Post Pet Hospital - Pet of the Month - September 2011

Ginger Price

     Meet "Ginger" Price, she is an 11 yr old female/spayed Welsh Corgi. Ginger was dropped off to stay with us at Ft. Ben Boarding & Grooming on August 8th, 2011. Upon drop off her owner requested an exam to check her ears and stated that "Ginger" was slowing down a lot.

    When Dr. Grosser did his physical exam he noted that Ginger had pale gums. Her ears were infected but otherwise her exam was within normal limits. We ran an in house packed cell volume (PCV) to measure her percentage of red blood cells and it was 10% (normal being 36%-60%). We sent a full blood panel to the lab and in the meantime started Ginger on oral Prednisone for Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia. This is a condition where the body's immune system destroys it's own red blood cells. Prednisone blocks that destructive reaction by suppressing the immune system and it's response.

    Ginger's owner was undergoing eye surgery herself and was not able to be reached. We rechecked Ginger the next day. She had not eaten and her pcv had dropped to 9%. We took abdominal x-rays to rule out an abdominal mass, because Ginger seemed to be having abdominal pain. No masses were found on x-rays. At that point Dr. Grosser decided we needed to intervene with a blood transfusion.

    Rocco was our donor dog. He is a 1 1/2 yr old Shepherd mix that belongs to a staff member here at Post Pet Hospital. We started the transfusion that evening and finished the next day. Ginger responded well to the transfusion. She started eating and drinking and her pcv jumped to 27%.

    Her owner picked her up on August 12th and was thrilled that we had taken such good care of Ginger and that she had responded so well to the treatment. We rechecked Ginger a week later and her pcv was up to 31%. We decreased her dose of Prednisone because she was starting to urinate on her bed. She still continued to do well at that dose and at her next recheck her pcv was 33%. We decreased the Prednisone dose again and still saw the same good response. Ginger is now eating well and enjoys her walks with her owner. We recheck Ginger on a regular basis to make sure she continues to respond well to treatment!