I took Carmen to a veterinary internal medicine specialist for her leaking problem last week. The medication we’ve been giving her is just not doing the job any more, so our regular vet wanted us to get a specialist’s evaluation to see if there is anything else going on besides just a weak bladder sphincter. The vet was nice and seemed very knowledgeable, but didn’t seem to have much of a sense of humor .
He totally freaked me out and had me thinking Carmen was going to die - like tomorrow. He called and left somewhat frantic messages on all 3 of my phone numbers telling me that her white blood cell count was dangerously low and to get her off of her medication immediately because it was suppressing her bone morrow production. When I tried to ask if the blood marrow could recover and what the side effects of that were he told me she could die. So I’m thinking that she’s on her last leg and I’ve killed her all because she pees a little when she sleeps.
Dr. Thompson, our regular vet (who DOES have a sense of humor) does a lot of work with Greyhounds of America and hastened to assure me that having a WBC of 3.8 was perfectly normal for a sight hound, and in fact was a point higher than Carmen’s previous blood work. Apparently dogs have a normal WBC count of 4-15. For sight hounds, the normal is 2-6. Dr. Elliott did not seem to appreciate me informing him of this fact.
For about $3,000 I could have all kinds of tests done and x-rays and ultrasounds and send a camera up her hoo-hoo to see if something else is causing the leaking. Since her blood work and urine culture came back negative, I am going to decline this opportunity to pay off his school loans, and just put a diaper on her at night and wash her beds more often.
Far from being on her last leg from weak blood, she's feeling good and feisty. We had a great walk on the trails at the C.A.S.E.E. center last Saturday.
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