Poorly dog - not clotting - lungworm?

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letrec_fan

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I posted a few days ago about my dog having a suspected sting/bite. This is also posted in AAD. Well, blood tests came back. Not good news. Her clotting is very bad and completely deranged. Turns out when her face blew up it was unlikely to be a sting or bite but a massive haematoma from hitting herself or banging her face and she wasn't clotting. Now we have a million questions and no answers. Is it rat poison or potentially lungworm? Been to the vets again, given her four shots of vit. K, more vit. K tablets for us to give and a 7 day course of Panacur. I have looked up more about wormers and it is a total minefield! We treat her just over every month with Advocate but that only treats one type of lungworm! Looking up more about it, it seems it is also very pokey stuff and we were giving it on the assumption it is the only thing that prevents lungworm or rather, doesn't prevent but treats. Also, it appears there is 4 types of lungworm and as above, the Advocate only treats one type. Also, clotting is her only symptom, plus lethargy. No vomiting, some blood in poo earlier in the week but I presume that comes with the clotting problem really, none of the other symptoms that seem to come with ingesting rat poison and I can't see where she would have picked it up from anyway. Vet was very blunt and not very helpful - based on the fact that we are regularly throwing hundreds of pounds at them, you'd think they could offer a better service really. It took them 3 days to get her blood results back to us. He told us if she cut herself at the moment, it could be fatal. Great. So if she had cut herself these last few days, we would of had no idea! Anyone else had any experience of this? Totally confused and just praying it is not either a congenital condition (find this hard to believe as she does high impact agility and had surgery in July last year so both these things point to the fact that it is hopefully not congenital) or a high worm burden. If it is lungworm I am hoping this event has bought it light and we have caught it early and can kill them off. Another possibility is there is something wrong with her liver. I am praying not. She is going back for more tests on Monday (labs not open over weekend) and is currently curled up on her bed. She was still running around in the park as of this morning but it is on lead after the results from today because knowing our bloody luck, she would go and cut herself! Everything has just come on so suddenly as of Tuesday. Any info or experiences would be great.

Thanks. :(
 
So sorry to hear about your poorly dog.

My springer spaniel was very poorly two years ago with a similar clotting problem. She had to have an emergency blood transfusion in the end.

It all started when she had her routine booster jab. Her immune system went haywire and she started bleeding inside, although we didn't know this at the time. A week later she had a bright red eye. Which was her blood not clotting. As I remember we had vit k? injections, steriods etc, but the thing which saved her was a transfusion. At the time we thought possibly lungworm, but the vet traced it back to the booster.

I can't remember the ins and outs as it was so worrying and stressful, now that she is back to full health, I think I have blocked it out! typical me. But I did make a few posts on here, and because people were so lovely and wanted an update, the story is told in more detail. I will find the thread and post again.

Wishing you all the best with your dog. Big hugs. I know how worrying it is.
 
Thank you for your reply myhorsefred. Great to hear Poppy has returned to full health. Molly (our dog) hasn't had any jabs recently and I think the vet said her platelets are normal apparently ?? Perhaps the tests on Monday will reveal more but I doubt it. It worries me that we will have to wait over the weekend before we even send off samples etc. Your vet sounds great.
 
Hi letrecfan, sorry that was such a lot of posts to read above. I hope your dog is sorted soon.
I think, if I remember, Poppys platelets didn;t dip straight away.

yes,my vet is amazing! She's also a great personal friend. If you want to give me exact symptoms I will happy run them past my vet if you like.

x
 
I haven't read all the posts, but has your dog been tested for von Willebrand's disease? It is a coagulation defect (factor VIII) found in many breeds, but particularly in some breeds.

Just looked at the time. Must run. I'll come back on here in a bit.
 
Hi

So sorry to hear of your dog being ill but wanted to try and at least stop you worrying about liver disease.

My dog has chronic liver disease which we found out about too late to treat. Her symptoms were a swollen abdomen and lack of appetite

I know not all dogs are the same but she has never had any of the symptoms you described and she basically does not have a functioning liver!

Good luck and chin up same dag was given a week to live and was advised pta
 
Apologies as on pesky phone! After advised pts I got another opinion and with medication we are almost 3 years on with a fantastic quality of life
 
advocate is good stuff and treats/prevents the bad kind of lungworm that cheaper products do not, so on that basis i would say it is unlikely to be that.

hope your dog gets better!
 
Haven't read all the posts. It ditto the von willebrand's disease. At my work, we do a bleeding test with certain breeds, particularly outside stock to see if they have this clotting problem before they do any major ops such as spays and castrates. I hope your dog gets better soon x
 
My working collie suffered a severe episode of illness similar but we never found the real cause.

He had been out for a walk and was fine, then collapsed in the car. Shaking, appeared paralysed and eyes rolling. Rushed to ITU at local vet centre, IV fluids + O2 and several different kinds of painkillers and muscle relaxants were administered as he appeared in terrible pain. Vet thought a traumatic spinal injury of some kind. It was only when the nurses noticed the IV sites persistantly bleeding that they checked his bloods and his clotting time was horrendous.
He was in ITU for 10 days with bloody stools, and gradually recovered over the course of several months. Vet now thinks he got into some rat poisoned bait which resulted in bleeding into the spinal cord. The pressure caused the neurological deficits he now still suffers from. Some days he's unsteady and wobbly and keeps knuckling over with a front leg.

We too thought it could be genetic but this occured when he was 9 years old and he'd never had clotting problems before with small cuts etc. We also have his son and he has no problems so rat poison did seem like the culprit.
We thought it was the end but ROY's will to live was strong and he has made an increadible recovery and still works the sheep daily.
Good luck with your doggy.
 
Thanks for your post RutlandH20 - she is going back Monday for more tests so hopefully this will get done then.

Pebblemania - that is good to hear. I only worried about that because ever since we got her she has recurring bouts of vomiting and once even with blood in it but we have never got down to the actual cause. But she is not vomiting now, and hasn't for a while. Glad that your dog is well now.

Thanks Charcoal feathers, as above, I will mention this on Monday. I have been doing a bit of reading up about it on the internet.

Good to hear your dog pulled through angel7. If it was rat poison, I am hoping she got off lightly and only ate a small amount as she hasn't shown any drastic or violent symptoms like your dog did. I only worry that things can change so quickly and we seem to just be sitting around because of course it is the weekend- but that is vets/labs for you!

Thank you again for all the very helpful posts. I will keep updated Monday as to how it goes.
 
RubyFrench said:
advocate is good stuff and treats/prevents the bad kind of lungworm that cheaper products do not, so on that basis i would say it is unlikely to be that.

hope your dog gets better!
Click to expand...

Certainly very expensive! Thank you. All keeping our fingers crossed we can get to the bottom of it.
 
All the blood tests they did including liver function came back clear. Slightly off liver but nothing to cause concern. Clotting still wildly out though (ATTP/PT) Now we have gone back in a circle and it is being suggested may be adder bite. Back at square one basically in terms of knowing anything. Going to repeat clotting in a week or so and hope it has improved on the basis the adder venom may still be in the system. I do not know if this is likely or not? Trying to find out more about adder venom but nothing out there about it, it seems. Even knowing the effect in a person would help. She is a mystery dog! Currently still being kept quiet, much to her frustration.
 
Have you ruled out a tick bite as this also can affect a dog seriously and produce similar symptoms.My Collie was poorly having collapsed suddlenly and needed urgent treatment.Vets suspected rat poison but there was no evidence he ingested any.Luckily he was given iv steroids and antibiotics as this is what saved him.I eventually found a dead tick on his neck with a large area of imflammation.The road to recovery was slow and he needed full on nusrsing care at home as by this stage he lost a lot of body weight and could not eat or drink normally.He was initially too unwell to have an anaesthetic to treat the poisoned area around his neck.It is shocking how a tick can systemically poison the body.He was 8 months when this happened and is now 7 years old so there is hope for your dog.I wish him well and give lots of positive vibes.
 
The thing is, she doesn't look poorly at all. Leaping around, loads of energy. I will check for ticks though. Glad your dog is healthy now.
 
Hi everyone,

Blood test results came back today and I am glad to report that they are clear! Clotting has returned to normal so we are assuming it was a snake bite. So glad we are over the worry now of the possibility of something more dangerous/undiagnosed that we couldn't get to the source of. She is perky as ever and I let her off the lead for the first time in 2 weeks today and she loved it - running around like a lunatic with a football she found! The strange thing is this must happen to all dogs that have a snake bite (adder) presumably but there is no information on it out there. If we hadn't seen the gum hemorrhages and taken a blood test we would never have known. Slightly worrying this could affect all dogs bitten by snakes without people knowing - as I said earlier if she had been cut it could have been fatal. Thank you everyone for all the information and support, very glad she it better now! :)
 
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