For those of you who don't know my English Cocker Spaniel "Shadow" let me introduce you! She will be turning four years old next month and she's been struggling with a *low blood platelet count for about the same amount of time as I have been on ActiveRain. A year and a half.
Anyway, Shadow is a happy puppy (she'll always be our puppy) and no matter how fat she got she was happy. From the beginning of her 'steroid' treatment she gained weight quickly and ballooned up to 39 pounds. She maintained that weight until last week when I took her for her checkup.
Shadow lost FIVE POUNDS!
Shadow has been on a reduced fat diet for the past six months and we changed her 'wet' food to 'lite' Science Diet. She is still on a quarter tab of the steroid pill every day but her blood tests have been great and so far hasn't affected her organs.
Shadow's proud of herself too. She no longer looks like her middle is a balloon and she's healthier and has more energy.
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*LOW BLOOD PLATELET COUNT: Usually, the platelet count is about 150 to 350 thousand platelets in a microliter of blood. With a low blood platelet count bleeding is likely to happen even after a slight injury. When the platelet count is very low (below 20 thousand), massive bleeding may occur even when there is no injury and it may be life threatening.
(Shadows count was 24,000 the day she bled all over the floor and we rushed her to the vet.)
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In Celebration of her milestone the following are the stories I've written about her.
- Quit Blogging and Let ME In! 8/28/2008
- Shadow and the Fourth of July 7/4/2008
- My Dog Rolls in Sashimi.....Does Yours? 2/17/2008
- Dad's Home...... And Brought Me A Toy!! 12/8/2007
- Growing up (Literally) Shadow 8/29/2007
- There's a "Shadow" in Our Midst! UPDATE 8/3/2007
- Talking for Shadow 6/20/2007
- UPDATE#4....Virtual Tour of My Dog Shadow 5/8/2007
- UPDATE! Shadow doing better! 4/25/2007
- My English Cocker Spaniel "Shadow" 3/31/2007
