It's been a week since starting treatment. The fluid buildup is gone. Which is good. She weighed 10.4lbs 1 week ago, and yesterday weighed 7.8lbs. That's how much fluid there was. 3 months ago, at her "perfect" weight, she was 10lbs - I'm sure you can imagine how significant a 2lb weight loss looks on a dog her size. Good thing she's fuzzy and you at least can't SEE how bony she is.
We checked her albumin (protein) level yesterday. With the loss of the fluid, and she seems perkier... I was really optimistic. But there is virtually no change in this value since last week, it is still super low. I know it's only been 1 week but my vet was kind of expecting that we'd see some positive shift by now too. We're increasing her prednisone (I guess she was on kind of a lower dose anyway since we started her on it before having the ultrasound diagnosis) and checking again next week.
At this point it's her weight I'm getting most concerned about. I suspect she'll continue to lose and she can't really afford that.