Chewie lost the battle with Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia. After 10 awesome years and 3 rough months, we had to say goodbye to "the Chew." We will never forget you...

thumb:104We got to pick up Chewie from the hospital today! We got her at about 6pm and her counts were about 22. She was way more energetic than when I dropped her off. It is awesome to see her wagging her tail and jumping around again. She needs to stay on the immunosuppressive drugs for quite some time, and will be monitored much more closely for this in the future. She has appointments already scheduled for tomorrow and the week after to get her counts checked. I hope the worst part is behind us.. what an exhausting week...

It finally seems like Chewie is responding to the drugs (prednisone and azathioprine). Her counts are up to 20% (from 15%)! This is awesome news! The doctor is now weaning her off of the oxygen that she was put on yesterday and is getting rid of the antibiotics that she is on. She doesn't need them because she is primary IMHA.. there is no secondary infection causing her condition.

The doctor told me a couple of days ago, that if Chewie stabilizes at 17%, it would be okay for us to take her home. Hopefully this 20% stays around for a day so we can bring her home. The hope meter is at a 9 out 10 right now, I will be devastated if she plunges again..

Early Morning

The doctor called us this morning and Chewie's condition went critical.. her counts fell from 13% to 10% overnight and her breathing was very labored and heart rate elevated again. I don't know how much more of this rollercoaster ride Jolie and I can deal with.. I know it is worse for Chewie but the hope we were riding on yesterday has come crashing down.

Chewie needs another transfusion. The crappy part is that there isn't any blood left from the first donor (that supplied two transfusions worth of cells). This means the doctor has to perform a cross-match and try to find another donor that doesn't cause more agglutination than is presently going on inside her. Each time a new donor needs to be found, the risk during transfusion is high.

Early Morning

Chewie's HCT counts dropped again to 10%. This isn't a very big fall but every percent in her current state is significant. She needs another transfusion. The nice thing is that we had blood left from the first donor, so this transfusion was not really that risky.

Her counts ticked up to 13% HCT but then settled at 12% after some time. The game plan is to now buy enough time until the immunosuppressive drug (prednisone) starts working. If Chewie's immune system can be suppressed, she will stop killing her own red blood cells.

Afternoon

Jolie and I went visit Chewie. That's right, the hospital has visitation hours! The visit was pretty difficult. All around the hospital are grown-ups crying hysterically.. one person after another coming out of a particular door with seemingly worse news than we currently had.. It was pretty damn depressing.

Chewie is holding steady at 12% HCT. This isn't great, but at least she isn't falling. The doctors are amazed that Chewie is still eating and drinking like a crazy beast.. but Chewie would spend her last breath eating, so it isn't really a suprise to me! Apparently they are feeding her real chicken and gourmet canned dog food.. She doesn't eat that well at home.

The doctor gave me the results of a full blood test and said that her immature red blood cell counts were extremely high. Chewie's bone marrow was trying desperately to make more red blood cells. This is a good thing.. if

9 a.m.

Today I took Chewie into our vet. She was really lethargic; I couldn't get her off of the couch... The vet took a look at her and said she was pale and that her tummy felt a bit hard. A dog is pale if their gum tissue is white or whiter than usual. You can also confirm this by looking at their sclera (the white part of their eyeball), if the sclera is bright white, the dog is pale.

He suggested that we do a blood test to see what was going on.

11 a.m.

He called to give me the results of the tests.. Not good. Chewie had a really low hematacrit(HCT) count. The normal range is 35-40% for dogs; hers was 13%. Here were the possibilities for this problem: