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Apollo

This is Apollo's story, as told by Kim at Gulf Coast Doberman Rescue. "Apollo is an approximately 4 year old black natural eared male. We took him in for a neuter last Monday. The vet noticed he had a nosebleed so he ran a CBC on him pre-surgery. Turns out he had a small cut inside one of his nostrils. Labwork was within normal limits. Surgery went normal. I could not pick him up Monday night as I had to go to Baton Rouge so he stayed over. Tuesday his testicular sac was enlarged and he had some local hematomas. (We're so used to running into vWD we went "OK"). Tuesday evening he was limping a bit. Later that evening when I let him back out the limping was increased, but now his left front leg was badly swollen from his elbow to his toes. Hematomas were worse as was his sac. He was bleeding from the incision. Wednesday morning we are back at the vet. He did a DMSO wrap on the leg and I picked him up on Friday. His leg looked significantly better but by Friday evening was blown up again. He was STILL bleeding from his incision. I tried to inspect the area, accidentally touched his sac and he screamed in pain and snapped at me. (This is *very* unlike him, he's a really sweet, mellow boy.) Back to the vet we go Saturday morning. His leg is approximately 3 times its normal size and you can barely make out the fact he has four toes. Now I'm worried, he hurts and I hurt just looking at him. We ran more labwork to check his PCV and platelet counts. He had an elevated WBC count, but everything else was OK. We knocked him out (for the pain), examined him, re-wrapped the leg with DMSO, injected Dexamethasone into the leg in several areas and put him on antibiotics. When his leg was injected the minute the vet would remove the needle, he would bleed. Put your finger on the site and it mushes in- pitting edema.

At this point it is suspected he is a hemophiliac. This is similar to vWD, but different clotting factors are involved. We are running several clotting screens on him to determine which factor is affected. Calls are going into specialists. The major problem is that this dog is HW positive. We absolutely need to determine his problem so we can decide if he can be treated for the HW. (If he's a hemophiliac, there is a huge risk he will throw a clot and bleed out. Not good.) He's still bleeding some from the incision (a week after surgery), but his hematomas seem to be resolving and the leg is improving. He's acting like he feels better.

When Apollo came into rescue, Lindsay (his foster mom) noticed swelling on his elbow. It was similar to the fluid buildup you typically see in a dog that has laid on hard surfaces. However, Lindsay said it seemed to be very painful to him. (Whereas normal fluid buildup is not normally painful). It resolved in a week. In my research on hemophilia, they state that a dog can have swelling of the limbs without trauma or any suspected reason. This with his nosebleed from a small cut helps convince us that he may truly be a hemophiliac. I have run into vWd several times, but never seen a dog bleed for this long... and not be in grave condition.

This is a sweet, layed back, goofy boy with a family that wants to adopt him. We just have to get him healthy and find out *exactly* what is wrong with him." GCDR needs help with the diagnostics which will determine the course of treatment for Apollo. We are asking for your help to get the diagnostics started, so that Apollo can start the road to recovery and enjoy the good life that he deserves! You can mail a donation, or use the PayPal button below to make your tax deductable contribution. Thanks for helping this sweet boy!

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