jeanie update

A cloud of gloom is covering our family, with silence reigning and tears flowing.

Our beloved border colllie, Jeanie hasn't been feeling well lately. Her symptoms include loss of appetite (and subsequent loss of weight), lack of energy and pale looking gums. After visiting a first vet on Weds, we sought further tests today from the hospital. Prognosis is not good as she has tick fever, ie a parasite is residing in her blood, causing her body to kill off her red blood cells. Her red blood cell count was 16 on Weds but now stands at 12 (a healthy dog has a count of 30+).

We were given two options. One was to take her home and let her slowly die, since a lack of red blood cells mean a lack of oxygen for her. The other option was treatment, but this was not without its risks. The first hurdle was the jab for the parasite, which was extremely toxic and would cause her red blood cell count to drop even further and 1% of cases have been known to react adversely to it by way of fits and sizures. The second hurdle is replacing her blood through a transfusion and this would require a matching blood type, otherwise her body would reject it as well. The last hurdle would be finding out whether her bone marrow, which produces the red blood cells, has been damaged.

Faced with such a choice, we chose to treat her (costs be damned). She has had the jab and is doing fine. However, the hospital has just informed me that they have not been able to find a match for her blood. I do hope Jeanie is strong enough not to need the blood tranfusion, but if you know someone with a large dog between the age of 1-7 years who is willing to help, drop me a comment.

We all are hoping and rooting for her.

If you want to know more about dogs donating blood, Kingsley wrote a great piece on this a while back.