snoopy

[Sheena]

I’m still awake Jill!

Let us know when your vet appointment is – we’ll prime you with questions if you like. If it helps & I’m at home, I will speak to them. No problem. You can do this though – I know you can.

Love Sheena xxxxx

[Sheena]

Hi Jill

Some leading questions for you vet …..

1. Was Snoopy’s Coombs test postive or negative?

2. Did you see any spherocytes, agglutination or other abnormalities on the blood smear?

3. What is Snoopy’s reticulocyte count?

4. What has caused this – what tests have been done to establish the cause?Including investigation of possible GI tract bleeding?

5. What were Snoopy’s individual white blood cell counts by type?

6. Do you think Snoopy has had an infection?

This will tell us a lot from their answers. Just write them down for us or get them to write it down for you. If you can get any more results from them, that would be great!

I e-mailed you a vet paper called “Anaemia – determining the cause” for you & your vet. I can’t find it on the net in the same place as it was, but will look for it again when I have time. Good job I kept a copy!

How is Snoopy today? Please let us know how he’s acting. How do his gums look? We find checking their gums for pinkness when they are in “active” mode gives us a good indication of how they are doing. Don’t check them when they are lying down doing nothing or when they are sleepy – they will always look pale then, even in normal dogs.

Speak soon – give Snoopy a cuddle from me & don’t you dare worry – we are right beside you.

Love & hugs Sheena
xxxxx

[jill]

Thankyou Sheena. we have vet appoinment Monday at 615pm, I will ask the questions you have provided me with, I will have printer up and running by end of today.I will also be asking for smear test, or the results if they have done it to see if Snoopy needs anti clotting meds.ect,My vet is off this wkend but ive asked the receptionist if I can have all info on Snoopy,this wkend she will let me know at 2 this afternoon if another vet can do it.She said at first it would be Monday,Snoopy definitely has more energy he is actually following us upstairs a couple of times this morning and has had to runs to the front door when postman came, I noticed he didn’t seem to come over bad like he used to , heart racing a bit but certainly not like going to colasps, hes also been out for walk round small block near us, he has rests in between and sometimes comes over bit warm,hes improved but I don’t want him overdoing it, I do not like giving the new drug Azothioprine, as just wandering if his blood levelwent up before he had it( only had 1) does he really need it? ofcourse I wont stop giving it to him, but it makes me wonder xxx

[Linda]

Hi Jill. Sorry just posting about your beautiful, very handsome Snoopy. Sheena and everyone have given you incredible advice. Without them, and it’s been since 2013, Sadie would not be here. Plus, they kept me from totally going bonkers through it all. AND got me through AIHA 101 Plus. It’s all such a roller coaster and definaately makes your head and heart spin. You’re doing such a wonderful job and your diligence is commendable. I am so glad you found this forum!

Someone mentioned PetTinic, I think Brigitte. Sadie has been on this since onset. I don’t like the carmel color and sugar, but it is great stuff and I have resigned myself to keeping her on it. However, it has gotten VERY expensive, going from $10.00 a bottle (4 ozs) to $20.00-$25.00. No way. So, there is another product, seems identical to PetTinic, called PetTabs, which is about $13.00 (4ozs). I think Vally ordered this for Bingo too (Vally?). I would just as soon use just the vitamins and minerals in the ratio that they use, but sticking with this for now. I think Brigitte actually did this (Brigitte?).

We have a nutritionist consult in the making. I had to list all Sadie’s food, meds AND supplements. It will be interesting to see what SHE thinks of the PetTinic and/or PetTabs.

Also, about the blood test results. We keep saying this – these tests you paid for, they are yours. Some vets are really weird about sharing the results. This is just wrong. Stand your ground, you want the results in their entirety.

Did they give you a copy? Did they e-mail them to you? I wonder why they are coming across with no detail. They certainly are not looking at the results with no detail, right? You want ALL the full, detailed results. I typically ask for a hard copy AND for my vet to e-mail the lab results to me. That way I have it “on file” to send to say, Dr. Dodds or us, and do not have scan it. It’s just easier. My vet is awesome about this and comply happily. :)

Again, you are doing an awesome job with Snoopy. As all have said, no question is silly or not worthy. Ask away! This learning curve is a continuum for me too. Everyone here is always bailing me out about something.

Sending our love and hang-in-there hugs, Linda and Sadie

[Brigitte]

Hi Jill,
I am so glad to hear Snoopy has more energy! That is always a good sign that things are getting better.
It irritates me to no end when vet clinics don’t want to give out the test results you payed for! I never had a problem with this. this is something the vet does not even do, it is the office staff that does it. I would just very politely ask them to print it out for you, my clinic emails it to me. There never is a question if I should have it or not. If there is I would say that I want to learn more about these tests and would like to see them on paper so I can make more sense of it. Right now they are just numbers to you, but it is easier to get it because you are a more visual person. Really you don’t even need to explain, they are yours.
You are doing a great job Jill! keep at it and give that Snoopy a lovely chin scratch from me:)

Best wishes,
Brigitte

[jill]

Hi all, thankyou for your replys.the vets say I have to wait till Monday for the results! don’t see why? We have printed off the questions from lovely Sheena who has been great, ready for Monday also. I must say you do empower me , to know I have you all behind me truly helps. thankyou xxxx I am going to look into the pet tinic? Snoopy has had bit diareh like cow pat? not dark, but vet said he can have some paste if it carrys on. mayby side effect of drugs. I thinkthe vets did want to do another ultersound to see if Snoopy had ulcer after he lost blood and had transfusion, but as they were treating him for ulcer already my husband said he didnt see the point and they didn’t see one last time ?it is expensive . chat to you soon, hope you are all well, love jill xxxxx

[Sheena]

Hi Jill

I’m sorry I didn’t see this till this morning. Bit of a late night. Can you get some canned pumpkin? It must be pure pumpkin – I know Tescos sell it, but I imagine you can get it elsewhere – the company I am certain is 100% pure pumpkin is Libbys – check the tin for any added anything though. We all use cooked, pureed pumpkin &/or peeled boiled pureed sweet potato for stopping diarrhoea. Getting a tin makes like easy. I give by boys about a table spoon with each meal when they are runny, less if it’s not too bad. It works really well – I thank the people on here for telling me about both of these things.

Was there any blood or mucous in the diarrhoea? Is Snoopy in any pain? I watched Worzel like a hawk for signs of pancreatitis when we started the azathioprine, so let us know if anything worsens etc. Hopefully it’s nothing serious & is the meds affecting her stomach – they are very strong. Always make sure the aza & pred is given with food – safer that way.

I’m with you – if they’ve done an ultrasound already, ask them why another one – everything costs such a lot & the drugs, veet visits etc soon add up. I wish they would give you some sucralfate or equivalent. It is the only thing I know of that promotes fast healing of ulcers. But at least Snoopy does have the other pills – they should stop things from getting worse.

Hope Snoopy is feeling a bit better today.

Love & hugs

Sheena & the hounds xxxxx

[Sheena]

Just e-mailed Jill a copy of a Worzel test to help with an example. This is what I wrote:

Hi Jill

Hope the diarrhoea has settled – I promise pumpkin works (amazing!).

I am attaching an example of a blood test – how they should be done – hope this will help you a bit! Just page down through the top bit to the blood tests etc. This is Worzel’s test when he was recovering from the anaemia & you can see the horrible effects of the drugs on his liver already. It’s in French (sorry) but your vet can easily understand as the cell name are similar. Or they can google translate. Sometimes, manual cell counts have to be done because machines can be incorrect on the counts with anaemia – a good example is nRBCs (nucleated red blood cells – immature red cells) can accidentally get counted as white blood cells as the poor machine can’t “see”. You may have to send that off to another lab for a manual count, but worth asking?

I added Denamarin (milk thistle is the important thing) & his liver enzymes dropped back into normal quite well.

At our local vets I had to take a blood sample to the human lab up the road to get a reticulocyte count (these are baby red cells & we need to know numbers) because they didn’t have the equipment to do that. Sometimes equipment is short at local places here, but we find a way round it!

I have asked Linda for permission to send you some of Sadie’s results. She had a relapse not long ago so I have loads of tests results for her which are done in the right format. I’ll let you know when I hear from her.

See the section on blood smears – just show it to your vet to emphasis the things listed that need to be checked out:
http://www.cliniciansbrief.com/sites/default/files/attachments/Canine%20Immune-Mediated%20Hemolytic%20Anemia_0.pdf

It is a good read actually – good explanations & mentions clotting issues. Just as more back up really!

Love Sheena xxxxx