Dash (5) and Lily(6) are my 2 whippets. Dash is super special as he is laid back, goofy, has a sense of humour and never complains about anything (unlike his sister) and has worked his charm as a therapy dog for many anxious adults and children. On July 19, I had to fly overseas urgently as my mum was passing away. After 3 weeks I returned to a very lethargic, panting and exhausted Dash and noticed that his mouth was completely grey. The house sitter would have known no better as he didn’t complain. The blood test the next day showed his red cell count was only 8% (and should have been between around 60% for a whippet).
Dash needed an urgent blood transfusion to stay alive while we investigated further. Dogs can get almost any blood for the first transfusion but each one after that, requires exponentially more donor matches with each transfusion. The first transfusion at the emergency centre pushed his count up to 21% and the next week he had a bone marrow biopsy which suggested that he had zero red cell production. The turn around time for improvement is anywhere between 39-82 days and since we were starting from scratch, the longest time frame was our likely scenario (if we were that lucky). Dash had pure red cell aplasia which could have been caused from eating a slow acting toxin or, autoimmune disease – we will never know. He had a 50:50 chance of survival but most vets he saw, told me they held very little hope and I should start saying my goodbyes. He was put on 30mg cortisone treatment per day to kill his immune system, along with other supporting drugs. Dash had a bucket list and I started ticking off doing all the things that he loved the most (which is pretty much everything). My evenings and weekends were all about him-parks, best friends, beach, markets, gourmet meals, thank you’s from people he had helped along the way-and millions of photos.
Weekly blood tests showed his red cell count was dropping by about 5% a week, so after 3 weeks, he required his second blood transfusion, to buy him some more time and we found a match with 2 samples – my friends greyhound cross was a suitable match.
3 weeks later, a third transfusion was required. This was a problem, as we now needed 5-9 potential donors. The ER did not stock enough and I found out that the one and only blood bank in Vic had closed down and the only option was flying in blood from QLD, except, they told us that they did not have 5 bags that they were willing to part with for just one dog. I was at a loss. I didn’t want to deal with another death of a special soul so close to my heart. I put out a desperate plea on FB and people shared across groups. We were ideally looking for a greyhound as their red cell count is exceptionally high. This is when I discovered BLOODHOUNDS and within 10 minutes, I had NINE willing blood donors!! I could not believe that none of the 6 vet centres we saw, did not know about this group. The next day, all the donors kindly went to Bundoora for blood samples and we heard that a certain Greyhound, called Pepper, was a perfect match! The next day he received Pepper’s blood and his count was pushed up to 28% (the highest its been so far). I figured this would give him at least 4-5 weeks which should almost pull him through to 82 days.
I was confident now, not testing for 2 weeks but when I did, his count was still on 28%. I waited another week and retested – still 28%. Last Saturday was his 82 day life support cut-off and when we tested, he was on 31% and the pathology reported “evidence of low-grade red cell rejuvenation”. I threw my arms around the stunned vet (stunned by his results – not throwing my arms around him).
So my beautiful boy is actually on the road to recovery, although I still hold my breath. He continues with all treatment and might do so forever but I have him to hold and to love for a little bit longer, and for this, I am truly grateful to Pepper and to BLOODHOUND Australia
BLOOD Hound Australia 