We lost our greyhound-sled dog mix, Zilla last week. She had a very severe and very sudden case of immune-mediated thrombocytopenia and hemolytic anemia. On Friday night she was behaving completely normally but we saw what we thought was a rash in her "armpit" area (now we know that this was bruising due to low platelets). We made a mental note to get her an appointment on Monday. On Saturday she vomited blood and visited the ER vet. Sunday she had bloody diarrhea and went back to the ER vet for overnight monitoring. On Monday morning her platelet count was undetectable and the anemia was getting worse. She received a blood transfusion. We decided that we wanted her to be treated as long as she had a real chance at recovery.
Unfortunately, it only got worse from then on. The transfusion stabilized her temporarily, but for the next three days she declined rapidly despite several combinations of immunosupressant drugs and antibiotics. She likely had uncontrolled bleeding in her brain because she started showing neurological symptoms and weakness in her hind legs. On Wednesday night/Thursday morning, she had two seizures. Up until then she was weak and lethargic but did not seem to be in distress. But then she started whimpering constantly and might have lost some or all of her vision. We took her back to the vet that morning and her bloodwork showed no improvement. The neurological damage was probably unrecoverable. She just wasn't going to get better and she was clearly suffering at this point. With the sad recommendation from our vet, we made the decision to euthanize her. She was only six years old.
We adopted Zilla as a two month old puppy from the municipal animal shelter. She was from a feral or abandoned litter of six that was found on the outskirts of town. The story we were told is that there is/was a semi-feral female greyhound who probably got pregnant by a male from a musher's kennel. We had one of those DNA tests done and it suggested that one of her parents was a greyhound and the other had a mix of northern breeds (Siberian, malemute, chinook, etc.) that you would find in a working sled dog. As she grew, it became apparent that she would look like a greyhound more than anything else. The only hint at her northern breed ancestry was the slightly thicker fur than you would find on a pure greyhound and her habit of sticking her face in the snow. And probably her size, at 45 pounds she looked like a slightly fuzzy huge whippet or petite greyhound.
She will be missed.
I keep trying to think of any way we could have caught her symptoms earlier or tried other treatments but I can't think of any. Probably 5 or 6 vets examined her over those few days and they were all shocked and worried about how severe and sudden her condition was. Most dogs can recover from thrombocytopenia, she just got sick so fast.
We have another dog, an 11 year old Catahoula mix. I think she misses her sister, but it's hard to tell.
Here's a picture of Zilla during her first few days home - no bigger than a throw pillow.
And another one of her full-grown and filling the entire sofa. (Yes, she was responsible for the damage to the sofa!)