Update on Claude - 24 hours out
My vet, Dr. Moore, who is undoubtedly the best vet in the greater Houston area, thinks Claude is doing unbelievably well considering the severity of the stroke yesterday.
Late last night, he reported that Claude must have tried to sit up and was still in the "unbalanced" mode and wound himself up in his IV line. So, Claude was sedated over night so that he could rest comfortably.
He was given a drug to thin his blood (strokes are caused by blood clots), so both of his front legs are very bruised - the first because the vein "blew" when they were attempting to get the IV in him - his blood pressure was exceptionally high. The second because that is where the IV is now.
This morning, Dr. Moore was amazed to see that Claude was sitting up - still with a significant head tilt - but sitting up nonetheless. Last night he could not raise his head up at all.
He continues to progress but is still not eating - this is not uncommon, evidently, in stroke victims so we're not too worried yet.
Dr. Moore says he has made SIGNIFICANT progress, but we still have to wait and see if he will be able to walk. After a stroke, it's a quality of life question.
He's in such good shape right now because I was able to get him treated within 90 minutes of the beginning of the stroke.
This was one scary event. Dr. Moore is a good 30 minutes away from me and while I was driving 80 MPH on the freeway, steering with the left hand, I had to hold Claude upright with my right hand because he kept vomiting. I had to make sure he didn't choke. Needless to say, my car needed a good cleaning this morning. Thank goodness for leather seats!
More tomorrow.
