Fife Greys Forum
This is the place to chat about your rescued Greyhound.
I thought I would share a story about Mac, who was Scotty, when in the kennels.
You’ll see his picture on lucky ones page 103.
Three weeks ago, Mac was his usual self, stealing food and guzzling his tea then in the early hours of the Saturday morning he vomited – all his tea came up and a couple of jelly babies he had eaten in a colour of deep dark red, I was thinking he had maybe drank some Ribena because he is terrible for drinking out cups and glasses if left sitting! He settled down and a couple hours later he vomited again but this time it was pure blood and lots of it. He was still acting OK and didn’t seem in any pain.
He was then passing blood out the back end too. Got him to the vet and told them what had happened and showed them pictures of the blood so they could see the volume. He was kept in for blood tests and an x-ray thinking that he had either been poisoned or had eaten something which had ruptured some internal organ.
The blood tests came back normal which confused the vet. Whilst he was waiting forhis x-ray he vomited again in the surgery and I received a phone call to say that he was now seriously ill and was far too ill to even operate on, they were shocked at thevolume of blood. They did do the x-ray and this showed nothing so they were completely baffled. He was rigged up to a drip and received intravenous drugs and had numerous blood tests done all coming back negative.
He was kept in overnight and as he is terrified of people it was difficult for the vet staff to get him out of his kennel to go outside or do anything. I received a phone callat midnight to say that his heart rate was beating at double the normal rate and was irregular, they were now seriously concerned about that. He was also anaemic and was close to needing a blood transfusion. They were also thinking about doing an ECG.
However, he made it through the night and he came home on Sunday afternoon. He was seriously unwell and had lost 3 kg in that 24 hour period. His heart was beating at an incredible rate and it was irregular I thought he was going to have a heart attack and die. As the day went on the heart rate got more steady but he was very weak and his leg was very swollen where the fluids had gone in so he had difficulty walking, when he could even get up. He continued to pass blood for a few days which was disturbing to see.
From being the greediest dog I have ever had to one that refused every type of food,I was getting really worried – he refused chicken, fish, eggs, pasta, rice – the other dogs were having a great time though, waiting for the discarded food!
He had to go back to the vet every day to have his blood tested – the Monday his blood results were even worse, having lost more red blood cells and his platelets were now dangerously low and they thought they could be destroying their selves. His back leg became very swollen for no apparent reason.
Next day, which was 4 days after the incident, blood tests showed that the red blood cells had started to regenerate. He still hadn’t eaten anything except for a little milk and some custard I managed to get him to lap up that morning after poking it into his mouth – he seemed too weak to even be bothered to eat. Later that day he ate a little chicken and was keen to go out with the other dogs for their evening walk. We did a short walk and he managed well. Over this week he lost another 1 kg. After that, every day saw a little improvement. He refused every type of food except for porridge for breakfast and chicken this lasted for over two weeks – goodness knows how many chickens he waded his way through! He was still on antibiotics and zantac tablets.
Now, three weeks later, he is almost back to normal – he is back eating pretty much anything, although his appetite is still a bit suppressed. He has regained 2 kg. His heart rate is still slightly fast when in the vet but they are not so concerned with that and have put it down to his nervousness.
One vet said had he not been a greyhound he was unlikely to have survived the blood loss – shows you what amazing dogs greyhounds are. They still don’t know what caused it and have said it must have been a haemorrhagic gastroenteritis but in an extreme form.
I’m just happy he is still here because I thought that when he went in the vet’s that Saturday, I wasn’t going to see him again.
Oh poor Mac! And poor you too. You must have been really terrified for him. How wonderful that he is now so very much on the mend. I hope he will soon be back to full health again.
What a horrible experience for you and poor Mac. Fantastic that he’s on the mend again xx
