Chou Update

Today I retrieved Chou's x-rays from her visit to the emergency room on Saturday.  As Jeff said, you shouldn't give x-rays to engineers, because we'll start comparing and guessing and constructing bionic chinchillas to make improvements on the design.  Anyway, click below for a full-sized picture.

You can see in both photos that her upper spine has some sort of scoliosis.  She's had that for years.  You can also see in the upper picture that her arms are down, very unusual for a healthy chin.  The dark bubbles you see are gas pockets in her intestinal tract.  "Whoa.  She has a lot of gas," I said to the vet on the phone.  She said that chins have an oversized appendix type thing that is part of taking care of the gases created when digesting fibers and grasses.  Cool stuff.  But this is kind of off topic.

The first problem is in the upper right shoulder.  The joint is, as the vet said, "not in a typical socket space".  This is the bone cancer.  According to my vet, bone cancer doesn't travel bone to bone but bone to lung, and since her lungs are clear, amputation is an option. Well, it's technically an option.  Chou is 14, and I'm not up to retraining her to walk on 3 feet.

The largest problem is her neurologic state, which we knew before.  Her hands being down like they are, her constant listing to the right.  The bone cancer was honestly an accidental find.  The vet agreed that it's time, so this is at my discretion (which I thought it was yesterday as well but the vet needs to perform her due diligence.  I understand.)  I'm syringe feeding her for now, but I may take a break from the drama and let her be.  If she doesn't start eating solid food soon, I'll let her go.  She may not see this weekend.

But she's proved me wrong before.