Brandy's blood work

mmcginty

mmcginty

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So... 3 weeks ago, in for a physical, some of the numbers from her senior screen were off the chart, notably BUN and albumin, through the roof. They sent us home with a couple of bags of lactated ringers and a dozen or so needles... honestly I think it's harder on me than her... I certainly complain more...

The good news is, after re-running the panel on Wednesday, all of her numbers are back within normal range, except for amylase -- which kind of amazed me, she clearly wasn't feeling well at all. (I was out of ringers to give her for a few days.) I was half expecting the vet to want to keep her for a few days.

No theories on why her numbers were so high earlier, now suspects onset of pancreatitis. This time he added some anti-nausea stuff to her bags of fluid. She's actually been eating pretty well since we started that. From the looks of her I wouldn't think anything was wrong.

She's not real thrilled when I call her to come to me anymore, but I can't say I blame her. Now I go to her and carry her to where I have the bag set up, hopefully she won't associate being used as a pin cushion with coming on command. She still jumps up on the bed at night for lovies so I think we'll probably make it through this ok.
 
Oh gosh. Poor Brandy. You're good fof doing her fluids, I couldn't .

Tully has chronic pancreatitis now, which does seem to occur more often than I knew in older dogs. It doesn't take much to set her off, change in routine, getting something I dropped on the floor, it's not from fatty foods either
 
I'm sorry to hear about Brandy. No kidding, it's tougher on us than them, and doing fluids is really tough. She's a good girl for tolerating it. Don't worry, she'll get over being mad at you! :yes:

I didn't realize that Shelties are as prone to pancreatitis as they are....we're so focused on gallbladder that we don't think of pancreatitis. Has she had a gallbladder ultrasound, just in case? It sounds like you have a good handle on it and you're staying ahead of the problem. I hope she recovers easily! Pats to your girl.
 
Ann said:
I'm sorry to hear about Brandy. No kidding, it's tougher on us than them, and doing fluids is really tough. She's a good girl for tolerating it. Don't worry, she'll get over being mad at you! :yes:

I didn't realize that Shelties are as prone to pancreatitis as they are....we're so focused on gallbladder that we don't think of pancreatitis. Has she had a gallbladder ultrasound, just in case? It sounds like you have a good handle on it and you're staying ahead of the problem. I hope she recovers easily! Pats to your girl.
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He hasn't done any ultrasound yet, he was going to if her numbers were still high, but he says a lot of times it's really hard to get anything conclusive that way, he figures blood work tells him more.

Luckily giving her fluids is technically not very difficult, if I thought it would be easier on Brandy if I took her in for it, I would. But it seems the same to her either way, and $50/day adds up quickly. I did it for old Jake 12 years ago after he had pancreatitis, so the vet just assumed... The worst part is just before I poke her, it feels like my flesh is crawling...

I'm glad I know how though, now I'm going to have to keep closer tabs on her hydration state, if I happen to notice she's dehydrated after office hours deciding whether or not to take her to the ER vet is stressful. At that point it's actually easier to give her 150 ml of ringers (which I'm told will never cause her any harm, even if she doesn't need it) than it is to either deal with the ER or worry until the morning.
 
Caro said:
Oh gosh. Poor Brandy. You're good fof doing her fluids, I couldn't .

Tully has chronic pancreatitis now, which does seem to occur more often than I knew in older dogs. It doesn't take much to set her off, change in routine, getting something I dropped on the floor, it's not from fatty foods either
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Apparently that's what we're looking at, what are Tully's symptoms? How often does it become a problem? Old Jake had acute pancreatitis and it was really severe, he was throwing up hourly, couldn't hold down food or water, it hit him like a ton of bricks. I didn't even know Brandy was sick until her blood work 3 weeks ago. Probably would've given her a day or two to get over what I saw on Wednesday... Good thing for checkups!
 
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