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Sooty needs help (24 Dec Doing Really Well)


Loving my Oldies
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Things are not well here. Just over a week ago, I noticed a change in Sooty.  She seemed down, instead of having a little exploratory journey downstairs when I carried her down  for toileting or just to have time downstairs, she would just stand there waiting for me to take her back upstairs.  She just sat on her bed in the lounge, no wandering around unless she wanted a drink or to wee.   I have always recognised that she had an occasional weakness in her back legs, but this was something that happened only from time to time.   This was escalated virtually overnight whereby she is down on her elbows, has difficulty getting balanced and walking even on rough surfaces.  Once she gets going, she is okay, but she is quite wobbly.  I have put on her toe grips, but these don’t seem to help.
 

I took her to the vet last Thursday, where she was examined and bloods taken to be sent away to pathologist.  My usual vet doesn’t work on Fridays so I was surprised to get a phone call from one of his colleagues with the blood test results late on Friday evening.  Sooty is very sick.  She is anaemic, her white b/cells are elevated, her red blood cells are very low as is her platelet count.  The vet wanted me to pick up meds there and then so we could start Sooty immediately on cortisone and she wanted to see her the following morning (Saturday) to do more blood tests.  She just about scared the life out of me telling me to watch Sooty carefully through the night in case she started bleeding.  If that happened - straight to emergency.  
 

So more blood taken on Saturday morning and again today.  The bloods taken today are being sent to pathology so I won’t hear until tomorrow.  She is also taking Carafate before meals.   Her cognitive abilities seem to have deteriorated too, but whether that is because she is weak and sick we don’t know.  
 

With regard to her legs, has anyone ever used braces with any degree of success.  I was thinking of those neoprene ones that clip around the legs.  But where, other than on line which could take days, could I buy them, or make them.  See below photo I took of Sooty down on her elbows.  

Please keep Sooty in your thoughts.  She has had a hard life and I am gutted that she has to struggle through this.  I am hoping she will get through it, but no certainties at all.  She has been with me for less than two years.  I really hoped and expected more time for her to have a good life.  

Edited to add :  I can’t get the link to work, but @tdierikx has come to the rescue below.  

Edited by Loving my Oldies
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Here's a working link to the photo...

 

50663953378_f9e410abca_h.jpg

 

@Loving my Oldies - maybe Robert Jones splint bandaging will help. All you need is Softban cotton wool padding and Vetwrap. I have used one on a goat with a badly broken leg, and he could actually walk on it after bandaging. If you aren't confident in your bandaging skills, I'm sure the vet clinic nurses would be able to do them for you if you ask them.

 

T.

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She actually seems a teeny tiny bit brighter this morning.  Walking a bit better.  
 

Please DOLers keep her in your thoughts;  three of my Loved Ones have crossed The Bridge this year.  I’m just gutted.  
 

What is playing out really really hard is that my mother died of Thrombocytopenia.  I wasn’t living in the same city at the time, so didn’t see her decline, but bad and sad memories on the surface, now.  

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Oh No :(    :kissbetter: That is really awful news  for you, having lost so many of your little family recently , and for dear little Sooty, who was doing so very well, and enjoying her life after a rough start. 
Everything crossed here for an improvement ... take care 

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16 minutes ago, persephone said:

 ..... and for dear little Sooty, who was doing so very well, and enjoying her life after a rough start. 

That’s it @persephone.  I’m just gutted for her.  There is still hope though.  The vet has rung through her latest blood results and although her Platelets are up (couldn’t get an exact count as they clumped) her anaemia is worse :cry:

 

Ate only a tiny brekkie, but I am about to go back to the beginning to see if she wants to be fed by hand.  

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1 hour ago, grumpette said:

Hopefully Sooty had a much better day today. :kissbetter:

She did, actually, thank you :heart:   :heart:.  I was so worried yesterday because she was breathing heavily and her ears were white.  I took video,of her breathing and a photo of her ears and sent them to my vet.  He was reassuring and today she is much better (eating and toileting normally) and her ears are PINK.  
 

 

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6 hours ago, Loving my Oldies said:

She did, actually, thank you :heart:   :heart:.  I was so worried yesterday because she was breathing heavily and her ears were white.  I took video,of her breathing and a photo of her ears and sent them to my vet.  He was reassuring and today she is much better (eating and toileting normally) and her ears are PINK.  
 

 

whew, that's better news LMO!

the oldies put us through hell sometimes don't they, sometimes I do question us oldie-lover's sanity :laugh:

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1 hour ago, Boronia said:

whew, that's better news LMO!

the oldies put us through hell sometimes don't they, sometimes I do question us oldie-lover's sanity :laugh:

I question mine every day, @Boronia.  And then I look at them sleeping . . . . 
 

We are off to the vet shortly for more blood tests - and as I type this, I see Sooty come into the room.  She hasn’t left her bed in the morning for ages.  Usually she sleeps on, or just sits there waiting for me to come and get her.  She must be feeling better :thumbsup:  :thumbsup:

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  • Loving my Oldies changed the title to Sooty needs help (24 Dec Doing Really Well)

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