"Denise P. Quittmeyer" wrote: > Cynthia- > > About 10 years ago my 3-1/2 year old intact male Cavalier had a brief episode > of "staggering" one evening. We promptly ran him to the vet, who kept him > overnight while blood tests were run. The only thing that they could find > was a very low platelet count, somewhere in the 20's or 30's (where "normal" > then was considered over 200). My poor little boy was subjected to countless > types of drugs as they tried to combat the "problem." I do remember that > prednisone was one of them. My vet consulted with Colorado State University > to try and figure out what the problem might be. Fortunately he did not > remove his spleen, which was one of the remedies that was often used for this > "problem." I was new to Las Vegas at the time, and new to this vet, and we > had not yet established the wonderful working relationship that we enjoy > today. At the time I had suggested that maybe Cavaliers just ran low > numbers, to which he had just raised his eyebrows. Of course, ten years ago > was before the time of the Internet, and the only way that I was able to dig > up info on this problem was to call around to my friends in the Cavalier > world, and I finally did come across one breeder who had experienced a > similar problem in some of her Cavaliers. Her conclusion was that some dogs > just ran low platelets. To make a long story shorter, my boy stayed at the > vet for almost a month, with blood tests run on him regularly to check the > status of his platelets. I swear that I paid the down payment on my vet's > new home. His numbers continued to run very low, at one point dipping to > around 10. His original symptoms, of course, had never reappeared! He was > finally discharged to me, with my vet stating that "maybe his platelets just > ran low." For a while I would check his platelets every couple of weeks, > then every month, then every couple of months, and finally I just stopped > since his numbers rarely went over 100, and yes, we were doing hand counts > because by then I had heard about the "giant, clumping platelets" phenomenon > in Cavaliers. > > I will never know whether the symptoms that he exhibited that evening had > anything to do with his low platelets, but I do know that he has lived a very > long life without any apparent problems being caused by a low platelet count. > He is now 13-1/2 years old and is the household curmudgeon, and at our last > visit to the cardiologist was still free of a heart murmur! So by all means > get him off the pred . . . > > All the best- > Denise Quittmeyer > Hobbshire Cavaliers > > ========================================================= > "Magic Commands": > to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL > to start it up gain click here: > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL > > E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. > Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html > > All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 2002 by its original author.
-- Brigitte Falch Kibergo Cavaliers Reg'd Maple Ridge, BC, Canada http://alescosys.com/kibergo ========================================================= "Magic Commands": to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL to start it up gain click here: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 2002 by its original author.
