Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together….

She hasn’t wanted to eat, but the poor girl has been through so much and she’s on so much medication. She’s still wagging that tail.

So, we all hold our breaths and pray she stays steady through the night. The question now is whether or not they do a third transfusion to try to kick start her body’s system and whether or not they continue the prednisone. Dr. Presley is still thinking about the best way to proceed…and of course, we will hopefully have the tick results from NC State very soon. For right now, we are are cautiously optimistic….

Morning update:  The on-call doctor just called. The fluid in Harmony’s belly has been re-absorbed, which is good. However, her PCV has dropped to 21% this morning from 24% last night after her transfusion (normal for greyhounds is 55-65). She’s also a little bit more jaundiced today, as her bilirubin is up. Her kidney values have gone up, probably either because she’s slightly dehydrated (they’ve increased fluids) or the treatments are just taking their toll on her kidneys. But, her spirits are still up and she trotted out for her morning potty break.

The doctor said she anticipates Harmony will need another (third) transfusion today, but they will monitor her bloodwork and call if they feel they need to do a transfusion. A third transfusion will give the meds another day to start turning things around for her.

In a nutshell: Harmony seems to be continuing to decline despite everyone’s best efforts.  Her body is just shredding through any red blood cells in her body.

After her first blood transfusion, Harmony developed a fever and mild jaundice. By the afternoon, the on-call vet called to report that her PCV had dropped from 24% to 16%. Harmony’s body had shredded all those red blood cells from the transfusion. Dr. Presley called to ask Ken if we wanted to move forward with an Imidocarb injection. Imidocarb is used to treat babesia, and the side effects can be pretty nasty – up to, and including, sudden death. So, it’s not a treatment you want to give unless you are sure you are dealing with babesia. With her not responding to other treatments, Ken and I felt we had no other good options to help her. If we wait for the tick panel results from NC State next week, we might be too far behind the curve for Imidocarb to help Harmony…if she was even still with us when the results came in.

With the approval from us to give the Imidocarb, Dr. Presley started calling around to local vets to find it. No one had it. He called the University of Georgia vet school and they refused to dispense it to him. So…he called Auburn University, where he did his Residency and still has connections. They said they had it and could FedEx it to him. Dr. Presley, knowing we didn’t have time to wait for FedEx, amazingly decided to drive the 8 hour round trip to Auburn to pick the meds up himself (even though I was in Alabama, they would not dispense it to me). Needless to say, Ken and I are completely blown away and overwhelmed at Dr. Presley’s dedication to Harmony. I just don’t even have words to express my appreciation for a vet who would spend his weekend day off driving to pick up medicine for our dog. If there is a Vet of the Year Award, I want to nominate Dr. Presley. He truly is Harmony’s guardian angel. We also owe a a huge thank you to Auburn University vet school for donating the Imidocarb, since Harmony is a retired racer.

They started her blood transfusion at 3pm and it was projected to take about 6 hours. Just enough time for me to get home, unload the track dogs and head to the hospital with Ken. We were able to see Harmony after the transfusion and she looked really good (all things considered, she looked great!). A testament not only to her spirit, but also to the wonderful care she has been receiving from Upstate Vet Specialists. We waited until she had received her Imidocarb injection to make sure she survived the procedure, and once she was stable we headed home for the night.

A long day, filled with difficult decisions. Witness to amazing dedication from her veterinary team. Amazing support and prayers from my online GreyTalk family. And finally ending with hope that she just might pull through this. No one is giving up on her while her tail is still wagging and she’s telling us she still wants to fight.

We visited Harmony and her doctor tonight. He’s a really, really great guy and I couldn’t ask for a more motivated or dedicated vet to be taking care of her. He’s taking her case very personally…Harmony has a way of wrapping men around her velvet paw.  Harmony looks…very sick. Dramatically different from yesterday. But she still wagged her stubby tail when she saw her daddy. Her PCV has dropped to 16% and they were starting a blood transfusion as we left tonight. The next 24 hours will be very important. She’s starting to get a little fluid in her abdomen…another concern.

Just when I think I can’t cry anymore, I do.

Original Post: I’ve decided to just start doing a daily update and edit an entry to add updates as the day goes on rather than write brand new entries for every update we here.  A lot has happened today and, at the same time, not a lot has happened.

Harmony’s PCV value dropped to 20% this morning. She also vomited, which may just be due to all the meds. They are adding another immunosuppressant to try to stop her body from killing RBCs and changing her antibiotic to a stronger for one on the TBD side of things. They are looking at her ultrasound again just to make sure they haven’t missed anything, but are still at a loss as to why she’s so sick. Dr. Presley said she is holding up pretty well, though you can tell she’s not feeling as well today as she was yesterday.

At the urging of my friends on GT and a fellow greyhound owner going through a similar situation with her pup, I contacted (email and called) OSU to see about a consult. Dr. Paulo Vilar called me back very quickly and asked me a list of questions. He said to have the vet fax Harmony’s info over to them and they will call me back later with more information or our local vet can call them up for a consult. The greyhound community is incredibly lucky to have the Greyhound Wellness Program at OSU as a resource.

Right now we are in a holding pattern waiting to hear from either Dr. Presley at Upstate or Dr. Vilar at OSU. Keep those prayers coming! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all the emails, pms and calls of support from our friends. Greyhound people truly are the best in the world!

The vet had the Pathology report back from Antech Diagnostics…basically, she’s not making any new red blood cells and she’s not killing off any either. At this point, he’s really stumped (he’s board certified in Internal Medicine so he’s trained to handle weird or complex cases). Unfortunately, the doctor doesn’t have a lot of answers for us at the moment. With the protein loss, he’s leaning away from IMHA.

If she’s still stable, she will probably come home tomorrow where it becomes a game of wait and see. The next step would be a spleen biopsy.

Here are some pics from our visit today…

She’s a daddy’s girl!

She tired really quickly…

We’ve set up a visitation appointment for 1pm today. We are holding out hope that she will start getting better. I’m just numb that she’s going through this. It feels so unreal to have one of our young hounds become ill out of the blue.

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.

Her bloodwork was very alarming, with PCV value of 23. Her last bloodwork over a year ago was within normal limits at 59. So, she’s at our vet right now because the specialist can’t take her until 2:30 and with her PCV so low, our vet was concerned she might crash, though she seems to be handling things pretty well at this point.

Preliminary diagnosisis Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia with an underlying cause of babeseosis (possibly). They will start treating her at Upstate Vet Hospital here where she can have access to board certified internists and 24/7 care.