Grim Situation

Banjo had been getting better as of Wednesday afternoon, but her condition has deteriorated since that time. She now has blood in her vomit and diarrhea. Additionally, though the overall number of white blood cells has increased, the number of neutrophils has continued to decline and, the vet informed us, these are the crucial cells. If they continue their downward trend, then Banjo will die.

The vet gives her a more than 10%, but less than 30% chance of surviving. So things are pretty grim. When asked what she would do, she said that if money were a consideration, she would put Banjo to sleep today. If money were no consideration, she would give Banjo until Sunday to improve. Thanks to your generous donations, we felt we could give Banjo one more day to improve in some fundamental respect. But we are not optimistic and neither is the vet.

We decided that there are three crucial criteria of improvement: neutrophil levels, the ability to eat food (and keep it down), and her level of perkiness. If any of these substantially improve by this time tomorrow, then we'll give her another 24 hours. If not, we'll put her to sleep. If all three of them are not substantially improved by this time on Sunday, then we'll put her to sleep. If all three of them have substantially improved by this time on Sunday, then it will probably only be another two days in the hospital.

-Alex