Thank you Goldsfield, Rainbow and Dr. Lee for your concern!
Yes -- no more metacam. Her platelets were low and they gave her metacam for her back. She was only on it for two days and then the nose bleed happened. My vet thinks maybe her platelets were already low and the metacam just pushed it down further.
Basically we have had 2 abdominal and 2 chest x-rays. Both showed nothing. We went for an abdominal ultrasound and there were no tumors, bleeding or any ulcers that he could see. All looked good so we continue with the prednisone and have platelet smears (# per oil field) done almost every day with no noticeable change (2-3 per oil field). The vet put her case on an e-mail database and some internal medicine vet replied and he said to stay on prednisone that it can take 3-7 days and to get an actual platelet count because a smear is not as accurate so her count was 73, I think, on Friday 15th. Still low so we are to keep giving the prednisone and my vet recommends trying the Imuran or azothioprine, that you mentioned Dr. Lee. I am starting tomorrow but am a little worried about it and the side effects but hopefully all will be okay.
Ticks were addressed as well. Here in Manitoba we have Lyme and Anaplasmosis. Less than 5% of the deer ticks here test positive for Anaplasma phagocytophilum. !0-12% for Borrelia burgdorferi so very rare chance but that was ruled out.
Blood tests also showed her to be slightly anemic so hopefully she is not developing the hemolytic anemia as well?
I have no idea what has caused this but it sounds like it can be a multitude of things from viruses, bacteria, toxins, medication genetics etc. I guess we'll never know.
Right now she is at home and seems to be improving slowly but her blood tests don't show any significant change for the better.
Thank you for your posts! I am very worried and just hope that her counts rise and she will get through this. I know she is 10 years old but hope that her age does not prevent her from recovering!
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