I've recently helped a few vets make a little profit. I had waited about 25 years to have my first Cavalier litter out of the bitch who I have often remarked owns me heart and soul. I didn't realize just how dear this breeding was going to be! LOL It was a long planned breeding with just the right stud for my girl. I didn't want to ship her, so we did fresh chilled semen. I took my girl to the vet *everyday* for several days to have blood drawn for LH testing to pinpoint ovulation.
At 4 weeks into her pregnancy we did ultrasound which showed "at least 5, possibly 6 or 7 puppies." The radiologist was very sure there were at least 5 puppies. About one week later my girl had a very thick, mucousy, dark red blood tinged discharge. I called the reproductive specialist and my regular vet who both said sometimes that happens and no need to worry. Since we had done LH and progesterone testing, the reproductive specialist felt confident in predicting the exact due date. It was 58 days from the first breeding. My girl went into labor, without much warning, a full 8 days earlier than that predicted due date. She delivered a 5.4 oz female first who had very odd bruising on her hind quarters and feet, then a partially mummified puppy, then a 7 oz female and then a 6.6 oz female. All 3 live puppies were having difficulty breathing. My vet examined them and felt everyone probably needed to be placed on antibiotics because of the bruising on the one puppy (possible septicemia) and the partially mummified puppy. I lost the first born puppy with the bruising and the last puppy born within the first 36 hours. It was at that point we went ahead and put my girl and puppy on Cephalexin. Necropsy and cultures were inconclusive. E. Coli was found in the lungs of one puppy but the pathologist felt this was nothing out of the ordinary. Vaginal cultures on my girl showed nothing. However, her WBC was elevated and according to my vet, this probably meant there was some sort of infection. We continued treating her and the puppy with the Cephalexin for about 10 days when the results came back on drug sensitivity and it was only "mildly effective to the E. Coli." Augmentin was "the only safe, effective drug" according to my vet. My vet had worried me greatly with this E. Coli--she told me she had lost a bitch to this recently and we needed to aggressively treat both my girl and the puppy. *Weekly* needle sticks on my poor girl continued to show elevated white blood counts. Please note: through all of this, my girl did not exhibit any symptom of illness! I discussed this with my vet. She was an excellent mother, eating well, no change in behavior, the puppy was thriving. My vet would shake her head and tell me if it were her bitch she'd keep her on antibiotics... Through all of this I consulted with other breeders, friends and mentors with many years of breeding experience. Most seemed stumped as to what to do. The WBC would drop one week (still elevated, though) and go up the next, in fact it was higher than when we had her on the Cephalexin, so the vet wanted to take her off the Augmentin (of course I had just filled another prescription of the Augmentin!) and put her back on the Cephalexin. At this point I told my vet I'd like to at least wait 2 weeks to draw blood again. She agreed. It came back elevated 2 weeks later. The vet still felt we needed to keep her on antibiotics. I decided to get another opinion. I called the Reproductive Specialist who referred me to their board certified Internist. I remarked to my husband "at least NOW we will find out if there is really anything wrong!" The Internist did a complete blood panel and found that her WBC was now normal, BUT her platelets were very low. He wanted me to leave her there to do bone marrow analysis. He even mentioned that we could run into problems of her "bleeding out." He also did tick panels but we would not have those results back for a few days. Tick borne illness could also reduce the platelet numbers. I refused to leave her and told the Internist I'd rather wait to see what the tick panels showed. Tick panels came back negative, BUT the Internist wanted to go ahead and treat her anyway for TBD with Doxycycline. Even when this girl had been on antibiotics for 7 1/2 weeks already... He no longer felt this was thrombocytopenia, but *even though the tick panels came back negative, he now felt sure it was TBD.* I discussed this with my vet who agreed with me that this was now really overkill. We stopped the antibiotics. (I had long ago stopped giving the puppy antibiotics as she was doing extremely well.) I also contacted another vet here who was willing to do some research for me on low platelet counts in Cavaliers. She found case after case of Cavaliers who had been diagnosed with low platelet counts--she said all the cases she read about could have been our story. Needless treatments, worries with no resolution. She felt that a low platelet count in a Cavalier with no symptoms is nothing to worry about. She also looked over the weeks of lab results and felt that the differential values on my girl just showed a stressed dog and that, in itself could have been the reason for the elevated WBC... I felt somewhat relieved by this last opinion, but was worried about the length of treatment with all the antibiotics. I consulted with a holistic vet and we now have my girl on some homeopathic remedies in an effort to rebuild her immune system. She, and the lone puppy continue to thrive. This puppy, worth every penny to me, cost about $3000 and that's without a stud fee! LOL We named her Caryse Crown Jewel. <VBG> I hope through this experience, I've learned to better trust my instinct rather than be drawn into feeling guilty if I don't treat or keep looking for something to be wrong with an asymptomatic Cavalier! Sometimes I think we might just do more harm than good with our good intentions and love of our breed. JMHO. Renee Bruns Oklahoma ========================================================= "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.
