I have a beautiful female shepherd of 10yrs. Over the last few months she had been drinking excesively and wasnt quite hersef ,then to top this she started to lose weight.Shre now weighs 34 kg. @ weeks ago, I ran to her aid after hearing her cry(shes a talker to say the least), she had collapsed and couldnt stand up her breathing initially was very rapid, but then became quite laboured after some facial twitching(which i later came to realize were fits). The local vet nurse came out with a stretcher, and off we went to the local vets.she was deteriorating rapidly. over the next few hrs Tess.s had numerous seizures,eventually leading up to a grand mal,so b ad they wouldnt let me back in to see her for quite some time.Despite having been given vaium and phenobarb.
The tests she'd had,revealed her pcv was 77 so the next course of action was to drain some blood,Which was too thick to come through a syringe ,so they had to use a cathetar in her leg and let the blood drip into bowls. Even thought to me tess looked terrible,as she was unresponsive due to the drugs and the affect the seizures had on her.the vets felt that she had stabalized ,so after 3 to 4 hrs of observation and 3 bags of fluid later. we drove her to a specialist clinic for further obs and tests.
After the post ictal phase 48 hrsthats what they called it)which seemed like forever tess got up and walked and became more aware.
The diagnosis which is very rare out here (SYDNEY-CENTAL COAST nSW aUSTRALIA) erythrycytosis as a result of bone marrow cancer. Tess's pcv is now 63,which the vts are saying thy can live with,and has benn on hydrea 500mg at first 2 daily for seven days then one daily .we are monitoring her pcv and white cell count weekly.
Im not comfortable not having a lot of knowledge about this disease.If you have any information, case studies, ideas on prognosis,dangers of the drug hydrea etc.ANYTHING AT ALL i would be forever grateful.
I use to work as a RN but injured back many years ago.I am on a disablity pension and wouldnt have had the funds to pay for all tessas treatment only i had received an unexpeted cheque which happened to clear the day the bill was due.""PENNIES FROM HEAVEN'''.
