Hi,
I'm mostly looking for advice on what's to come, and hopefully some hopeful messages. I'll start by saying our dog has been to vets 4 times in the last week, so we have taken professional advice. This is UK based if it makes any difference. The dog is a 10 year old sprocker spaniel.
Last Friday when we went away, we noticed some bad bruising on our dogs stomach. He had been to doggy daycare so we assumed another dog had caught him. A couple of hours later there were smaller circles coming up. Vet was contacted, pictures sent, and they recommended going to whatever vet we could find ASAP.
The dog was still in good spirits, and happy to be on holiday.
Three hours later, bloodwork was done, clotting was fine, platelets came back at zero. We were given steroids and some meds to protect his stomach. We were also sent to a specialist the next day. Specialist said the vets had got the treatment right and told us the signs to look out for, and to book in with our local vets when we were home.
Vomitted right before going to our vets, but has otherwise been fine. Vomiting concerned our vets so they kept him in for the afternoon and had him on a drip. The vet surprisingly talked to us about putting him down after. I'll assume they had the best intentions and were just making sure we knew it was a serious condition. The way they talked it sounded like financial advice rather than the dog being in pain. Bloods were taken and the platelets had gone up slightly, but we weren't given a number, waiting on full test results still.
With us coming to the end of initial treatment, I'm looking at what comes next. The dog seems happy, and healthier than I've been this week. Still eating, pooping, weeing, drinking. No more vomiting. From what I've read he'll need to be tapered off the steroids, but we don't know much about it. I think we need to get a referral so we can professional treatment, but we don't really know what happens. Is it going to be weekly trips to the vet to check his bloods? Based on how he's been I'm assuming the steroids are working, but he can only stay on them too long before they'll do damage.
My partner and I are both still worrying, and contemplating cancelling our holiday which is 5 weeks away. Leaving him alone with someone else doesn't feel right until we know he's going to be safe.