Up and down day

Before 8 am today the vet, Dr. Dean, called me about Daisy.  His temperature was back to normal.  No blood work was done yet, but Daisy seemed to be a little more active.  He hadn't eaten yet, but had urinated.  So all this was a good sign.

The clinic did the blood work at 6 pm. Dr. Dean said Daisy did react a little bit when they drew the blood, which is a good sign.  But the blood test results were not good.

I got it wrong yesterday. Daisy didn't have a bile duct obstruction.  She had a high bilirubin count.  Daisy's count yesterday was a little over 7.  Today's count was about the same. Bilirubin is due to the loss of red blood cells.

Daisy's red blood cell count yesterday was 29.  A normal count for cats is 35.  Today Daisy's red blood cell count was 21.  So it is dropping, even with the steroids.  The vet said a count of 12 means a lack of oxygen.

I asked him what could cause a red blood cell drop. 

Autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) is an immune system disease in which the body attacks and destroys its own red blood cells. 

AIHA may be primary (idiopathic) or it may be secondary.

With primary AIHA, the cat's immune system is not working properly, and it incorrectly makes antibodies that target its own red blood cells. Primary AIHA is uncommon in cats.

With secondary AIHA, the surface of the red blood cells becomes altered by an underlying disease process or a toxin. The cat's immune system then recognizes the altered red blood cells as 'foreign' invaders that must be destroyed. Secondary AIHA may be triggered by cancer, infections such as feline leukemia, feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) or feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), blood parasites, drug reactions, chemicals, toxins, or bee stings.

The vet also mentioned a fungus could cause an infection.  Daisy could have gotten an infection or fungus a few weeks ago.  He fought it off in the week or two but then recently began attack his own red blood cells.  A fungus?  I then remembered my house has a crawl space underneath.  A few weeks ago I think I had opened the door to it for some reason and checked it out.  Daisy has been in the crawl space in the past a number of times and had no problems.  Of course he went down for a little bit to check it out.  Maybe there is a fungus down there.  It's the only thing I can think of.

So, the 6 pm news was not good.  The vet said we can give Daisy one more day of steroids and see if that finally stops her blood cell destruction.  The odds of her success is lower now.

I started out the day in better shape.  But after 6 pm it went downhill for me.