OK, I’m finally home and have the dogs and the humans fed. What a long day! Spent quite a bit of time with the internal medicine doc. He’s a new one for us – though we’ve worked with several of the doctors at Upstate and they have an excellent staff there. I really liked him and he was very knowledgeable about greyhounds, tick disease and even discussed my concerns with prednisone, since some greyhounds do not tolerate it at all (Grandpa was one of those dogs).

She’s on supportive care for the anemia while the docs try to figure out what is causing the anemia. The options are:
1) Tick Disease. The blood has been sent off to NC State and they’ve begun treatment as a ‘just in case.’
2) Cancer or other internal disease process. She had a chest and abdominal xray as well as ultrasound, and while her spleen looks slightly enlarged and a bit angry, the doc does not believe we are looking at cancer
3) Auto-Immune. This would be the least desirable, as treatment can be tricky and dogs can be unresponsive to it. The vet gave her a 50/50 chance of survival if this is the ultimate diagnosis.

I can’t believe I’m actually hoping for a TBD, but of the three options it’s probably the most treatable. Harmony is staying at the vet tonight and they should have the report from the pathologist at NC State tomorrow…the tick panel will take a bit longer. She may come home depending on how she’s responding to treatment and the outcome of more bloodwork and the pathology report.

I think I’m still stunned that Harmony is this sick. She seemed off, but not super ill. Being a young dog (7th birthday coming up in Feb), you just don’t expect this kind of serious illness. I really thought she was just a little backed up or her bloodwork would come back normal and she just a little bug or something.

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