see if those two things stay the same tomorrow.  I watched the judge, who will be the judge for our first class, Open Standard; Marge has only shown under a male judge once but she did OK with it, so I'm hoping tomorrow will be the same (BOTH judges are men).  The table wasn't automatic.. again, it's just the regular judge's count, which is very good for her, too.

There was a bit of noise around (the Parks Department emptying the big barrel garbage cans - NOT good), but I'm hoping that 8 AM on a Saturday won't be too bad.  Marge was VERY good today out on her walk in the field, able to do flatwork with me amidst people walking by in pretty close proximity.  She heard a couple of whistles being blown during soccer games and didn't react terribly, either. I just have to keep my spirits high and not stress out.  I admit, it's kind of hard to focus on agility with my cat not feeling well, but maybe I'll finally be able to relax and just welcome the trial as a place to have fun rather than as a place to get nervous.