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October 23, 2014 at 1:57 pm #613004
anonymeParticipantA friend in Arizona writes with this concern. This is what I’ve been told:
Toby (5 year old Lab) became suddenly lethargic, went to the vet’s, had surgery for 1 cup (!) of gravel in his stomach, they removed it and massaged his intestines to move the rest along. They took him home, then per my friend;
“We are taking Toby to a vet specializing in internal medicine. He isn’t remotely the dog we had a month ago – he does eat &
eliminate, but that’s about it”.
Few days later; “His white blood cell count is extremely elevated. They took more blood today for a cytometry test, looking for
leukemia or lymphoma. Because his behavior has been so bizarre at night (pacing, panting, staring off/getting stuck in a corner)
something neurological will be considered after the blood test comes back. He’s much more alert during the day, tho not fully Toby, but wagging a bit, recognition in his eyes. Toby has seen the eye specialist and they have checked his hearing. We feel the correlation to the surgery is
the most obvious.”
My personal recommendation would be to take Toby to Dr. Lena ASAP, but these folks are in Arizona. Any medically astute folks out there willing to make observations?
A side note: My own sweet pup, diagnosed with aggressive Grade 3 cancer in February, has thrived in Dr. McCullough’s care and is now in remission.
October 23, 2014 at 2:18 pm #815333
hammerheadParticipantI would advise against any this.
While they are just “observations”, it can be all very misleading and I am sure your friends are going through a lot.
Any false hope could be very disappointing.
Sorry for your friends dog, but good news on your dog.
October 23, 2014 at 2:26 pm #815334
anonymeParticipantP, you’re probably right. My personal recommendation to them was to find their own Dr. Lena in Arizona as soon as possible. I promised to find out anything I could, and this is all that came to mind.
October 23, 2014 at 3:15 pm #815335
LenaParticipantHopefully something more to work with will come back on the blood test but with the elevated WBCs you are either thinking infection (#1), cancer or autoimmune most of the time. I’m sure its on their radar but my first thought would be infection and we get many “MRSA” type of infections these days in vet medicine so a little simple round of Amoxicillin doesn’t do it most of the time. Personally and of course without having all the data I would start with a strong antibiotic.
October 23, 2014 at 3:36 pm #815336
anonymeParticipantLena, thank you! You’re awesome, as usual. I will pass this on to my friends.
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