Winston is our 5-year-old F1b mini Goldendoodle. He is very much a part of our family and is never far from one of us, he prefers it if one of us is touching him.
On Saturday, we had bathed him and with the post-bath zoomies, he had slid into a narrow wall where Christmas lights were hanging. It didn’t seem to faze him, and he continued to play and have normal activities. Later that day, I noted red blotches and some bruises on his stomach and thought the lights had caused it when he slid into the wall. I called and spoke to a tech who advised me to keep an eye on it and bring him if he had any change in activity, etc. The next day, I was showing my husband the bruising when he came home and I noticed it had spread and was in places that could not be explained by sliding into the wall.
I brought him in as Monday was a holiday and no vet offices have after-hours care in Grand Forks. On exam and with labs, it was determined he had thrombocytopenia. He had 0 platelets in his body so was at high risk for spontaneous bleeding in his body that could be fatal, as platelets help clot your blood. We chose to have him stay for close monitoring for bleeding with labs every 8 hours and treatment for thrombocytopenia. The treatment was high-dose steroids to stop his immune system from attacking his platelets and a chemotherapy medication to prompt his bone marrow to release platelets.
Thankfully, he never had a bleed and didn’t need any blood transfusions. After 3 days, his body was finally making enough platelets to come home. Although he came home on three different medications, the discharge instructions were very easy to follow. 5 days after coming home lab work showed his platelets to be a normal level. He is getting back to his normal activity levels and has resumed being a constant shadow.
We were very impressed and happy with the care that he received while at the Red River Animal Hospital. The veterinarians kept us up-to-date at least daily with calls and or text messages and the staff even sent us pictures as we lived an hour away and were unable to visit. I could text to check on him if I was worried and as time allowed the staff would respond. We highly recommend them to anyone that needed more intensive care for their pet.
We are forever grateful that they gave us a chance to have more time with our precious Winston. Thank you will never be enough!
