We've got Bentley on the mend. He's only gotten sick once since his surgery and diet change and I firmly believe that was my fault. I feed him some french fries and that night he got sick. Since then I've been strict and he's only gotten his special dog food. No more sickness and he's his normal cheery, bouncy self.
The bad news is with Bella, my other dog. Yesterday morning I noticed a small spot of blood on the carpet. I didn't know where it was from and it was small so I gave both dogs a quick check and everything looked fine. Bella's missing 1/2 a foot and the pad on that foot has grown large to make up for the lack of toes. When we walk/hike in the winter without her hiking booty on, it can get dry and occassionally get little cracks that bleed, so I put some more salve on her foot, a sock to let it soak in and went about my day.
Last night, she yawned and her breath was horrible so I looked inside her mouth and she had some bleeding around the gums. This didn't alarm me too much. She has horrible teeth and bad gums. Bella was in bad shape at the shelter I adopted her from. The staff came in one morning and she was there, in the back yard that has a 12' fence around it, so someone must've thrown her over. She was very skinny, missing the foot, was filthy and extremely skittish of loud noises, fast movements, etc. She was also very withdrawn from people. So the bottom line is she wasn't taken care of well at all.
When I adopted her, they said she was already fixed (which was surprising) and that her foot looked to be a clean cut that didn't need any further medical care. I took her to my vet straight away and she had a physical and a dental because I could tell she had some teeth issues. Sure enough, she had 1 tooth that was 1/2 gone and 1 tooth that was rotted so they removed them and told me she has poor gums. I brush her teeth regularly and give her bones to chew on to help, but her gums bleed everytime she chews on something, even a stuffed animal. Not a lot, just spots of blood and the vets have all said there's nothing to do except have regular dentals and tooth brushing, plus bones to chew on.
So when I saw the bleeding last night, I thought ••••, I haven't brushed her teeth in a few days so I brushed her teeth and gobs of blood came out from her gums, but I still wasn't alarmed. I thought I would check them in the morning and if they're still bleeding, we'll go in for another dental. I made a mental note to tell the vet that she's been a 'little mopey' since this weekend but that it could be attributed to our bad weather and her walks not being as long as normal.
Well, this morning, I woke up and realized that Bella hadn't woken me up at her customary 2 to 3am pee time. I got out of bed and noticed blood smears all over the carpet by the bed, where Bella sleeps if she's too hot to sleep on the bed. I could tell they were smear spots, like where she laid her head or rubbed her face so I checked her out and her gums were still bleeding, her nose was stained red and her jaw was crusty with dried blood. I called vet and got her in right away.
They checked her out and pulled her eyelids black and saw petechiae on the whites of her eye, under her eyelids and they found petechiae on her belly. So....it has nothing to do with her gums. That's just where the blood is coming out. They took blood and were able to determine it wasn't poisoning. It appears to be autoimmune.
They've taken some of her blood to CSU so they can do a clotting test and check for some tick-borne diseases, cancer, etc., but it's winter here and they said most of the tick-borne diseases that cause autoimmune issues generally present within a few weeks of infection, so it's a slim chance it's tick caused since its the middle of winter. Right now she has NO platelets but has a normal red blood cell count, although they did notice a few abnormal red blood cells. They kept her and sent me home. I can pick her up at 4:30 to bring her home but I have to take her back first thing in the morning for more blood work. I have to make sure she stays calm and doesn't do anything that can cause bleeding. They're going to give her a big dose of steriods (probably prednisone) and some other meds. They won't have the more extensive lab results from her blood back until tomorrow. They warned me we might not be able to find a cause, and if that's the case the treatment is medicine that will destroy her immune system since her immune system is what's destroying her platelets.
They also warned me that not all dogs respond to the medicine 
.
Once I got home, I googled autoimmune, no platelets, dog and had to quit reading. Everything I found was either medical text above my comprehension or people whining about their vets and going back and forth on what the best treatment is, ultimately ending in the dogs death, time after time. I know Lymphoma can be a cause, but I don't even want to think about that.
I left the vet office thinking it would be a lifelong disorder with medicine needed more than likely until the day she dies, with a slim chance the medicine won't work and we'll have to try another avenue. Now, after googling it, I'm thinking it's 50/50 on whether she's going to live or die within the next few weeks
. This is horrible and I've never dealt with an autoimmune disorder, canine or human, so I don't know what to think 
. Obviously I hope she's going to be okay, but I've been reading up about people getting blood transfusions for their dogs that just have to be repeated over & over and their dog dies anyway, making it seem pointless to point them through that pain. I've read all kinds of opinions and none of them seem promising at all. The few stories I can find where people have written about dogs that have a platelet count problem and have had it long term, don't go into details other than "the meds work for my dogs".
The bad news is with Bella, my other dog. Yesterday morning I noticed a small spot of blood on the carpet. I didn't know where it was from and it was small so I gave both dogs a quick check and everything looked fine. Bella's missing 1/2 a foot and the pad on that foot has grown large to make up for the lack of toes. When we walk/hike in the winter without her hiking booty on, it can get dry and occassionally get little cracks that bleed, so I put some more salve on her foot, a sock to let it soak in and went about my day.
Last night, she yawned and her breath was horrible so I looked inside her mouth and she had some bleeding around the gums. This didn't alarm me too much. She has horrible teeth and bad gums. Bella was in bad shape at the shelter I adopted her from. The staff came in one morning and she was there, in the back yard that has a 12' fence around it, so someone must've thrown her over. She was very skinny, missing the foot, was filthy and extremely skittish of loud noises, fast movements, etc. She was also very withdrawn from people. So the bottom line is she wasn't taken care of well at all.
When I adopted her, they said she was already fixed (which was surprising) and that her foot looked to be a clean cut that didn't need any further medical care. I took her to my vet straight away and she had a physical and a dental because I could tell she had some teeth issues. Sure enough, she had 1 tooth that was 1/2 gone and 1 tooth that was rotted so they removed them and told me she has poor gums. I brush her teeth regularly and give her bones to chew on to help, but her gums bleed everytime she chews on something, even a stuffed animal. Not a lot, just spots of blood and the vets have all said there's nothing to do except have regular dentals and tooth brushing, plus bones to chew on.
So when I saw the bleeding last night, I thought ••••, I haven't brushed her teeth in a few days so I brushed her teeth and gobs of blood came out from her gums, but I still wasn't alarmed. I thought I would check them in the morning and if they're still bleeding, we'll go in for another dental. I made a mental note to tell the vet that she's been a 'little mopey' since this weekend but that it could be attributed to our bad weather and her walks not being as long as normal.
Well, this morning, I woke up and realized that Bella hadn't woken me up at her customary 2 to 3am pee time. I got out of bed and noticed blood smears all over the carpet by the bed, where Bella sleeps if she's too hot to sleep on the bed. I could tell they were smear spots, like where she laid her head or rubbed her face so I checked her out and her gums were still bleeding, her nose was stained red and her jaw was crusty with dried blood. I called vet and got her in right away.
They checked her out and pulled her eyelids black and saw petechiae on the whites of her eye, under her eyelids and they found petechiae on her belly. So....it has nothing to do with her gums. That's just where the blood is coming out. They took blood and were able to determine it wasn't poisoning. It appears to be autoimmune.
They've taken some of her blood to CSU so they can do a clotting test and check for some tick-borne diseases, cancer, etc., but it's winter here and they said most of the tick-borne diseases that cause autoimmune issues generally present within a few weeks of infection, so it's a slim chance it's tick caused since its the middle of winter. Right now she has NO platelets but has a normal red blood cell count, although they did notice a few abnormal red blood cells. They kept her and sent me home. I can pick her up at 4:30 to bring her home but I have to take her back first thing in the morning for more blood work. I have to make sure she stays calm and doesn't do anything that can cause bleeding. They're going to give her a big dose of steriods (probably prednisone) and some other meds. They won't have the more extensive lab results from her blood back until tomorrow. They warned me we might not be able to find a cause, and if that's the case the treatment is medicine that will destroy her immune system since her immune system is what's destroying her platelets.
They also warned me that not all dogs respond to the medicine .Once I got home, I googled autoimmune, no platelets, dog and had to quit reading. Everything I found was either medical text above my comprehension or people whining about their vets and going back and forth on what the best treatment is, ultimately ending in the dogs death, time after time. I know Lymphoma can be a cause, but I don't even want to think about that.
I left the vet office thinking it would be a lifelong disorder with medicine needed more than likely until the day she dies, with a slim chance the medicine won't work and we'll have to try another avenue. Now, after googling it, I'm thinking it's 50/50 on whether she's going to live or die within the next few weeks
. This is horrible and I've never dealt with an autoimmune disorder, canine or human, so I don't know what to think . Obviously I hope she's going to be okay, but I've been reading up about people getting blood transfusions for their dogs that just have to be repeated over & over and their dog dies anyway, making it seem pointless to point them through that pain. I've read all kinds of opinions and none of them seem promising at all. The few stories I can find where people have written about dogs that have a platelet count problem and have had it long term, don't go into details other than "the meds work for my dogs".
