Bella's red blood cell count is now up to 26%, surpassing the expectation of the Vet. Saturday morning it was 10%, Saturday afternoon - after the blood transfusion - it was 21%. Normal is 30%-50%. The Vet was expecting 20% or so.
It isn't Tick Fever and it isn't Valley Fever. That's a mixed blessing. The Vet says most of the time, it is never determined what triggered it.
In a nutshell, Bella's immune system went haywire and started attacking the red blood cells. The antibodies (white blood cells?) basically coat the red ones, and that is still happening. So things aren't back to normal yet.
The meds seem to be working, and she is eating and drinking again. Last night, she had the pukes, but that is probably due to one of the meds. It looks like today she made it through the day without upchucking.
She is however, in "reduced activity" mode, per the Vet's instrux. Which is an issue, because Bella really likes to go for walks. So we leash her up, let her walk a short distance, then I carry her the rest of the way. Amazingly, the little princess is very comfortable with that arrangement.
Assuming no tragic trend reversals, the next critical time will be in a couple months when Bella is weaned off the meds. That's when we'll see if this was a one-time thing or if she has to be on meds for the rest of her days. Our next appointment is in two weeks, so it appears the Vet isn't too alarmed about Bella's present condition.
There's an acronym for this, which of course I've already forgotten. IHMT or something like that. In talking with pet-owning co-workers today, it's not that uncommon. It can hit cats as well as dogs, and for some reason it's prevalent in Shih Tzus.
So all in all, things are about as good as they can be. Next up, on Friday, is Huxley, who gets tested for something called Cushing's Disease, which I am told is a syndrome where the body makes too many steroids. And which is also prevalent in Shih Tzus. Fortunately, it's treatable.
More updates as we get 'em. Until then, this blog returns to its regular schedule of rants, silliness, cute photos, and cultural enlightenment.
3 comments:
Yay Terry, that's great news! Fingers crossed that she continues to improve. Thanks for the updates, I'll be watching to see how things go.
I came upon your post and my heart went out to you. I lost a dog to this condition. Please be very careful. Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (Canine)is what she had she was a mini dachshund. She died at six:( She had two previous bouts of it but was wrongly diagnosed. The last time she was passing about pure blood in her urine and stool and was terribly jaundiced before I noticed how bad it was:( Keep an eye on it and discuss this with the vet if you havent. It broke my heart to lose my baby and would never want that to happen to anyone else. Even with a transfusion she died. Her body was just wiping out its own red blood cells too quickly. So glad your dog is fine.
the vet was pretty straightforward about Bella's chances. ANAICT, her most-recent blood tests came out normal. so the transfusion did its job. but it remains to be seen whether things stay normal when we start to wean her off her meds.
like humans, some dogs are just destined to die young. and we don't know which of our pets, if any, will have such a fate. all we can do is give them a positive and pleasant life, whether it's for 6 years or 16.
the good news is : when you do lose a pet, you are given an opportunity to save another life. and with a couple million dogs and cats being put to sleep every year, that's an important opportunity.
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