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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Update on Milly - day 7
| Day 7 for Milly. Still in ICU but somewhat improved - at least her mood and energy are elevated. She seems happy and enthusiastic to walk, visit, play. She's 48 hours from her last transfusion. Immediately following the transfusion her count was at 30. She was 28 at 4 pm yesterday, 24 at midnight last night, 27 at 6 am today and back down to 24 at 4 pm. What a roller coaster! But her pattern before this last transfusion has been a consistent drop - so the up and down seems to be a bit more stable. Who knows? Another blood count at 8 pm tonight so I'm anxious that it doesn't drop further and require another transfusion. Otherwise, her vitals (heart, respiration, fever) are all good. She's eating - no more vomiting. Her RETIC count is 333,000 which shows she's regenerating so that's something. Still high white blood count but she's fighting two infections (tick borne and UTI) and on 3 steroids (Imuran added to the cocktail 2 days ago). Very cautious optimism today. Hoping she stays stable for the next day or two - which may indicate the treatment is beginning to help. |
| Judy Medford |
| That's a great reticulocyte count for an anemic dog. It means that once you get the underlying condition under control, Milly will respond. Focus on those infections and I bet she recovers well once they are under control. Hang in there, everyone is pulling for Millie and you! My Maggie was in overnight + emergency care for 7 nights, 6 of which she spent in oxygen, so I have an idea of the ordeal you are going through. It gets better. |
| RobertN Superior |
| Hi Judy, Great that Milly is stable. When Cookie has had her PCVs, I cannot tell you how inconsistent they have been. I attribute this to lab errors, which can happen for many reasons. When she had her transfusion, our vet said it was at 15% and the emergency vet said 18%. Once at our regular vet, they spun it 4 times and we got very mixed numbers (something like 29%, 30%, 30%, and 34%) Anyways, what I'm trying to say is that she's probably still at 27%.. if they aren't spun right or the blood isn't drawn right or whatever else they may do to it you're going to get a lower number. |
| Monet Sammamish |
| Monet, You have an astute eye. Yes, there can be lots of problems with blood tests. And you can even find experts in the field giving a poor evaluation of how this process is accomplished in veterinary clinics. I am in the process of trying to help an owner interpret their dog's blood work (not for AIHA). In two weeks I have seen two blood tests with several values *way* out of whack. In each case it looked like there was a different serious illness that needed more testing. Finally today in frustration I sent it to Dr. Dodds and asked her help. She wrote back (immediately) and told me many of the out-of-range values were due to severe hemolysis of the sample and that the sample had probably sat around longer than 30 min. So the dog probably doesn't have either of the conditions that the blood work is showing. As Jean says "Thank Dog." Here is a really great look at an expert's view of what the process should be like and what kind of problems can occur during a blood draw. You will be amazed to read this, very eye opening. I recommend you all try to read it, even if you skim it. Its your money that pays for these expensive tests and you should expect them to be performed properly. http://veterinarycalendar.dvm360.com/avhc/Medicine/Beyond-the-numbers-Things-your-CBC-machine-wont-te/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/588612?contextCategoryId=45679 my best patrice |
| Patrice NYS |
| Thank you all for your kind words and good information. Milly's count at midnight was back up to 26 - up two points from the test at noon yesterday. Another test at noon today - they're monitoring her very closely. Robert, I hope your Maggie continues to progress. I'm still so anxious but cautiously optimistic with the best results we've had in 8 days. If Milly's counts are stable today, they may let her go home. Her primary Internal Medicine dr has been decreasing her IV fluids over the past two days to see how she handles it. Although I badly want her home (emotionally as well as financially - this hospital is about $1000/day) I'm scared to remove her from the around-the-clock care. Anyway, will keep posting and reading. Thank you all so much. |
| Judy Medford |
This thread was discussed between 29/11/2011 and 30/11/2011
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