Blu Update (Good News)
Well, things always do seem the darkest before the dawn. For the four days our dog, Blu, was in a vet hospital in Portland, things seemed bleak around here. We constantly worried he'd die suddenly and the quiet of not having him trampling around was strange and uncomfortable. Sunday, the 6th, we visited him and it kinda made me take stock of what condition he is in. They'd, at that point, given him two blood transfusions and his body had been eating through the new blood quickly. On Monday, the doctors convinced my parents to sign off on a $400 ultrasound to look for cancer in his liver, but as I predicted, they found nothing. I had a hunch something else was the culprit.
All along, I've been convinced the cause of all of this is one of the yearly upkeep vaccines Blu got in July. I theorize his body had a strange reaction to it, and in response, his immune system went into paranoia-mode and began killing off red blood cells. My folks wrote up a timeline correlating all the events in Blu's health care over the last year, and after showing it to the vets, they said it could be possible. In response, I've successfully convinced my parents to never again vaccinate our pets (Except for rabies shots every three years) as none of them ever come in contact with anyone else's pets. It's a waste, pure and simple. And in Blu's case, these vaccinations may have made him sick.
Monday, they did a blood test and his blood count was at around 20%. Not significantly higher, but certainly an improvement over 12% capacity. It meant the drugs were finally working. They did a third transfusion Monday night and at the end of that, he was at 27% capacity. Because of the extra expense of the worthless ultrasound, the third transfusion was pretty much the last thing we could afford to do. We'd exhausted the money we could afford for Blu's care. That was the moment when things seemed the worst because it was like turning a plane's engines off and gliding and waiting to see if we'd crash. What had to happen was Blu would have to keep a blood count over 20% for more than twelve hours.
Like I said, Monday night, he was at 27%. Tuesday afternoon, they checked his blood once again and, to everyone's amazement, he was at 24%. The drugs had worked! He'd stabilized! The hospital released him back to us and Blu came home Tuesday evening. A nice Christmas miracle.
The poor dog is on some pretty wild medication, so he's been pretty beat around here. It's good to have him back, but you can tell he's slowed down. For the next few months, we have to go into our local vet and check his blood every week. That began yesterday and it revealed that his count was at 26%. That means that, thankfully, his body is indeed producing blood and his immune system has stopped killing it. Who knows how long it's been since the dog had an increase of blood capacity. Probably not since this all started in July. Amazing to think about. So he'll be on these drugs and more or less out of it for several months. Then he'll slowly be drawn off them and we'll check to see if the condition returns. If it does, he'll be on a form of medication for the rest of his life. But that's a small price to pay for being around to be the giant lumbering goof he is.
Having Blu back kind of makes up for all the other horrible crap that's gone on around here lately. In fact, I think we're all in high spirits. Now get well quick, ya goofy puppy!
All along, I've been convinced the cause of all of this is one of the yearly upkeep vaccines Blu got in July. I theorize his body had a strange reaction to it, and in response, his immune system went into paranoia-mode and began killing off red blood cells. My folks wrote up a timeline correlating all the events in Blu's health care over the last year, and after showing it to the vets, they said it could be possible. In response, I've successfully convinced my parents to never again vaccinate our pets (Except for rabies shots every three years) as none of them ever come in contact with anyone else's pets. It's a waste, pure and simple. And in Blu's case, these vaccinations may have made him sick.
Monday, they did a blood test and his blood count was at around 20%. Not significantly higher, but certainly an improvement over 12% capacity. It meant the drugs were finally working. They did a third transfusion Monday night and at the end of that, he was at 27% capacity. Because of the extra expense of the worthless ultrasound, the third transfusion was pretty much the last thing we could afford to do. We'd exhausted the money we could afford for Blu's care. That was the moment when things seemed the worst because it was like turning a plane's engines off and gliding and waiting to see if we'd crash. What had to happen was Blu would have to keep a blood count over 20% for more than twelve hours.
Like I said, Monday night, he was at 27%. Tuesday afternoon, they checked his blood once again and, to everyone's amazement, he was at 24%. The drugs had worked! He'd stabilized! The hospital released him back to us and Blu came home Tuesday evening. A nice Christmas miracle.
The poor dog is on some pretty wild medication, so he's been pretty beat around here. It's good to have him back, but you can tell he's slowed down. For the next few months, we have to go into our local vet and check his blood every week. That began yesterday and it revealed that his count was at 26%. That means that, thankfully, his body is indeed producing blood and his immune system has stopped killing it. Who knows how long it's been since the dog had an increase of blood capacity. Probably not since this all started in July. Amazing to think about. So he'll be on these drugs and more or less out of it for several months. Then he'll slowly be drawn off them and we'll check to see if the condition returns. If it does, he'll be on a form of medication for the rest of his life. But that's a small price to pay for being around to be the giant lumbering goof he is.
Having Blu back kind of makes up for all the other horrible crap that's gone on around here lately. In fact, I think we're all in high spirits. Now get well quick, ya goofy puppy!