[EDIT:  Update!  Bone marrow work came in early and normal, we can now rule out almost all of the potential cancers.  Signs point to an immune mediated disease.]

Many of our friends have been gone this weekend and have been somewhat blindsided, as were we, by what is happening to Remington.  Rochelle and I have both taken to twitter and facebook to keep people updated but figured we were doing it a bit to much with each twist and turn, so here’s a quick update.

TL;DR: His blood work still shows he’s very sick, but not in any immediate danger and he’s alert and playful.

The problem is that when we had the vet run a standard blood check on him when he woke up Friday morning lethargic, he showed few platelets, a low red blood cell count, and an out of wack white blood cell count as well.  Our local vet apparently has some experience with these types of results and told us to get him to a hospital immediately.  There was a very real chance he could die.

Remy was miserable yesterday as he had to go through a battery of tests. Today while his blood panel wasn’t what we wanted, it was at least better than yesterday as the hospital has begun an autoimmune regimen on him.  We went to see him tonight and were both surprised and relieved at how much better he was today than yesterday.  There was a spring in his step and he played his usual pushy self demanding attention from us.  Here’s a picture of Rochelle with him just a couple of hours ago:

Right now due to the holiday weekend we’re in a wait and see mode.  He won’t be able to come home for a couple of days, as his platelet count needs to reach a certain level before he can safely leave constant monitoring.  His bone marrow test results probably won’t come back until Tuesday.  At this point there are three or four possible things it can be ranging from autoimmune to cancer. None of them good but not all of them are horrible.  He’s only 18 months old so he has youth and otherwise strong health going for him, giving us many options depending on what the underlying cause of the problem is.

I’ve been a wreck all day as has Rochelle, but seeing Remy with his goofy grin and wagging his tail at least made us feel a lot better.  Our next update will be at 1pm or so Pacific time tomorrow as we get a new blood panel for him.  We expect, given his current treatment of steroids and antibiotics, to see an increase in platelets but how much we have no idea.

I just can’t thank people enough for the well wishes.