wombat88
Active Member
Sorry I haven't updated or posted today, but I'm super busy so not much time for online. Shaikha has gone back to not eating and also developed a small swollen area on her side, so I took her to the vet today for observation and tests. He though it was likely inflammation from subQ fluids irritating a spot, as it wasn't a fluid pouch or lymph node. We'll keep an eye on it for now. More worrisome is the continued issues with bleeding and anemia. Her packed cell volume was down to 15% so we sent off blood today for a clotting panel and other counts. Depending on what we find we'll either do a plasma or whole blood transfusion to try to boost her some, as the anemia is not helping her appetite any. I'm not seeing black stools and blood work doesn't seem to indicate a GI bleed, but if clotting is messed up that could be playing a role I guess. He feels that her anemia is nonregenerative, but the tests he ordered will give us confirmation. If she's nonregenerative, then we'll likely have to follow up with a drug like Aranesp to try to build her red cells. It is either that or blood transfusions, but we can't let her continue to drop as we are reaching a critical level now on her PCV. She isn't feeling too perky right now, but at 15% I'm not surprised that's the case. My GA Tabriz could function fairly well as low as 12%, but he also adapted well to the lower levels since he was anemic for so long.
She started out with a BG of 435 today, but levels since then have been better. She had some off cycles yesterday that resulted in me delaying doses, so she got less insulin in than usual and this AM was likely a reaction to that. Off to test her and give her the PM shot hopefully. I've got meetings again all day tomorrow so other than sneaking home to give a mid-day shot, I probably won't be able to get online until late evening. We hope to have blood test results back then so we'll know more what to do for treatment.
He said her other blood work is good. Kidney function is not bad (high normal creatinine), enzymes look good, liver values normal, etc. The anemia is the worrying thing at present. I was hoping she'd hold at 20% but unfortunately not. I keep worrying about cancer, but he doesn't think that's in play based on her blood work and physical exams. He does think she's got a severe inflammatory process going on in there that is wreaking havoc. The question is whether we can combat it successfully. Will keep you all posted.
She started out with a BG of 435 today, but levels since then have been better. She had some off cycles yesterday that resulted in me delaying doses, so she got less insulin in than usual and this AM was likely a reaction to that. Off to test her and give her the PM shot hopefully. I've got meetings again all day tomorrow so other than sneaking home to give a mid-day shot, I probably won't be able to get online until late evening. We hope to have blood test results back then so we'll know more what to do for treatment.
He said her other blood work is good. Kidney function is not bad (high normal creatinine), enzymes look good, liver values normal, etc. The anemia is the worrying thing at present. I was hoping she'd hold at 20% but unfortunately not. I keep worrying about cancer, but he doesn't think that's in play based on her blood work and physical exams. He does think she's got a severe inflammatory process going on in there that is wreaking havoc. The question is whether we can combat it successfully. Will keep you all posted.
