Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hi all,
Mysti is coming up on her third treatment of carboplatin, after amputation of her right front leg at the end of October. Before starting chemo, we had issues with her white blood cell count numbers being low, prolonging our initial start date. She has done well and we go every 3-4 weeks now, with normal counts in between each treatment. She tolerates the chemo very well, has had little to no side effects and has maintained her very happy, active lifestyle. The middle of last week, my husband noticed some blood on her toys and her bed. We did a very thorough look over and couldn't find anything. I assumed it was coming from her mouth (she will chew, but not swallow, sticks outside). Last night, I noticed some dried blood drops on our floor and on her front leg, wrist, and paw. I did another check over, making sure to check each and every crevice, when I saw her nose dripping. It was blood tinged. It's not frank blood, but it is definitely a light blood color.
I panicked slightly last night but have calmed down a little. I'm still very worried. I contacted her veterinarian (who is helping me with her chemo, as I am a recently ex-vet tech) and said he'd look into it, but overall was ok with the situation. Are nose bleeds a common side effect of chemo or osteosarcoma in general? I have started second guessing everything and remember her recently (about 1 month ago) licking her wrist and am now wondering if this has been going on longer than we initially thought? Looking for any insight on this. Thank you, thank you.
Love, a worried Mysti mom (and family)
I cannot imagine you NOT being worried over this. When was the last time they drew a blood panel on her? I would be wanting to see what her blood is saying and if it were me probably a hematocrit. No, I am not a vet but I was a technician too and that is just my first gut reaction.
I have Huckleberry, a feline who had his leg amputated because of a traumatic injury. I have not dealt with this kind of thing, matter of fact in my whole career as a tech only had one patient that I helped out with chemo and that was a lot of years ago.
I am sure others will be in to share their experiences with chemo side effects. I hope all is well and this is just a minor bump in the road.
Hugs,
Jackie and Huck 
Hugs,
Jackie, Bo, Andy, Oscar, Phoebe, and the coolest feral tripawd kitty Huckleberry 
I'm not sure what this could be but I'm going to bet that Dr. Pam has seen something like this before. I'm glad you told your vet. Hang tight and try not to panic. We'll be hoping for some pawsitive sounding insight and tips from our fairy vet mother.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Apologies, I did not realize what forum we were in. Sorry Dr. Pam 
Hugs,
Jackie, Bo, Andy, Oscar, Phoebe, and the coolest feral tripawd kitty Huckleberry
You really need to get a CBC done ASAP as this could be dangerously low platelets. My dog Tazzie used to get low platelets after carboplatin about 7-14 days after treatment but fortunately she never bled.
Pam
Thank you all for your thoughts!
Mysti had her 10-day post chemo bloodwork on Wednesday, which was either one day before or one day after the first time we noticed the bleeding. All of her levels came back in the normal range (yay, Mysti!). CBC, hematocrit, clotting time, etc, were all in the normal range 🙂 I'm certainly not opposed to re-running bloodwork. She will also have bloodwork done on Sunday, her scheduled appointment for chemo, treatment #3, 3 weeks after her last treatment.
How is she doing, have the nose bleeds stopped?
Hugs,
Jackie, Bo, Andy, Oscar, Phoebe, and the coolest feral tripawd kitty Huckleberry
Good morning!
So after talking with her vet and going over possible causes for this (dry nose, a polyp, something related to her osteosarcoma, or unlikely but possible, an infection), I waited until today to do any blood work. It came back nice and normal! 🙌 He said our treatment course wouldn't change, unless she wasn't doing well at home. She is doing excellent at home!
The vet initially mentioned we could do chest rads to see what was there, knowledge is power, right? But again, we'd still keep up with the chemo. Because our plan has us checking her lungs after chemo treatment #4 (in about 1 month), and because she is doing so well, we are opting to not do the scan today. Her nose is still occasionally bleeding, but we're monitoring it.
Thanks for the advice and support!!
Nicole and family 🙂
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