Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Tiffa Update

I know this blog is supposed to be about Kelly's puppies. Well they are all fat, healthy and happy and pretty boring right now. So I'm going to update you all with the latest information on the puppies big sister, Tiffa.

Last night and this morning things were looking pretty grim. As of this afternoon the vet is giving Tiffa a 50/50 chance of pulling thru, which, while still scary, is a big improvement.

She's still not producing any platelets but she is stable. Here in Ken's words is what happened:

"Tiffa at the end of her pregnancy had two life threatening conditions happen almost simultaneously:

One, the uterine horn flipped to the other side blocking the puppies from passing and cutting off blood supply to the uterus, and when the puppies die it sends toxins to the liver and poisons the blood supply...

The second thing is something called Purpura, it is something that happens in humans.. it is low platelets and elevated liver enzymes.. also poisoning the blood.

Both of these things happening at the same time threw her system into total shock... and caused her to go into shutdown... Her blood was battling itself and has stopped producing platelets which the blood needs...

By transfusing her yesterday with Trooper that helped the red cell count dramatically and helped stabilize that area of the blood.. she is also been put on 2 different types of drugs they use on human cancer patients to help stabilize the blood counts. We now have found 2 sources of platelet rich plasma and have it standing by if we don't see improvement in the next 24 hours with the current drug regimen and will do plasma exchange. Her response is looking up and she is now awake and not in so much pain."

If things go as planned, Tiffa may go home tomorrow night. She will still require 24 hour care, IV fluids and meds, but the vet feels that no one could do that better than Ken.

Keep sending those positive thoughts out to Oregon!