Tuesday morning we came down to more mess. It could have been 'just' the colitis; we decided to do as we'd have done before she was ill, and wait and see.
She was fine, happy to go for her walk, wanted food. She was fine Wednesday, and yesterday but an hour or so after she'd been fed in the evening (thankfully in the garden) she started having the runs again. She went out several times, getting progressively runnier.
Bb stayed up till I'm not sure when but after midnight. At 3.45 I thought I heard her bark and a few minutes later decided had better come down to check...too late, I think she'd barked after not before...
So, she and I have been to the vet. Several possibilities/theories and options, but nothing concrete. We could pay for more MRI and ultrasound scans, or a full laparotomy, or some other operation. These would be to look at her spleen, pancreas, small bowel, large bowel...and may show nothing at all, or could show a tumour somewhere, or could just confirm she has colitis and an inflamed bowel.
It could be that she came off the steroids too soon; it could be that the last course of antibiotics wasn't long enough.
The colitis or another, undiagnosed problem, could have triggered the IMHA, or the IMHA could have triggered more inflammation.
For now, I'm going with the 'came off the steroids too quickly, and may need more antibiotics' theory. In between these bouts she's well, and even if we knew what the underlying problem was (if indeed there is one, apart from colitis), it wouldn't necessarily mean we could do anything about it other than what's being done.
The vet is happy to treat her along these lines, for now, so she has more antibiotics and a supply of the steroid in a very low dose.
We have enough for about a month, so if this theory is correct then she should be fine and dandy for that long. If she's not, obviously a re-think will be required.
Fingers crossed yet again
It should be enough to help though.
