Shotzie - Splenectomy

[jjgator99]

Max seems to be doing pretty good. He has only been on the Vetyrol 4 days, but yesterday he didn't seem to drink quite as much & he actually tolerated a longer walk. I have a question about our Schnauzer Shotzie. She had to have her spleen removed. It had twisted & the blood was flowing in but couldn't flow out so it blew up like a balloon. We were out of state at the time & our dog sitter took her to the vet. At that time her PCV was 7! He had to give her a blood transfusion before he could do surgery. Told us she had 20% chance of making it through the surgery but without the surgery she wouldn't make it. He performed emergency surgery that night. We flew home immediately. Next morning we met the vet at his office not knowing whether she had made it through the night. Our prayers were answered & she was still alive! I spent the next couple days (not nights) with her at the vets office to comfort her. (They put us in a special room with a couch). bBy the way, When he did the surgery he also had to cut open her stomach & remove a bunch of fermented food. Not sure why she had filled up with food & couldn't digest it. I know this is a forum about Cushing's but I have some concerns about Shotzie. Last week when I took Max in & also took Shotzie in & had labwork done again. The vet has been monitoring her PCV all along but this time they did a total blood profile. The results are:
RBC 5.47 low
HCT. 34.7 low
HGB. 12.8
RDW 20.2 high
PLT 808
ALT. 220 high
ALKP 226 high
Everything else was within the normal range except the TT4
TT4. 0.9
The vet put Shotzie on Prednisone 1/2 of 2.5 tablet 2xD
& Soloxine 1 mg 2xD
Was told to bring her back in 30 days to redo labwork
My question is, could her thyroid just be low right now due to her surgery 6 weeks ago? What is he prednisone for & why would her platelet count be so high? I was focusing on Max at the time & didn't think to ask questions. Also, if the labwork is not accurate due to her recent surgery, will giving her the Soloxine now make her dependent on it & now she will always have to take it? Shotzie show no signs of hypothyroidism. I thought I would take her back next week when I take Max back to be retested & I would get them to go ahead & have Shotzie retested too. I am becoming a nervous wreck worrying about these two!

[StarDeb55]

Splenectomy causes what is called a reactive thrombocytosis, (high platelet). One of the functions of the spleen is a storage place for platelets & WBC. So when the spleen is removed, all of the platelets that were stored are now released into the blood circulation. The high platelet count should normalize within several weeks.

Now, when it comes to the low total T4, this may not be a true indication of hypo. You mention that you are considering having Shotzie's bloodwork repeated. I think this is a good idea, but you need to have a free T4 by equilibrium dialysis done which will be a better indication of hypo, than the total. The total can be affected by a number of things including Cushing's, & when it is, this is called "sick euthyroid syndrome.

When it comes to talking about our non-cushpups, a number of us have started threads in the "Everything Else" forum for that reason. I have 2 threads there for my current boys as my last cush baby crossed the bridge almost 2 years ago. There is such a wealth of experience in this forum concerning canine health issues, behavioral issues, & many other things, please don't hesitate to make use of it. If you would like to start a thread for Shotzie in the "EE" forum, then I or one of the other adminstrative team would be happy to move these 2 posts to that thread. When we move these two posts, they should sort in chronological order so everything will make sense. Please let me or one of the other mods/adminstrators know.

Debbie

[jjgator99]

Thanks for the info Debbie! Please start a thread about Shotzie & move it to the Anything Else Category. Should I take her off the Soloxine until she has new labwork?