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Blood clots

PrincessSparkle

New member
Hi,
I have a beautiful 5 year old female cavalier king charles called Hunni who began fainting and has now been diagnosed by the vet as having two large blood clots in her pulmonary arteries. She has had an x-ray, 3 ultrasounds, a CT scan, 3 blood tests and urine and poo tests and they have not been able to establish what has caused her blood to clot. She is on half an asprin once a day to stop her blood clotting but the ultrasound she had on monday showed that the clots are still getting bigger despite the asprin. She is weasing, a bit tired and hacks sometimes but not as much as before, but she has not fainted since we first took her to the vets, she is also currently on bed rest Has anyone experienced this with their dog or know of any information that may help because i feel that the vet has pretty much given up! They did mention something about her thyroid and i read somewhere that that can affect blood clotting?
Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated!
 
This must be really stressful and worrying for you. :( I haven;t heard of this before.

Has your dog been seen by a board certified vet cardiologist? That would be my number one priority -- vets do not really have much specialist knowledge and I'm surprised that they wouldn;t have referred you on to a specialist at this point. Cavalierhealth.org has a listing of certified cardiologists.

Some others may have more specific suggestions on cause, but a quick search suggests perhaps this is the condition, and these may help?

http://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/cardiovascular/c_dg_aortic_thromboembolism#.UCJIqY7RfzI

http://vet.tufts.edu/heartsmart/treatments/aortic_thromboembolism.html

Or this, which seems related in possible cause:

http://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/cardiovascular/c_multi_hypercoagulability#.UCJVc47RfzI

It sounds to me as if some variation of this is what you are dealing with.

I'd get a referral to a cardiologist as an ultra urgent priority and try to get in as an emergency.

Sometimes I wonder if vets use Google at all...
 
This is pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) and not aortic thromboembolism. I've dealt with this before in an elderly shih tzu.

This is very, very serious, and the best course of action is to have a specialist (Board certified cardiologist or Board certified internist) handle the diagnosis and treatment planning. She most likely also has pulmonary hypertension (PH or PAH) and the most effective medication for that is sildenafil (Viagra). I've had two dogs on this drug for PH. What is her heart history? I presume you are not in an area where she could have heartworms. This is a common result of heartworm disease or from advanced degenerative valvular disease, but I presume these are not factors?

http://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/respiratory/c_multi_pulmonary_thromboembolism#.UCJUx0Rw0fo

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/11500.htm

http://veterinarycalendar.dvm360.com/avhc/Medicine/article/detail/603190

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2629428/

Med definitions:

Dyspnea - difficulty breathing; labored breathing

Tachypnea - rapid breathing

Orthopnea - difficulty in breathing when lying down

Thrombus - blood clot

Occlusion - blockage


Pat
 
Sometimes I wonder if vets use Google at all...

PTE is not uncommon. And vets have access to all kinds of resources such as VIN (Veterinary Information Network - an online subscription service for vets) and don't really need to google - PTE is covered in every vet textbook that I own! The DVM 360 website can be used by non-vets and doesn't require a subscription - that is a very valuable site that I use a lot in additional to vet textbooks. Also, when you purchase some vet texts, you get access to online updates and resources.

I would guess that this vet knows this is PTE, he/she just didn't use that term. But if the vet does not know treatment options, he/she is obligated to refer to a specialist who is able to do treatment planning. There is a lot more than just aspirin therapy.

Pat
 
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