Jell-O dog
That would be Nikki, after her trip to the vet. Jell-O dog.
Among other things, Nikki was about 7% dehydrated... enough to cause concern. (It probably only took the water loss from being sick, and not drinking to get her to that point.) I've got the doggy equivalent of Powerade in my fridge to rehydrate her. But to get her kickstarted, Dr. Kjelland gave her four syringes of water subcutaneously... in other words, the needle injected the water beneath her skin. At first all four syringes of it filled up where the scruff of her neck normally is, sort of like a camel or water buffalo. But the water moves... with gravity, it's mostly down toward her belly now. Her body will absorb it by tomorrow sometime, but in the meantime she's got weird squishy, cool blobs that move around her body at random. Jell-O dog.
The blood test revealed some good things and some bad.
The Good: Nikki's internal organs seem to be doing OK. That's good news for an older dog, since they were concerned about things like her kidneys, liver and pancreas. It looks as though those aren't an issue right now.
The Bad: Nikki had a very elevated level of white blood cells, and also a lowered level of red blood cells - she's anemic.
Now, the anemia and dehydration certainly account for the listlessnes I saw earlier today... they pretty much kicked her butt. Toss in the almost certain infection that the elevated whites indicate, and it's clear why she was feeling pretty low today.
The red count could come about in two different ways: Either she's not producing enough red blood cells, or she's loosing them somehow.
If she's not producing enough, the most likely culprit would be leukemia. Fortunately, Dr. Kjelland didn't seem to think this was the most likely explanation.
Much more likely is that she's loosing blood cells - probably through a stomach ulcer. That would explain some of the nausea and vomiting she's done, and the reddish tinge to some of it. It's something that would probably require some pepsid and a modified diet over the long term, but certainly not as distressing as cancer.
I got my one real laugh of the day when Jeff pointed out that getting an ulcer would be just perfectly in keeping with Nikki's personality! ;) She gets so stressed out when I have to leave for any amount of time that if ulcers work in dogs like the do in people, it sure would make a lot of sense that my little worrywart gave herself one. I'll have to mention that to Dr. Kjelland tomorrow.
Nikki's doing much better now. She's got $175 worth of food, beverages and pills to get her on the road to health, and she greedily snarfed up as much as I could give her... along with showing a very healthy interest in my cheeseburgers on the way home. A definite improvement over where she had been before. If she didn't improve by tomorrow morning, I'd need to bring her in to get rehydrated via an IV, but it's looking like we won't have to worry about that. Thank God!
One good thing to come out of all this is that I'm quite comfortable bringing Nikki to Dr. Kjelland from here on out. He's got a wonderful bedside manner (with both the animals and their people) and he's an excellent vet. On top of all that, I know him from college and from the Troubadors (he sits right next to me)... on Tuesday nights I get to call him "Nathan," even. ;) It's good to have a vet I can trust up here.
So, that's our little saga. I'm quite relieved. I know Nikki's old and won't be around forever, but I'm not ready to be parted from her yet.
Among other things, Nikki was about 7% dehydrated... enough to cause concern. (It probably only took the water loss from being sick, and not drinking to get her to that point.) I've got the doggy equivalent of Powerade in my fridge to rehydrate her. But to get her kickstarted, Dr. Kjelland gave her four syringes of water subcutaneously... in other words, the needle injected the water beneath her skin. At first all four syringes of it filled up where the scruff of her neck normally is, sort of like a camel or water buffalo. But the water moves... with gravity, it's mostly down toward her belly now. Her body will absorb it by tomorrow sometime, but in the meantime she's got weird squishy, cool blobs that move around her body at random. Jell-O dog.
The blood test revealed some good things and some bad.
The Good: Nikki's internal organs seem to be doing OK. That's good news for an older dog, since they were concerned about things like her kidneys, liver and pancreas. It looks as though those aren't an issue right now.
The Bad: Nikki had a very elevated level of white blood cells, and also a lowered level of red blood cells - she's anemic.
Now, the anemia and dehydration certainly account for the listlessnes I saw earlier today... they pretty much kicked her butt. Toss in the almost certain infection that the elevated whites indicate, and it's clear why she was feeling pretty low today.
The red count could come about in two different ways: Either she's not producing enough red blood cells, or she's loosing them somehow.
If she's not producing enough, the most likely culprit would be leukemia. Fortunately, Dr. Kjelland didn't seem to think this was the most likely explanation.
Much more likely is that she's loosing blood cells - probably through a stomach ulcer. That would explain some of the nausea and vomiting she's done, and the reddish tinge to some of it. It's something that would probably require some pepsid and a modified diet over the long term, but certainly not as distressing as cancer.
I got my one real laugh of the day when Jeff pointed out that getting an ulcer would be just perfectly in keeping with Nikki's personality! ;) She gets so stressed out when I have to leave for any amount of time that if ulcers work in dogs like the do in people, it sure would make a lot of sense that my little worrywart gave herself one. I'll have to mention that to Dr. Kjelland tomorrow.
Nikki's doing much better now. She's got $175 worth of food, beverages and pills to get her on the road to health, and she greedily snarfed up as much as I could give her... along with showing a very healthy interest in my cheeseburgers on the way home. A definite improvement over where she had been before. If she didn't improve by tomorrow morning, I'd need to bring her in to get rehydrated via an IV, but it's looking like we won't have to worry about that. Thank God!
One good thing to come out of all this is that I'm quite comfortable bringing Nikki to Dr. Kjelland from here on out. He's got a wonderful bedside manner (with both the animals and their people) and he's an excellent vet. On top of all that, I know him from college and from the Troubadors (he sits right next to me)... on Tuesday nights I get to call him "Nathan," even. ;) It's good to have a vet I can trust up here.
So, that's our little saga. I'm quite relieved. I know Nikki's old and won't be around forever, but I'm not ready to be parted from her yet.
posted by Bob at
8:48 PM
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