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| Photos of Meri are by Kaisa Hannula |
Sadly, right before New Year's eve, Heidi called us to let us know her tummy was looking very bloated and she wasn't quite herself. I'm studying to be a veterinarian, and work at a small animal clinic, so as soon as I heard, we rushed her to the vet. She was still so cheery, almost her old self, so we weren't too worried at that point. She had some blood work and an ultrasound of her abdomen done. All of her internal organs seemed fine, she was just hypoalbuminemic and was accumulating fluid in her abdominal cavity. Our vet immediately put her on antibiotics and medication to get rid of the excess fluid.
Despite the medication she wasn't getting any better, so we took the blood work again and manually removed a lot of the fluid from her abdomen. At this point her liver enzymes and bile acid levels had gone up. Fortunately we had taken her straight to Mairi Speeti, one of the leading specialists of veterinary liver diseases in Finland, so Meri was in the best hands possible. She was put on several additional drugs, including another set of antibiotics and cortisone. Still, nothing seemed to make her better.
After a month and a half of seeing her not be herself, not eat and vomit all of her medication, the hard decision was finally made. She was put to sleep on February 16th, 2012, when she was only 2 years and 8 months old. Our vet took some biopsies that were sent to a pathologist, to get the final diagnosis of her illness. She had a condition called lobular dissecting hepatitis, which is idiopathic (meaning the cause is not known) and currently has no cure.
I know we are all still very upset about losing her so young and so quickly, and I wish all the strenght in the world to Meri's family.
