Today was more of a low key day. We had the best breakfast ever this morning made by our B&B host. It was sooo much food I actually felt bad I couldn’t finish it all but I was STUFFED.

Then we headed out to go to the Giants Causeway on the northern coast. I was truly disappointed to see a downhill hike to get to it because it meant having to hike back up when we were done. After yesterdays hike, this was very difficult for me to accept. But we did it and it was beautiful. I always love being on a coastline and feeling the fresh sea breeze on my face.

After that we were ready for lunch so we stopped in Ballycastle for a bite to eat and to walk around a bit. We didn’t see many shops that looked interesting so we just had lunch and a pint. It was all delicious.

After lunch, we headed towards the B&B, but had to pull over for a call from the neurologist. She told us when she evaluated Rex he was practically pulling her across the room which was FANTASTIC news after the week that poor boy has had! During the call we saw a rainbow in the sky, and it might seem silly, but I truly believe the Hilltop fairies heard my wish in the wind yesterday and helped grant it. Ireland is magical like that.

None of us has been sleeping well and I personally haven’t gotten a solid nights sleep since we got here, so for the rest of the evening we just hung out at the B&B. It was some much needed down time after a busy and VERY stressful week.

We got another call a little bit ago from neuro who was on the fence about whether or not we should get an MRI today. He’s still doing well and his status hasn’t changed since the call earlier this afternoon, but he’s still sleepy when he’s in his crate and if we didn’t do an MRI today, they’re not available again until Monday. So if he declines again tomorrow we would have to wait. On the flip side, he has been improving, and if we gave the required anesthesia to perform the MRI, it could reverse some of the progress he’s had. Honestly this was one of the more difficult decisions we’ve had to make this far, but we decided since he’s improved, we didn’t want to run the risk of backtracking by introducing more drugs into his system.

The unfortunate part of all of this is that we still don’t have a clear answer for why this happened. They have drawn a CBC, multiple chem panels, a phenobarbitol test, a KBr test, checked his liver values, drawn an ammonia level, a bile acid test, done an abdominal ultrasound, and a chest x ray. It has been a LOT on that poor boy which I am thinking is one of the reasons he’s still so lethargic when he’s in his crate. I would be tired too! The only odd results were his pheno level being slightly elevated, his KBr being just barely elevated, and his ALT or AST (I don’t even remember which at this point) being slightly elevated. His ultrasound also showed very mild changes to the liver but nothing that is overly concerning at this point. In my opinion, since his pheno and KBr levels were high, and he was given an antibiotic that from what I’ve read should be used with caution in dogs with seizure disorders or liver dysfunction, that combination was just too much and set off this entire horrible situation. As of now we are crossing our fingers and toes that he has a good night and day tomorrow, and they can get his seizure meds rebalanced so he is able to go home in the next few days. I’m excited for him to be out of there so I can fully enjoy the rest of this trip, but ill be honest, I think I’m the most excited to get home and snuggle the heck out of that boy! More updates to come tomorrow. Keep sending the good thoughts and warm wishes!