Kenna was abandoned out in the country. Left to fend for herself. Left for dead. She somehow, honestly by a happy accident, ended up at Puppy Haven and we’ve been obsessed with her ever since. Her road to her happily ever after hasn’t been easy though. She was so scared, so shut down, so unsure. She was stinky, COVERED in more ticks than you can imagine, and so thin. We painstakingly removed her ticks, started to build trust, and got her medical attention. She tested positive for both heartworms and Ehrlichia, so we started treatment right away. We were so excited for her healing to begin. But sadly, her journey to wellness is still just beginning.
After being treated for heartworms and for Ehrlichia at the beginning on May, Kenna felt a bit better…but still not 100%. She was taken back into the vet for some bloodwork. The results have us confused, and concerned. Kenna’s white blood cell count was over 50,000, an excessive amount for a number that should be closer to 15,000. Combined with other abnormalities on bloodwork, the doctors believe Kenna is battling some type of infection- but of what we don’t know.
Kenna has on antibiotics, but still isn’t showing improvement in her bloodwork. She also started running a fever. We rushed into the vet, and after a thorough evaluation are changing antibiotics and sending out a detailed blood panel. This will hopefully tell us what we need to know to best help her. If not, we will need to continue to run tests on Kenna to get to the bottom of things and make sure she has the chance to continue to bloom into the sweet, fun dog she is.
A donation to Kenna means helping to cover her visit at urgent care and primary veterinarian, a full chicken nugget fund (it’s the only way to get her to eat the entirety of her homemade food), and most importantly the space to continually perform more diagnostics on her.
$800/$1200 raised for Kenna’s veterinary visits.
7/18 update: Kenna’s recheck showed that her white blood cell count is improving and is in the 30,000 range. Still double what it should be, but improvements are being made. We added some additional medication, and sent off more lab work on Friday at her appointment but are still left with more questions than answers. We’ll go back after another week of antibiotics are complete to get another check on where we’re at and dive even deeper if needed.
8/7 update: After finishing antibiotics, we rechecked Kenna’s bloodwork to make sure things were really improved. Kenna’s white blood cell is sadly creeping back up. She still isn’t eating as she should and requires daily nausea meds. Radiographs showed no abnormalities, other than a body riddled with BB gun pellets. Who could shoot this sweet baby with BBs is beyond us, but we’re unsure if they are the root cause of her issues. We’re in discussions with doctors, consulting with internal medicine specialists, and continuing to dig in on her case. We’re talking bone marrow biopsies, joint taps, and/or more specialized bloodwork. She is a happy girl with so much love to give, and we want to give her the healthy life she deserves. We’ll keep fighting for that as long as she keeps fighting with us!
