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Sooty needs help (24 Dec Doing Really Well)


Loving my Oldies
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Sooty’s Initial blood results are good, but also being sent to pathology for more definitive measures.  

 

Both vets who have been monitoring her are very pleased and to see their big wide smiles was very heartening and they are feeling better about her prognosis.  
 

Her diagnosis is Immune Mediated Thrombocytopenia.  
 


 

 

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@Snook, the link below is the clearest description I have found while doing lots of trawling in the past week.  While Sooty hasn’t had any bleeding, she is anaemic but this is improving.  She is on Prednisolone which, depending on results from the lab, may be reduced.  She is given Carafate before meals.  
 

it is a roller coaster, but she has shown time and again what a courageous and strong willed dog she is.  I am certain these characteristics are what pulled her through when she first came here.  

 

https://www.ndsr.co.uk/specialist-referral-service/pet-health-information/internal-medicine/immune-mediated-thrombocytopenia-imtp
 

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19 hours ago, Loving my Oldies said:

Sooty’s Initial blood results are good, but also being sent to pathology for more definitive measures.  

 

Both vets who have been monitoring her are very pleased and to see their big wide smiles was very heartening and they are feeling better about her prognosis.  
 

Her diagnosis is Immune Mediated Thrombocytopenia. 

 

Have they done any imaging to exclude liver/spleen issues @Loving my Oldies - x-ray/ultrasound? Or are her liver blood test results all within normal limits?

 

T.

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No imaging at this stage @tdierikx, but I will ask about liver bloods.  She is very easily upset and I think they are trying to be as least invasive as possible.  As bloods are being sent to pathologists, I imagine they have been, but will ask.  She gets eye drops every day still after the unsuccessful operation to restore her sight and this morning I could finally see the veins in her eye again (it  is usually a little blood shot) so I am hoping her results from yesterday will be encouraging.  

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Update from vet this morning.  All is looking “pretty good.”   Platelets are well within normal range.   Sooty still anaemic, but improving.  
 

Her white blood cells are still high but this would be because of Prednisolone and I still need to be vigilant for any signs of bleeding, which hasn’t happened to date, but I check her over regularly. 
 

@tdierikx, I asked about whether the tests they were doing showed anything to do with organ function, but vet said they had been just concentrating on the white and blood cells, but she will mention this to the other vet I have been seeing and whom Sooty and I will see on Monday for further tests.  

Until, we continue regime we are currently on.  
 

@Snook, because of your post, I said to the vet that it is a lot for a little old lady to deal with and she told something that made me feel sick and go weak at the knees.  The other vet had said to her that we got to Sooty just in time before she had reached a stage where coming back would have been difficult.    :cry:  :cry:

 

Many years ago, long before DOL and long before I knew much more about dogs other than they had four legs and a tail, a vet told me I was “a neurotic mother.”  My little dog at the time was very sick and we had many trips to the vet.  Calypso  eventually died of congestive heart failure at the very young age of 3 and a half.  I never dobbed her in to the practice owner, but I wish I had.  
 

So, if “neurotic” equates to knowing your dog and feeling that something is just not right and acting on that feeling, call me neurotic any day.   

 

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You just continue to be as "neurotic" as you need to be @Loving my Oldies... your actions have put Sooty in a much better place with this problem...

 

I think an ultrasound would be the least intrusive imaging if Sooty is a bit uptight about vets... she shouldn't need sedation for that, as she would for x-rays.

 

I also would have thought that faced with an anaemic dog, the very least they could have done was a pre-GA blood panel - takes around the same amount of blood to do, and gives all the chemistry for the internal organs as well as just the blood cell breakdown... hopefully the stuff sent off to pathology will be a thorough screen.

 

T.

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My Vet probably thinks I’m neurotic .. the amount of times I have had my dogs to the Vet over the last few months. A few weeks ago I ordered a full blood screening for Sasha as she is 15 now and I wanted to see how she is going.. it showed she is very healthy for her age albeit a bit slow /mostly deaf and can hardly see... My Vet didn’t see the point but he did under my insistence.

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Fingers crossed for good results from the pathologist..   So good to hear she's feeling better.

I think I am grateful for my vet, who is very patient with me.  My BC boy Rory tured 12 in September, and at his annual visit pre COVID, I talked with the vet about having a full blood panel done at some stage (he hadn't had one since he was desexed 3 years ago.).. H agreed that would be a good idea .. but said to wait another 6 months or so .. turned out to be a bit longer because of COVID.  He also did a urinalysis ... results of all that generally satisfactory .. but nice to have  that for reference.    ( also love that he took the blood without any clipping .. doesn't really matter because Rory isn't showing any more, but my vet prefers to do that if he can so the dog has less discomfort from possible clipper rash..

 

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Blood result from yesterday.  To quote the vet (who scared the life out of me by a phone call at about 8am) “All looking good.”  Sooty’s blood counts and platelets are getting to the normal range and I need not worry about spontaneous bleed, even if she were to cut herself, it need not be of concern re bleeding.  

 

Pred dose can be slightly decreased and another test on Friday.  

 

Her legs are terrible and I have improvised to make Robert Jones wraps @tdierikx, but will little effect.  I will keep trying to make them sturdier to try to keep her legs straighter.   

 

Sooty is amazing.  

 

What a shock though - I received my first Christmas Card yesterday from a couple who adopted a dog from me many years ago and she, too, has developed Thrombocytopenia !!  She is doing well, too.    

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39 minutes ago, Snook said:

How is Sooty doing today? 

Thanks @Snook.  I reckon she is definitely on the improve.  When I gave her her eye drops this morning, her eyes were red threaded as they usually are --- for a while there was practically no red in them at all.  Her ears are still whitish though.  

 

More blood tests tomorrow, so I am hopeful that these visual clues will be supported by those tests.  She is definitely eating better and the last couple of meals she has eaten all herself, ie I haven’t had to finish off by hand feeding her.  Although I enjoy doing that, seeing her eating all her meal by herself is so encouraging.    

 

I’ve just come in from doing some gardening out the front and when I do that, I take Sooty and Mezza out with me.  A week ago she would just stand in the one spot, but for the past couple of days she has been wandering around, albeit tentatively because of her blindness.  

 

Mezza surprised me more than Sooty. He was ACTUALLY HAVING A LITTLE DIG where I’d been weeding and turned over the soil !!!  He normally goes back inside, but I have been being mean and sneaky and closing the door so he has no choice but to explore.  

 

Love them to bits :heart:  :heart:  :heart: 

 

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:thumbsup:  :thumbsup:  :thumbsup:.  Looking good.   Red blood cells rising, so anaemia is getting under control.  Have to wait until tomorrow’s report from the laboratory for more detailed results.  
 

I can stop the Carafate, continue the Prednisolone (that will be long term) and next appointment depends on results from today.  
 

She is definitely brighter as is Mezza who came along for the ride :heart:   :heart:

 

Happy happy. :party:   :party:

Edited by Loving my Oldies
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Funny isn't it - some vets would consider us neurotic while others are thankful that we are vigilant and compliant with everything they suggest. Stussy (now 13) is at the vet tomorrow because she has started some behaviours that are not normal. She is a dog that doesn't show pain so my concern is her dragging all the mats and dog beds around the house and trying to lie in very weird spots with them could simply be that she is in pain and finding it difficult to find a comfortable spot to lie. If it is not and her brain is getting fuzzier then at least I will know that too. My 2 main vets will think it is perfectly normal for me to take her in there on this evidence!

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

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