If you happen to be one of the people who follows my social media for about the past 10 days, you've probably seen some discussion of my dog's illness. I'm not sure if this is like, the most important blog post that I could write for you today, but it's what you're getting.
Weekend before last, she wasn't as excited about eating food as she usually is, which culminated, last Monday, with her just straight up not giving a shit about eating her dinner, and just watching blankly while Finn the dog moved in and ate it for her. She also was not doing the wiggly potato dog dance at the concept of food or treats, so I immediately called the vet.
The next day (last Tuesday), we went in and she was generically not-feeling-great dog. The vet tech didn't think she was that lethargic. Which, she was responsive, but I cannot possibly express how much this dog loves food, and all food related objects. If she's not bouncing with pure joy at the concept of someone giving her a treat, there's something wrong.
WELP.
Turns out after the blood test that she had essentially no platelets. None. So few that the vet actually thought the machine was throwing an error at first, but it was correct. Rey the dog was sick as hell because something was fucking with her blood. The vet said that it was rare to see numbers that low without the dog already having a catastrophic bleed, so score one for my dog-not-eating paranoia.
The diagnosis was either a tick-borne illness (curable with a heavy dose of anti-biotics) or immune-mediated thrombocytopenia, which is an auto-immune disorder.
Unfortunately, the tick titer came back negative, which means that it's probably the immune-mediated thrombocytopenia. This sucks because it might be a lifelong condition (although, apparently some dogs have an intense bout of it and then go on to never have it again, so... yeah.
The past week has involved trying to keep her from moving around in any way that would possibly result in a cut or bruise and dealing with the side effects of her dose of prednisone. On the plus side, she only threw up once -- but she hadn't eaten before the first dose of her meds, so that was probably why. She started eating again that night, which was a relief. The prednisone meant that she has been drinking a ton of water and needing to pee, so there were a lot of late night and early morning moments of standing in the yard with a dog on a leash... ugh.
However, good news! As of her checkup this Tuesday, Rey's platelet count is on its way back to normal, and it looks like we'll be able to at least taper off her medication once the count is all the way normal. Basically, given the diagnosis, the checkup on Tuesday showed great improvement.
I also got her some dog stairs so she can get up onto my bed without taking a mighty leap, and she's starting to get used to using them.
I can tell she's feeling better because she's gone back to stealing my spot on the couch next to my husband every time I get up!
Weekend before last, she wasn't as excited about eating food as she usually is, which culminated, last Monday, with her just straight up not giving a shit about eating her dinner, and just watching blankly while Finn the dog moved in and ate it for her. She also was not doing the wiggly potato dog dance at the concept of food or treats, so I immediately called the vet.
The next day (last Tuesday), we went in and she was generically not-feeling-great dog. The vet tech didn't think she was that lethargic. Which, she was responsive, but I cannot possibly express how much this dog loves food, and all food related objects. If she's not bouncing with pure joy at the concept of someone giving her a treat, there's something wrong.
WELP.
Turns out after the blood test that she had essentially no platelets. None. So few that the vet actually thought the machine was throwing an error at first, but it was correct. Rey the dog was sick as hell because something was fucking with her blood. The vet said that it was rare to see numbers that low without the dog already having a catastrophic bleed, so score one for my dog-not-eating paranoia.
The diagnosis was either a tick-borne illness (curable with a heavy dose of anti-biotics) or immune-mediated thrombocytopenia, which is an auto-immune disorder.
Unfortunately, the tick titer came back negative, which means that it's probably the immune-mediated thrombocytopenia. This sucks because it might be a lifelong condition (although, apparently some dogs have an intense bout of it and then go on to never have it again, so... yeah.
The past week has involved trying to keep her from moving around in any way that would possibly result in a cut or bruise and dealing with the side effects of her dose of prednisone. On the plus side, she only threw up once -- but she hadn't eaten before the first dose of her meds, so that was probably why. She started eating again that night, which was a relief. The prednisone meant that she has been drinking a ton of water and needing to pee, so there were a lot of late night and early morning moments of standing in the yard with a dog on a leash... ugh.
However, good news! As of her checkup this Tuesday, Rey's platelet count is on its way back to normal, and it looks like we'll be able to at least taper off her medication once the count is all the way normal. Basically, given the diagnosis, the checkup on Tuesday showed great improvement.
I also got her some dog stairs so she can get up onto my bed without taking a mighty leap, and she's starting to get used to using them.
I can tell she's feeling better because she's gone back to stealing my spot on the couch next to my husband every time I get up!