We had a little guy by the name of Joker come in this week. His mom said he was found by her son at the baseball field a few weeks ago and "he was just too cute not to keep." I could not have agreed with her more. With his cute black and white spots and his tail that constantly thumped the exam table, he really was a pup that made you smile. Sadly, he had fallen ill in the last day and was hardly eating any food at all. A quick physical exam led me to find this puppy was very anemic. For some reason he was losing red blood cells. Red blood cells are extremely important and if we did not get him some quickly, he was not going to be hanging around much longer.
So we quickly got to work on this little guy. We collected some blood from our superhero, Blake (pictured above), and slowly began to transfuse Joker. By taking a fecal sample and looking through the microscope I found the cause of his anemia. Joker had a very heavy load of hookworms. Hookworms are an intestinal parasite that latch on to the lining of the small intestine. They thrive off of sucking blood from the dog or the cat and, if left untreated, can cause severe anemia and eventually death. To treat these hookworms, we gave Joker an oral dewormer. Hookworm anemia is not a common occurrence in household pets. Most pets are on a monthly heartworm prevention, which has an added ingredient to treat intestinal parasites. It is most likely this little puppy has grown up on the streets and never had any preventative care, thus leading to his condition.
Not to worry though, Joker is doing great! He received all the blood and we are treating him to get rid of the hookworms. He went home a few days ago and is due to return for a re-check soon!
So we quickly got to work on this little guy. We collected some blood from our superhero, Blake (pictured above), and slowly began to transfuse Joker. By taking a fecal sample and looking through the microscope I found the cause of his anemia. Joker had a very heavy load of hookworms. Hookworms are an intestinal parasite that latch on to the lining of the small intestine. They thrive off of sucking blood from the dog or the cat and, if left untreated, can cause severe anemia and eventually death. To treat these hookworms, we gave Joker an oral dewormer. Hookworm anemia is not a common occurrence in household pets. Most pets are on a monthly heartworm prevention, which has an added ingredient to treat intestinal parasites. It is most likely this little puppy has grown up on the streets and never had any preventative care, thus leading to his condition.
Not to worry though, Joker is doing great! He received all the blood and we are treating him to get rid of the hookworms. He went home a few days ago and is due to return for a re-check soon!
The picture above is of Joker's gum's before we gave him the blood transfusion. The picture below is shortly after the blood transfusion was started. Notice the difference in the "pinkness" of the gums. Pink is good! Red blood cells are great!
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