LadyGrey Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 (edited) I cannot stop thinking of my Angel baby who went to the Rainbow Bridge in January. Six days before that, when she and Bella were running in the back yard, and Angel ran into the deck and hurt her side, there was a big lump there that went away after a couple of hours. I administered some asprin to her in case she was bruised badly. Anyway, I called my vet office to ask if I needed to bring her in. She said to watch her and see if she gets worse with any pain or limping. Well, she was completely better by that evening. Well, it was two nights later during her sleep that she had a seizure at 10pm. That is when she was never right after that. She was so very disoriented and began losing her eating and drinking functions slowly. Always pacing and unaware of her left side. Went down hill fast, but no signs of pain. I was the one who researched online and figured out she had a stroke! Well, the day she crossed over, the neurologist stated that he strongly believed there was a blood clot that formed from her big bump six days earlier, and went into the brain. He said surgery in that case would not help her and he was concerned about how far down hill she had gone in her functions in the period since her seizure. My question is, that if I had taken her in to the vet right away after she had that bumb into the deck, and if the vet knew to take an image of her and found a clot, and if she administered blood thinner to my Angel, would she still be with me today??? The one vet tech at the e-vet told us that blood thinners dont really work that well in dogs. I cannot get it out of my mind. Edited March 10, 2012 by LadyGrey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newgreymom Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 I don't really have an answer, but I'm sorry for your loss. Please don't beat yourself up...you called the evet and did all the things I would have done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbhounds Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 You gave a blood thinner most likely without knowing it-aspirin. No one has a crystal ball. Don't second guess yourself or beat yourself up. I think it's only natural to have those thoughts- I do myself every single day since losing my most beloved girl- I know everything possible was done for her but, I can not stop thinking "what if". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyGrey Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 You gave a blood thinner most likely without knowing it-aspirin. No one has a crystal ball. Don't second guess yourself or beat yourself up. I think it's only natural to have those thoughts- I do myself every single day since losing my most beloved girl- I know everything possible was done for her but, I can not stop thinking "what if". Oh, yes, I forgot about the asprin. The next morning too. I know it is the dreaded "what if". Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJNg Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 My condolences on your loss of Angel, and I'm sorry you're still having such a hard time with it. It is very easy to second guess everything that happened, all the decisions that were made, but from what you've posted, unfortunately, I don't think anything would have changed the outcome. A clot, secondary to trauma, leading to a stroke is very, very rare. Greyhounds are notorious for developing bruises and hematomas from what sometimes seem like minor injuries, and throwing a clot that leads to a stroke almost never happens. So this isn't something that any vet would start medication for. Additionally, blood thinners generally aren't used after trauma due to the risk of causing continued bleeding. So even if you had taken her to a vet right away, they would not have started blood thinners. However, I'm wondering about another possibility... Is there any chance Angel suffered a blow to the head during the collision? Sometimes head trauma can result in broken blood vessels and slow bleeding into the brain, called a subdural hematoma. The signs you saw could have been explained by this. But this is a condition that is mostly seen in humans and isn't really recognized in dogs. It's not really known whether it just doesn't happen in dogs, or if we're just not able to diagnose it. So it's still not something that could have been anticipated or treated in Angel's case. Quote Jennifer & Willow (Wilma Waggle), Wiki (Wiki Hard Ten), Carter (Let's Get It On), Ollie (whippet), Gracie (whippet x), & Terra (whippet) + Just Saying + Just Alice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyGrey Posted March 11, 2012 Author Share Posted March 11, 2012 (edited) My condolences on your loss of Angel, and I'm sorry you're still having such a hard time with it. It is very easy to second guess everything that happened, all the decisions that were made, but from what you've posted, unfortunately, I don't think anything would have changed the outcome. A clot, secondary to trauma, leading to a stroke is very, very rare. Greyhounds are notorious for developing bruises and hematomas from what sometimes seem like minor injuries, and throwing a clot that leads to a stroke almost never happens. So this isn't something that any vet would start medication for. Additionally, blood thinners generally aren't used after trauma due to the risk of causing continued bleeding. So even if you had taken her to a vet right away, they would not have started blood thinners. However, I'm wondering about another possibility... Is there any chance Angel suffered a blow to the head during the collision? Sometimes head trauma can result in broken blood vessels and slow bleeding into the brain, called a subdural hematoma. The signs you saw could have been explained by this. But this is a condition that is mostly seen in humans and isn't really recognized in dogs. It's not really known whether it just doesn't happen in dogs, or if we're just not able to diagnose it. So it's still not something that could have been anticipated or treated in Angel's case. I had read that a stroke resulting from a blood clot was very very rare. I will never know what caused the seizure or what caused the stroke or why she went down hill so fast. The chincher was that she kept getting more and more disoreinted by the day. But what really scared me was as each day passed, she was losing her ability to eat. Had to resort to baby food on the third day, and then she was losing her abiility to drink the water! Her laps of water were getting slower and slower. She started to forget why she was standing at the bowl. It just wrenched my insides out!!!! By the fourth day, I took the baby in. I hope she was not too traumatized by the crazy e-vet giving her the morphine-based IV that caused her to hallucinate for three hours in which she was crying and shaking while she was laying on the floor!! The e-vet said she should not have given it to her had she known she would react to it like that. She stated that she did not have a crystall ball!!! Poor girl was much worse when I took her home the next morning from the e-vet. just bad memories! Edited March 11, 2012 by LadyGrey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbhounds Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Sorry it happened that way--it's hard to shake those memories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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