Chewie in trouble

9 a.m.

Today I took Chewie into our vet. She was really lethargic; I couldn't get her off of the couch... The vet took a look at her and said she was pale and that her tummy felt a bit hard. A dog is pale if their gum tissue is white or whiter than usual. You can also confirm this by looking at their sclera (the white part of their eyeball), if the sclera is bright white, the dog is pale.

He suggested that we do a blood test to see what was going on.

11 a.m.

He called to give me the results of the tests.. Not good. Chewie had a really low hematacrit(HCT) count. The normal range is 35-40% for dogs; hers was 13%. Here were the possibilities for this problem:

• Trauma induced blood loss
• Tumor/growth taking red blood cells.
• Immune disorder.

Trauma was eliminated because her abdomen didn't feel squishy, like there was excess fluid (like a pool of blood) moving around.. and the dog hasn't really been off of our property for about 6 months.

To elminate tumor, the doctor first took an x-ray. He noticed that the liver and spleen were enlarged. Since it was inconclusive, he recommended an ultrasound. The ultrasound plus the x-ray results led him to believe that there was no growth on either organ.

In order to determine if this problem were an immune disorder, we needed to go to a hospital and run some more tests. He called a couple of doctors to make certain this was the best course of action. After he got the calls back he referred me to the Veterinary Specialty Center (VSC) in Buffalo Grove.

2 p.m.

When Chewie left Bramer, her HCT was at 12%. We drove her to the VSC and they instantly admitted her. Once she got there her HCT level was checked again.. 11%.. this was pretty bad. One emergency care doctor put it this way.. If a dog were hit by a car, and bled out to an HCT of around 10%, the dog would more than likely die. Chewie was barely hanging on. Her affect was completely flat, she could barely muster enough strength to put her head on my lap.

The doctors recommended a blood transfusion to keep her alive. But before they would give her one, they needed to test for auto-agglutination.

So here's the problem.. if Chewie is killing her own red blood cells, introducing another dog's red blood cells could be potentially fatal (massive immune response). However, her low HCT count would definitely have been fatal. So the doctor did the best she could to find a donor that didn't cause any more agglutination than was currently happening.

3 p.m.

Chewie receieves a blood transfusion. By the time they started the transfusion her HCT was down to 9%! The transfusion takes about three hours, because they want to introduce the foreign cells very slowly.

The doctor scheduled a battery of tests to determine if Chewie had Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA) but it would be a couple of days before the results came back, due to the holidays and normal processing time.

The doctor also started Chewie on immunosuppressive drugs and anti-bacterial drugs just in case she had some infection.

6 p.m.

We get a call about her test results. Her HCT count stabilized at 12%. Not that great, but better than 9%. Her heart rate was a little high, and breathing were a little labored due to the fact that her body was not receiving enough oxygen. The doctor also said that she was more alert and fairly stable. The crisis had been stalled.

3 a.m.

Chewie's HCT count had fallen down to 10% again. Since she is on the small side a single donor's blood pack == 2 transfusions. The risk for a second transfusion was really low due to the success of the previous one. She received her second transfusion at 3:30 a.m. Her counts stabilized at 11%. She was not out of the woods by any stretch.