Blood Donors

We got up this morning and found that Allie, our wobbly puppy with cerebellar hypoplasia, had managed overnight to chew open her spay sutures.  We had just brought her and the other recently spayed girls back from the clinic yesterday afternoon.  Not only did she have a wide-open slit into her abdomen, but it had already become infected.

I didn't have time to rush her back to our vets in Helena, so I called our other specialist, Dr. Dave Bostwick in Missoula, and asked if he had a spare moment this morning to suture her closed.  He said, "Sure, but I need a couple of blood donors!"  Turns out that a dog had just arrived at his hospital with a horrendous autoimmune disorder that causes the body to destroy its own red blood cells.  Part of the therapy involves repeated blood transfusions.  Dave had already drawn blood from his own dog and needed more.

Dave said he'd prefer "lean and calm" dogs as donors, so Alayne and I loaded up blind Buddy and blind Dusty for the trip to Missoula, along with Allie.

In the first photo with Buddy are vet techs Sherrie on the left and Traci on the right, with Dave holding Buddy's half-litre of blood we'd just drawn.  In the second photo is Dusty, wondering what the heck is going on.  We hadn't pulled his blood yet. The sick dog who was getting the blood is in the background behind Dusty with the cone on his head.  Dave put his dog in the kennel on the left while we were working with Buddy and Dusty.

After all this, Dave patched up Allie.  Because of the infection we couldn't close up her with sutures, so we had to use bandages and wraps.  We started her on an antibotic as well.  We'll have to change her bandages twice a day for the next several days.

Finally the three dogs and I headed back to the ranch.

We just hope this sick dog makes it. 

Comments

[Leigh]

I hope Allie is doing better. I also hope the sick dog makes it. It was so nice of Buddy and Dusty to help out :)

Dusty is adorable. One of my dogs is a one-eyed and I think they are just the cutest.

[Roz]

Prayers to Allie and to your energy and perseverance, Steve and Alayne. Thanks to the canine donors.