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Post by blkduck on Mar 29, 2012 5:16:57 GMT -5
Just thopught I would post this as a bit of therapy and share some learnings I have gotten over the past week.
A week ago our 4 yr old Chessie "Drake" came down with an ear infection and at the same time a nose bleed. We had a vet look at him and the nose bleed was attributed to the ear infection. So antibiotic shot and ear drops and cleaner of we headed home. On the way he started sneezing in the car ( which we thought was caused by the ear draining). When we got home, blood was everywhere in the car and on us.
A late night call with the vet and we had frozen peas on his nose for 45 minutes that stopped the bleeding.
For the next 5 days he would sneeze and some blood clots would come out but not much so we thought it was just left over from the bleed and the ear looked fine.
Yesterday he started wheezing as if wanting to clear something from his nose so as we have a planned vaction starting next week, back to Vet to see if he had something stuck in his nose.
They first took blood work to check for general health, and although he seems a bundle of energy as always, the results where extremely low platlet count. But no other issues have been found. Seems that his immune system is attacking his platlets which allow blood to clot.
He had his first IV treatment this morning and will be on meds to shut down his immune system and then slowly restart it over the next 5-6 months with weekly blood tests to she how he is responding.
Prognosis is good if he responds to the treatment, if not it will be the happy hunting grounds for him.
Symptoms to watch for now that we know what to look for are as follows:
1: small bruises in the eyes and mouth
2: Bleeding from the gums
3: spontaneous Nose Bleeds
Otherwise he is as the vet put it in perfect health.
Causes: May be caused by Tick bites, cancer, lykemia, Liver inflamation or in our case seems like a screwed up immune system.
The vet said we caught it much earlier than most people as usually people come home to a pet that is bleeding and cannot walk and total blood transfusions are the first course of treatment.
I will keep you updated as to his progress
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Post by chezz on Mar 29, 2012 5:55:52 GMT -5
Wow..... not the best news but at least it appears to be treatable...
Hopefully he recovers from all of this.... Too bad the world doesn't have more pet owners like you that worried more about your pet than your bank account..
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Post by blkduck on Mar 29, 2012 8:16:26 GMT -5
Chezz,
Thanks for the encouragement, I cannot say that the finances haven't been discussed, it will be a major drain of the rainy day fund, but we have a young dog that has many more years of companionship and retreiving in him hopefully. So far we remain positive, and if we miss our vacation this year so be it, when you have a dog it is like a marriage, for better for worse and richer and for poorer. Guess we are just getting a double hit right now.
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Post by Beaus_Dad on Mar 29, 2012 8:23:31 GMT -5
With drakes young age he has that going for him. Catching it early also a double plus. The one thing I found in my personal experience that I have a great deal of cynicism towards the veternary profession . Dont even get me going.$400.00 bucks for a head xray on a 10 cent piece of film . Disgusts me. My mum used to work for a dentist and the same question was raised - how come you charge so much for something that costs so little - answer was -because they are paying for my expertise.  They know that money doesnt compete with emotional attachment. Truth is i would have paid anything to get my guys health back - anything I hope they quickly find the cause and get your boy back to 100%. |
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Post by blkduck on Mar 29, 2012 15:36:13 GMT -5
So far so good, he is tired and sleeping lots, but otherwise doing ok. I finally got a chance to speak with the vet today in regards to the planned treatments and the expected costs. She was very good at providing info that Google had already given us, plus she was able to provide some of the cost estimates. We are getting basically 75% off the 1 off charges for the bloodwork and no additional office vist charges. Basically if everything goes well and he responds to this course of action we should be no more than another grand invested. Not a small amount, but significantly less than if it was billed at the rate our first tests and visits where billed at. Volume discounts at its best I guess. Like you said Beau, any amount to get him healthy, but that needs to be within reason, and without putting him through a pile of crap just to keep him around for our sakes and not his.
Next round of Bloodwork is set for Monday, so I will post how he is doing and thanks for the encouragement.
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take'em
Master Waterfowler
Field Evaluator for the QUALITY products offered by Dux-N-Dogs
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Post by take'em on Mar 30, 2012 6:27:52 GMT -5
My thoughts are with you and Drake. My last lab Clancy had a compromised immune system and it was an 8 year battle totalling $5000+ in vet costs. I will say this, he lived those 8 years with a very good quality of life and was loved dearly. Did the cost annoy me to no end? Sure did! Was he worth it and would I do it all over again? Absolutely!
It sounds like you caught things early and that the prognosis is good. The vet sounds very reasonable too with regards to cost. Please keep us updated and good luck to you both.
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Post by chess on Mar 31, 2012 16:35:47 GMT -5
My heart goes out to You and Drake. I have a Chessie of my own and I know, just like You, I’d do all I could for my Chess. Hope Drake recovers quickly! Keep us informed on how he’s doing.
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Post by blkduck on Apr 2, 2012 12:33:30 GMT -5
Just got the bloodwork results, and platlet count is 221K and the vet was hoping for 50k, so he seems to be responding extremely well. At least we can headout on vacation knowing that things are heading in the right direction.
Thanks again for the support, I will update again when I get back from vacation.
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Post by Beaus_Dad on Apr 2, 2012 21:57:53 GMT -5
Awesome - looking forward to more good news
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Post by blkduck on Apr 25, 2012 8:59:53 GMT -5
Well we are back from vacation and Drake has lost around 15 pounds and looks like hell. Rack of bones. His blood count was holding up, until this week when it plunged back down to 91K. So he is now on a second drug and there is no other medications to use, so we have our fingers crossed. The fun with the steriod he is on, is that he is now extremely thirsty, and with that needs to piss every 20-40 minutes around the clock. So it is deal with a mess in the kennel of getup every half hour and let him out. He is good at waking me up so it has been some long nights on the couch, but we are trying to stay optimistic. The weight loss and drop in count might be atributed to the seperation, as he is now back on his food full force. If we had known we would have stayed home.
All I can say is "No fun, no fun"
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Post by blkduck on May 1, 2012 14:00:03 GMT -5
Latest update, His blood platlet count is back up, 257K, and he seems to be doing better. So far he has lost 20 LB and gained back 8, so ithas been a tough battle for him. The vet is optimistic, and everything seems to be back on track, I honestly expected to be digging a hole for him yesterday, but we are once again optimistic that there is light at the end of this tunnel, and more than 35 minutes without letting him out. What we would do for a full nights sleep. Oh well, as long as he pulls through and gets back to normal. He did growl at me this morning, so that is a good sign as the piss and vinegar was totally out of him. Odd to be typing I was glad to be growled at, but he is a chessie after all.
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Post by Beaus_Dad on May 1, 2012 21:13:58 GMT -5
8 pounds to the good -thats great news - he adds another 8 and it will be a home run
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Post by blkduck on May 23, 2012 11:58:15 GMT -5
It's been a while so I thought I would post an update: Drake is still with us, and seems to be responding to the treatment. His platlet count is now at 270K and we are slowly weaning him off the drugs. FYI Prenasone(SP?) causes a dog to experience loss of bladderr control and drink excessive amounts of water, along with some other side effects. Just like most chemo treatments one is forced to wonder if the cure is not worse. So drake has been sporting a diaper and we are about exhausted from not getting more than 30 minutes sleep between him needing to drink and pee. He has gained back some weight, but between the lack of exercise and drugs has lost lots of muscle mass. He never was fat, but now is real skinny looking. We are still looking at the liggt at the end of this tunnel, but we have several more months before we are out of the woods. This has turned into being one hell of a spring and summer isn't looking much better. Oh well as long as he imporves it's better than the alternative.
Thanks for the positive comments, they help keep us going.
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Post by Beaus_Dad on May 25, 2012 8:20:59 GMT -5
Thanks for the update and to hear that drake's prognosis keeps getting better and better. !
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Post by chess on May 27, 2012 12:36:27 GMT -5
We're all cheering for Drake. Most of us have a 4 legged friend like DrakieBoy. We can sincerely empathize with you. It's like Ed said, it's encouraging to know there's improvement with Drake's health. We're with You Buddy!
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