My poor lad has been in the wars. He and Missy (my fiance’s shepherd) had a fight on Sunday. Rum seemed fine and his wounds looked okay but Monday evening the one wound on his chest had formed what we thought was an abscess.
Tuesday – a visit to the vet who said the abscess needed lancing and his foot x-rayed as it felt like he had splintered a bone.
Wednesday – he went in for the op. The vet tried to lance the abscess and found it wasn’t an abscess but a tumour, he also found a lot of bruising on Rum and said that his blood isn’t clotting properly so he needed to do a chest x-ray to make sure he had no internal bleeding which thankfully was clear. He couldn’t remove or take a biopsy of the lump as he would have bled to death! So he took a blood sample to look at platelet levels etc. He didn’t do an x-ray of his foot as he says if it was properly broken he wouldn’t be able to bend it and it is probably splintered which they can’t do much for anyway.
Thursday – the results of the blood test. I knew it was bad news when the receptionist needed the vet to speak to me. His red & white cells and haemoglobin are low and he has said this hopefully is the result of him losing blood from the fight as his blood wasn’t clotting. He is also very anaemic so is on strict rest as there is a risk he could faint. As expected his platelets are low which is what is causing his blood not to clot properly.
So next week he goes for another blood test to make sure his cells are back to normal levels as otherwise there’s an underlying reason. He will always have the problem with his blood not clotting properly so I just have to be aware of this in future.
My poor lad, I still don’t think I have taken it all in. He is quite okay in himself, just very lethargic and his wounds are starting to make him scratch and are aggravating him. To look at him though he doesn’t look that ill and I just hope his bloods are back to normal next week. In a way I am glad that it happened as now we know about his blood then I can be more aware if he ever is wounded in the future but I can’t believe all the problems it has unearthed!! I personally think the lump is like a mass of blood rather than a tumour as it wasn’t there before but is that just me not wanting to think about what it could be? If it hasn’t reduced in size the vet will look at removing but it is a risk because of the problem with his blood!
So at the moment he is wrapped up in cotton wool and being spoilt rotten.
