sassy is relapsing.

[Alyssa]

Hi, everyone….
I am absolutely devistated.

Sassy wasn’t acting right today, very sleepy and not eating. I felt her belly and it was hot. Checked temp, 103.8. We rushed to the ER (it was 8pm), and he tried to tell me it was okay, dont jump to conclusions but I was right :( I had justin take her out to pee and gather it and it was brown again. I dont know exactly but the bilirubin was around 1.6%

Her RBC is 34%. She was at 47% the last check (less than 2 months ago). However, this time i appears her platelets are being attacked. The machine read nil. Dr. Taylor thinks that is an error…but I don’t even know.

WBC is at 19%.

[Alyssa]

I have attached her scans to urgent care.

[Vally]

Hi Alyssa, the urgent advice that has come through is blank, unless you’ve just resent it. Can you send it again just to be sure it’s not just mine. I’m not good with results, but let me go through them.

Vally
xxx

[Vally]

Alyssa, wait for someone that understands them to come back, but the 34 RBC isn’t too bad at all, so you’ve caught whatever early – that’s great.

The WBC is high, so I wonder if she has an infection of some sort she’s dealing with. She’s not on any drugs now is she.

Send those blood tests through again.

Love Vally
xxx

[Alyssa]

I resubmitted, incase it it still not working ive uploaded them offsite:

http://i.imgur.com/vwaTvn8.jpg – blood counts

http://i.imgur.com/IuRciAH.jpg – urine test, i think.

[Vally]

They’ve come through on the emails. Hang in there Alyssa.

Vally
xxx

[Alyssa]

For reference. This is her March 13th blood work. The very first day I first took her in before we knew what it was.

temp: 104.9

test name — result — range
wbc: 21.82 (6-17)
NEU: 19.14 (3-12)
NE% 87.7 (62-87)
RBC: 4.31 (5.5-8.5) (today is 4.71)
HGB: 11.4 (12-18)
HCT 30.57 (37-55)
MCH: 26.5 (19.5-24.5)
MCHC 37.4 (31-34)
RDWc 14.2 (0-0)
PLT: 141 (200-500)
PCT: 0.19 (0-0)
MPV 13.1 (3.9-11.1)
PDWc 42.6 (0-0)

[Patrice]

Alyssa,
I’ve looked over the lab work. First, have them run the platelets again with a sample that is drawn after a 10 hour fast, no food but plenty of water. Fat in the blood from a recent meal can interfere with test results.

Some items are out of range, for instance some white blood cells are higher than normal.

The albumin is a bit low. This is a protein made by the liver that keeps blood viscous and retains the fluid. When it gets low, fluid can seep into interstitial tissues and collect in areas like the abdomen.

The glucose is a bit high. Again, let’s see what happens when you fast her properly.

My first thought is that she may be fighting something. Infection, parasites, worms, allergies. But I really do want you to find out if they have done a SNAP 4 DX+ test recently. A particular tick disease can have symptoms like this, especially thrombocytopenia. That is low platelets.

“ITP” is a condition where the immune system attacks platelets. Usually responds well to high dose prednisone treatment. This is a somewhat common condition in dogs that recover from IMHA AIHA after they have recovered.

But before we get ahead of ourselves let’s repeat the cbc and see how accurate these values are. Do the SNAP 4 DX+ asap, it takes a tiny bit of blood and about 8 minutes to show a negative or positive for 4 tick diseases and heartworm. Have a fecal done looking for hookworms. Let’s cover the basics first. Is there any chance that she developed an ulcer from prednisone? Did you use stomach protection and Sucralfate?
My best Patrice