cometdust1

Good luck! sometimes these things resolve on their own,just like us with some time and rest.

So sorry for what you are facing.My Sarge passed away suddenly of massive internal hemmhoraging in January, presumed by the vet to most likely be hemangiosarcoma.Hurts like hell, these NASTY diseases these wonderful dogs have to endure.Not fair for such wonderful and forgiving pets.

Just thought I'd tell you that tonite when I asked Jax if he had to go out, he got up, picked up his giant stuffed frog that he drags around and trotted around with it before bringing it to the door to go out!He hasn't looked at toys in a week.Keeping my fingers crossed that I see improvement or at least stability in his CBC tomorrow.

I just E-mailed OSU again and asked if I could E-mail the papers to them instead.

I tried to send the results to OSU but the E-mail was rejected.I don't know if I did the attachments right,I don't really do these things on the computer.I think the attachments were too big.I'll try again today and ask if I can fax them to them instead.

I think he might be starting to respond to the doxy.I did not find out until today that they reran his bloodwork before I picked him up yasterday and his platelets are actually almost normal.I spoke to the vet about the vit.b and k. He said to vive him a multi, and B12-500mcg but no K so thatis what I am doing. I also told him I can give sub Q fluids so he has me giving him 300mg once a day.He did not want to eat this morning so gave up my filet mignon to him and that sure did the trick! He seems more alert this afternoon.He greeted me at the door with his tail wagging,was looking to go in the car when I went to leave and no longer looks like he is in a coma.Last night I was trying to wake him up to get him to go to bed and he was just limp when I tried to lift him up. I thought he might be dead by morning.I'm finally starting to feel more hopeful that he will get past this.thanks everybody!

Jax is awake,did both outside and drank some water,didn't feed him yet. I read one article that said to supplement him with B an K vitamins for the blood but no dosages were given. Does anyone know where I can find this out?thanks

Yes, I sent them but I'm not very good at this so I'm not sure if they'll be able to open the files. Yes, they did put him on the carafate, thanks

I have brought him home today and took off the next several days to be with him.His prognosis is poor but I will continue to treat him with the doxy and the prednisonejust in case there is any chance of improvement. His U/S findings were: 1. hypoechoic hepatomegaly 2. normoechoic splenomegaly, no masses 3. small amount of abdominal effusion 4. bilateral renomegaly with hyperechoic renal cortices-Lt kid-8.2cm,Rt kid-8.4cm 5. small amount of bilateral pleural effusion on june 13th here are his blood test results: wbc-4.5 rbc-5.15 hemoglobin-11.7 hematocrit-35 platelet-203 lymphocytes-945/ul on june 17th his results are: -5.19 -4.31 -9.5 -26.6 -77 .75k/ul I'm trying not to totally give up hope, and as long as he is not suffering I will continue to treat him for as long as it takes but right now it sure looks bad. He is getting 200mg doxy 2x daily( the internist told me to give him 300mg once daily but I want to stick with the normal protocol,anyone think theres a reason not to?)and 20mg pred. once daily to try tohelp with anemia,low platelets and low white count according to his discharge instructions.I really hope he improves,but I'm prepared for him not to and will just spend as much time with him as I can.

I just spoke to Jax's internist. It looks pretty grim. He did an ultrasound which shows an enlarged liver and spleen and some fluid in his chest and abdomen. He feels that the erlichia dx is an incidental finding and his suspicion is cancer. he's doing a biopsy of the bone marrow and/or the liver and spleen to find out. He can't do the liver or spleen if the platelets are still low so he has to check that first. I pretty much have come to the conclusion that he cannot be helped.I just can't do this anymore! this is my 3rd greyhound in a row that has gone in a traumatic way before his time and although I love this breed to death I can't keep putting myself through this. I just want one dog to live out his life and die of old age related things.My other grey just died in January at 41/2 of spontaneous massive internal hemmhoraging and I my heart is just so hurt I can't stand it.

So sorry to hear about your daisy,she has such a lovable face! I just lost one of my greyhounds in January for the exact same circumstances and reason. He was fine the day before, no changes whatsoever in him. Same weight, energy and activity as always.He woke up in the morning,didn't want to eat and just layed around.About an hour later he threw up his food from the nite before and I noticed his belly was hard and distended. I too thought he was bloating. I rushed him to the vet, He started pouring blood out of his rectum, she tapped the belly and drew back a syringe full of blood, and that was it; nothing could be done and we euthanized him. Unbelievable it can happen that quick but if it's their time to go it doesn't get much easier for them than that.My Sargent was only 41/2 years old, it was really hard for me because I was only just beginning to get to see his true personality after having recovered from separation anxiety issues.We can however, take solace in the fact that whatever time they have gotten to spend with us was their happiest! I look at pictures of him digging giant holes in the yard with his buddy Jax and just having a great old time and just try to keep those images in my head when I think about him and smile, knowing he really got to enjoy his time here.

I wanted to mention that I had asked the vet what his prognosis was for getting better. She told me that if at this point, if the erlichia is only attacking the mature cells, he has a very good chance at beating this.If, however, the bacteria has gotten into the bone marrow, He can't produce healthy cells, the antibiotics can't destroy the erlichia within the marrow, so the prognosis is very poor.I was the one who brought up the bone marrow testing,there has been no definate discussion about it yet, she just said that it is possible butthat would be a discussion to have with the internist today.I want to know if it is in the marrow because if it is, I don't want to put my dog through an extended hospital stay and endure the stress of being away from home if he can't get better.I went down this route once before, and I live with the guilt everyday that my dog spent the last 21/2 weeks in the hospital scared and stressed,had fever, siezures, the last of which dislocated his hip, lived for another day and a half with the pain of that hip because the owner of the practice would not listen to her vet tech and x-ray the dog to check for it , she insisted it was a thrown clot.Finally, the tech, who I know personally, took it upon herself to x-ray him for me to prove to this arrogant jerk of a vet that it was dislocated.He was in such a poor, unstable state by this time,he had bleeding problems that could not be stabilized and would't survive surgery that he was euthanized.Sorry, I wasn't going to go on a tangent about it but once I started I needed to get it out because I still hurt and cry about it after 3 years. He didn't deserve that and I hate that woman from the bottom of my heart for letting him suffer like that due to her own pride and not accepting the suggestion of "a lowly tech", who's only had over 10 yrs of ER experience.Anyway, thanks for listening, this current issue is just bringing me right back to the bad places of the past and talking it out gets rid of some of the stress of it so that I don't let it cloud my decisions with Jax.On the plus side, all this typing sure is improving my 2 finger typing skills since I don't usually type and never text or use the internet!

Thanks so much everyone for your information! Icalled to see how he made it through the night.The nurse said he was fine and resting until about 10:00, then he got up and was whining and pacing in the cage so she took him out and realized he was reacting to some fireworks being set off at the stadium.He HATES them! Not too good to have near a vet hospital!He did settle back down a while after they stopped and he slept through the nite and ate this morning.She said his eyes were really bothering him so they put a numbing drop in them along with the steroid drop and tear production drop he's been getting.I forgot ,the ER vet said she believes he developed uveitis from the erlichia.They run 2 practices out of the hospital, the ER and the regular referral practice.They will be the ones who determine his treatment plan today after reviewing the test results from the ER and from my vet on last Tuesday's draw. They should be contacting me around 10:00 today.I'll keep you posted and when I have all the info I plan on forwarding it to Ohio State for review.

the bone marrow test would be to see if the erlichia has gotten into the bone marrow blood cells.I spoke to the doctor tonite and he ate very well for them which is good.The pressure in his eyes was a little low so they started him on steroid eye drops

I just brought Jax to the valley central ER because he didn't eat this morning and when i took him out in the yard to go he just laid down, Ihad to walk him on leash no get him to go.She admitted him because his platelets are low enough that she is concerned that if they go much lower he could spontaneously bleed out.His platelets were 77 and normal range are 148-484.the rbc was 4.31 with norm. should be 5.65-8.87. HCT was26.6 with norm val.range 37.3-61.7.HGB was 9.5 normally 13.1-20.5.I called back and left a message for her to call me.I want to know what his prognosis is because if it is very poor than I don't know whether I want to put him through all this.If his platelets drop much lower she is considering a blood transfusion.I've had 2 other greyhounds die from bleeding problems for different reasons and I just feel that in the end Jax will die too.I'd rather he was home with us.I really did not want to leave him there because they don't come home.I am so sad right now it's beyond words.Thanks for your kind words.I just spoke to to the doctor about his prognosis and she said as long as it's only in the mature blood cells and not the marrow the prognosis is good.I'm going to speak to the internist tomorrow about testing the bone marrow.

I brought Jax to a different vet in march because he had a persistant cough, his eyes constantly had discharge he seemed to me to breathe too fast and was always panting, even at rest. He took a chest x-ray which he said was negative,said he thought his eyes looked perfect and told me that his dog pants a lot and felt there was nothing wrong, but maybe he had some allergies that were making him cough and to try some benadryl.So,i figured maybe I was overreacting because my other greyhound died suddenly of massive internal hemmhoraging with no previous symtoms.Even when I took him to the vet the day he died they sent him home thinking it was a virus.On the way back home he collapsed after having bloody diahhrea in the car and by the time we got back to the vet he was almost dead and beyond saving so we euthanized him.Anyway, the cough did eventually go away but not the eye discharge.I forgot, when I took him for the cough I had his yearly heartworm check done which was negative.Everything else seemed fine with him until the last 3 to 4 weeks we started noticing him slowing down more and more, then he started eating less, his eyes got worse and when I noticed that his face looked drawn and he was losing muscle tone. I took him to a different vet that my local rescue group uses.I told him the symptoms and he tested him for erlichia with the heartworm test and it came back positive.He then sent bloodwork out for testing and he called me today to tell me that his blood levels support the erlichia dx.Jax has been on doxy for 4 days now and I think he looks even worse.I'm afraid he's going to die like my other one.He's still eating and drinking but he looks terrible,just sleeps all the time and doesn't want to open his eyes much.He's still losing muscle and weight. The place he referred me to is not open until monday, except for emergencies, so I'll make an appt. on Monday.I've heard they are very good with orthopaedics but I don't know about anything else.The name of the place is Valley central Veterinary Referral service.Oh, my vet that dx'ed him felt that it was chronic because erlichia is not found in PA.Since searching out info. on it, I now know thats not true, it's just not that common.So I don't know if it's acute or chronic and thats why I'm trying to find a vet that I know is current on erlichia symptoms, diagnosis and treatment.

Hi, My greyhound Jax has been recently Dx'd with erlichiosis and my vet referred my to valley central in the lehigh valley area for long term treatment plan.I would like to know if anyone in my area can tell me their experience with their dog having this and what vet they see for treatment.Any thoughts are greatly appreciated. Thanks, Linda

My grey Sargent has SA.He is on 20mg of prozac which has helped a lot. We could not step outside without him barking nonstop and breaking the blinds and jumping on the dining room table to see out all the windows and doors.If we went out he would frantically bark the whole time we were gone.My mother-in-law has her own apt. on our house,thats how I know what he does. Occasionally, he'll still bark a lot if my husband and I go out together. He's fine when we go to work during the week,It's only at other times that he barks. I recently got an anxiety wrap for him and put it on him about an hour before we leave and my M-I-L said he's been quiet and sleeps while we are gone.I want to start weaning him off the prozac and try just using the wrap and see how it goes.We also just tried the wrap on our other grey,Jax,for his thunderstorm fear tonight and it worked great! He usually darts around the house panting and whining but with the wrap he laid down and was aware of the thunder but didn't even pant at all.I am pleasantly surprised at just how effective the wrap is for them. I really wasn't expecting much from it.It's definatly worth a try.

I've had my grey, Sargent, for 2 years.He has moderate separation anxiety,constant, frantic howling and barking,standing on the dining room table to see out all windows at once,but no destructiveness. Niether of my 2 present greys were ever crated.My 1st 2 were crated, and they hated it and did much better outside the crate.I put him on prozac from the beginning and he does really well on most days.However, if my husband and I go out together,he knows we are going someplace other than work, probably someplace fun, so he wants to go too so he will bark all day.My mother-in-law lives in an addition of our house,so she walks & feeds them most days and she hears when he is acting up.I just bought an anxiety wrap for him and used it yesterday when we went to a friends' house for about 6 hours.She said he slept in the same spot on the couch the whole time so this looks like it might work! I am hoping to use it and be able to wean him off the prozac.I'd like to know if anybody else has used the anxiety wrap.