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superczar
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superczar is offline  
Location: India
Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 2
Male 
 
29-11-2017, 01:03 PM

My 3.5 year baby died and I don't know why

Donnie was a German Shepherd boy ; 3 years and 7 months , 37kgs and in otherwise perfect health.

The first sign that something is wrong came on the 10th of November (Friday).
We were playing in the yard late evening and he suddenly started bleeding from his nose.
I held his head up high to control the bleeds and called the vet who asked if he is showing any signs of distress.
He seemed to be fine otherwise so he asked to come to him in the morning.

The night was uneventful . There was another episode of bleeding at the vet's in the morning which he controlled with adrenaline topical and took a blood sample.
The blood test came positive for Anaplasma Platys and a low platelet count (47K) (which at that time came as a relief as I was suspecting the worst - Anaplasma prognosis is usually very good)
He was prescribed Doxycycline and Prednisolone for the next 2 weeks with a followup the week after.

He responded well and the bleeding all but stopped by the next day. He continued to be his playful normal self all through this.
The entire week was uneventful - I had to practically shout at him all week to stop him from running away with his ball so that he can get some rest instead.

In fact he was so normal through the week that we even decided to throw a BBQ party on the next Saturday (25th) for him .
He had a great time through it all - the only sign something was still wrong was that he slept off on the porch bed around 2 AM while I was still awake cleaning up. He would normally stay up with me till I went to bed but I attributed it to fatigue on account of the medicines.

Next afternoon (Sunday), he had a sudden episode of heavy nose bleeding.
Soon after, he started having bloody diarrhea.
I called the vet but he was off that day and asked me to apply adrenaline and attributed the Melena to blood he may have swallowed.

While that stopped the bleeding, he however had a difficult night as he was having trouble breathing from his nose and had to breathe through his mouth.

Somehow he was fine again in the morning and was his usual happy self hogging down boiled chicken and rice

Anyway we took him to the vet after his meal - By the time we got there, his bleeding started again and showed no signs of abating
At the vet's place, he gave him some injection to control the bleeding ( I am not sure what, I was sinking by that time)
Within minutes, he vomited out a lot of blood with all the food from the morning.

The vet put him on an IV (saline) with several other injections (again not sure what) and took a blood sample
He asked us to keep him rested after the IV was done.
However, by the time we got home, he had lost bowel control and could not even walk.
I carried him up the stairs and kept him in my arms but his breathing just got shallower and he passed away within an hour in my arms.


I was in a daze for the last one week and kept blaming myself for not having done enough on Sunday.
Yesterday I finally gathered the courage to ask the vet for the blood report (that was taken a few hours before he left me)

To my surprise, the blood report was almost perfectly clear.
The platelet counts were up and at 147K!
Hematocrit was marginally low and WBC counts slightly high with mild anemia .
No infections/parasites on the pap smear either!
All this while I have been attributing this to a virulent case of tick fever . And now I don't even know what happened to him.

He was otherwise a perfectly healthy and active dog - Other than maybe a few episode of runny stools over the last three years , he was absolutely perfect in health.
Behaviorally, he was the nicest dog I have ever known and we were so looking forward to seeing my 4 month human boy growing up with him.
I am unable to get closure on this and I just wish there was something more I could do.

I know it does not change anything but if someone could help me understand what happened to him , it may just enable me to move on
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Jcarpentier
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Jcarpentier is offline  
Location: USA
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 147
Female 
 
29-11-2017, 01:08 PM
First off, I am sorry for your loss. Secondly, please do not feel guilty. It sounds like you did what you thought best given the circumstances. Third, could you ask for an autopsy? It may be too late but I thought I would throw that out there as an option.
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superczar
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Location: India
Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 2
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29-11-2017, 01:22 PM
Thanks...
It's too late for an autopsy Now.
I just cannot wrap my head around the fact how could a seemingly healthy young dog go down so rapidly.
Also, I have another 4 year old Indian pariah and was hoping to understand the cause for keeping her safe
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Besoeker
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Location: Dunstable UK
Joined: Oct 2016
Posts: 1,957
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29-11-2017, 02:17 PM
Harrowing story.
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