I'm so happy to hear that Chester is improving, continued prayers for his healing.

nm

But your guess was a very good one, that was the first test the vet ran after the count was dropping after second transfusion.

that Chester is getting better and stronger, glad to hear such good news

We are praying he pulls through with flying colours. We are sending our love to Lily also, give them both a hug from our gang.

Miranda and the SB gang in Toronto.
The spina bifida babies,

Pugsley

Piper and Rosco
And always Chance

And Matilda

I just want to make sure that Immune Mediated Thrombocytopinia has been ruled out. Has it? This is sounding and feeling all too familiar to me....
Best wishes!

his spleen seem to have a scar or something showing faintly on ultrasound. It is very small, only about 1 cm so they do not think this caused the major bleeding, but they recommend another ultrasound in a moth or so to monitor it, as if it grows, then they will remove it. We are prepared to do it, although I am so terribly scared of surgery. This is current assessment. I keep all advice in mind and torture my vet all the time. I myself was frustrated why he was not healing but now I remember that when I got him he had a lot of colitis, bleeding, etc due to stress or/and food allergies. I finally seem to have gotten it under control after about a year or longer. I missed the clue with anti-inflammatories as I did not recognize the name, it was not Rimmadil, which would raise the flag for me, and, frankly, unfortunately, we were dealing with Lily's health issues, and I am recovering from surgery myself, I got flu in the midst of that, that knocked me out and my husband was running the hospital at home on his own. So I must say, things we would have caught or registered early on, we may have missed...Unfortunately, with Chester being rescue, we do not have his history so his reaction to medication is something we are now learning. Just as I learned he cannot have rice, when he ate some and within half an hour his ears, paws, belly turned bright red. He is just a very sensitive dude.
Doctor still thinks it's a mix of meds that may have caused the bleeding. He had abs, pain meds, anti-inflammatories, allergy pills...a lot for sensitive little body. We hope he recovers rather than go back to his stupor from last weekend and low PVC.

For good numbers for your sweet Chester. Thanks for keeping us posted!

Let's hope he get better with each day.

I'm sorry you have been going through all this "stuff" with your kids. I can't imagine how stressful and heart breaking it has been for you. Chester and Lily are so lucky to have you Bernata as thei mom.

Continued good Thoughts and Prayers.

and sending tons of good wishes...

a small improvement is better than none! YAY! I sure hope that he continues to improve from here on.

Cathy
when she first came home

Bernata so glad Chester did not need a transfusion again.
I hope he is feeling better soon
Hugs to you and Hubby
and give the 2 babies a big hug and kiss from us
sandy

nm

It seems strange to me that he would have such such a dramatic reaction for being on medication for only a week. I could understand it if he had been on it for months, but it just doesn't seem like he should be that bad off only after a week...unless it was a really bad reaction (such as an allergic reaction).

My first bullie had a splenectomy too...he had not been feeling well for a while, and when my vet palpated his abdomen, he felt a mass and knew it was on the spleen. Ended up he had a tumor about the size of a baseball. I hope the source of Chester's bleeding can be found soon; he remains in my thoughts and prayers.

I'm glad you're starting to see some improvement...



BE MY VALENTINE

Only weeks before Raven lost his leg. In Sept or Oct. You may be able to find the info on BDW as it happened. She was pale and bleeding out. She had a tumor on her spleen, you could see it on the xray once it was advanced. However, earlier in the year, she was so pale from bleeding that we did EKG's, ultrasounds, meds, just about every test imaginable and never found out what it was. We now know that was the spleen bleeding, but it didn't show yet, but would have if we'd cut her open to see it visually. It hides behind other organs and the ribs, so it's hard to "see" otherwise. Raven's had tumors too and you could NOT see them on xrays or ultrasounds. Betty's only hope of survival was an urgent spleenectomy, so that was an easy decision. I would suspect Chester's spleen, it is engorged with blood and is involved with making red blood cells, so would be more of an explanation for the chronic problem with blood counts, rather than a sudden onset of GI bleeding within a week due to some meds/ulcer. Just my suspicion. I would suggest that if he has to be under anesthesia for a scope or anything, have them consider a look at the spleen and an opportunity to remove it if it is that, all under one knockdown. Tom said that it was shocking how many chunks there were everywhere from previous tumor "blowouts", clots, etc. Betty came through the surgery fine. He didn't use any "pre-anesthetic" drugs, just masked her down onto the gas. And he "bagged" her with oxygen assisted breathing as a safeguard too. She is around 12 years old, and recovered within a few days back to her old self. Actually, she had more energy than she had for MONTHS, once it was removed.

I hope you get some answers!

Dawn

"Little Miss Betty Cuteface"
Toofie on the left, eyeball on the right.


Raven (prior to tripawd surgery) and Betty

and hoping for the best.

--


Visit Kirby: flickr | youpet.com | YouTube

I had missed the part about the GI bleeding and couldn't quite figure it out! I was wondering why his blood count kept going down due to a damaged disk

Anyway, thanks for clearing that up - and I continue to think of you and you boy.

Chester had gastrointestinal bleeding brought almost certainly by anti-inflammatory meds he was on for his bad disc in his neck. We did not know how sensitive his belly was, he was on these meds only for a week so even vet was surprised by the outcome. He was bleeding profusely, his poop suddenly was black as tar, he ended up in hospital for four days and he needed numerous transfusions and he still is anemic. He was barely responsive last Saturday as was admitted to hospital. Because of the blood levels and his behavior (or lack of it) we were not given much hope as his counts kept dropping all the time even with repeated transfusions. Two ultrasounds and X-rays excluded internal obstructions and cancer but there was some issue with spleen (still is) but this may be minor at this point. It may be scarring that may need to be monitoring, but if it grows, his spleen will need to be removed in the near future--major surgery.
All the efforts were on stopping GI bleeding and it is taking long and it is up and down.
In addition now we know he has hypothyroid so he needs to be put on meds but we cannot start anything until he stabilizes as the vet does not want his belly exposed to anything at this point except for healing stuff.
He needs to be back on abs for his MRSA infection and allergy pills as well. We are waiting for improvement to get him back on meds.
If he drops again (his blood count) he will be ultra-sounded by GI specialist and then scoped but this is scary as he need to be put under anesthesia. This might tell where bleeding is and surgery performed. Otherwise they cannot just cut him open and dig. Opening up would show only "internal organs externally" but nothing inside those internal organs without chopping into them. So scoping is the only thing that could help.
Hope I explained it clearly, but I am a bit of a tired mess, so feel free to ask more questions. I hope learning from Chester's experience provides all of you with wisdom and experience to help your pups.

Kiss and hug your precious bullies from me and if you could spare a little good thought for my boy...

What is the exact diagnosis?

i feel for you....do they know whats happening or why? i know you would feel better if they could just operate and fix it...
just so you know my prayers are with chester....

Continued prayer for Chester and Lily...and you and your husband.

Amy and Sophia

hugs

http://www.flickr.com/photos/griffin6/
http://www.facebook.com/Deborah075?ref=name

what a rough rough road for the both of you
lets hope he continues to get through this..
will keep you and Chester in my thoughts
been following his story..soo sad.....