Rich S
01-01-2009, 09:04 AM
The other night we took Magnum for a walk, and as always we let him off leash to run around. After about 45 minutes we decided to head home and that's when we noticed blood pooling by his front left paw. At first I thought the bottom of his pad was bleeding but then we saw that his second nail was completely missing.
Once we got him home only then did we start to fully understand just how much blood he was losing. We tried to wrap the wound and add pressure to stop the bleeding, but had not success. After a few more minutes we put him in the car and took him to the emergency vet clinic here in town.
The vet tried wrapping the paw in bandages and within seconds he bled through that. It was at this point the vet mention the possibility of Von Willebrand disease. For those who don't know, it's an inherited bleeding disorder and affects your blood's ability to clot.
The vet tried bandaging for a second and third time, again with the same result. The vet's tone changed at this point and my wife and I both could feel it. By this time Magnum had been bleeding for at least an hour.
The vet told us Magnum would have to spend the night and he would try a number of different methods to get the bleeding to stop. So we went home home.
About an hour later we got a call from the vet saying he finally got the bleeding to stop, and by the way can you come pick him up he seems to have some separation problems (pour baby was missing his mom and dad).
Long story short, after another trip to the vet the following day Magnum is doing better but he did get an infection in the wound and is in quite a bit of pain. The nail was ripped all the way out leaving nothing but a hole. He's on codeine and some meds for the infection. As far as having
Von Willebrand disease, he will be going for blood work.
For all the new dobe owners out there, or every owner for that matter, I strongly encourage you to get blood work done to find out if your dobe has this disease. It is very common in Dobermans. If we didn't have an emergency vet clinic here in Brantford, this could have been a different story.
http://www.dobermanhub.com/health/2009/01/02/what-is-von-willebrand-disease/
Once we got him home only then did we start to fully understand just how much blood he was losing. We tried to wrap the wound and add pressure to stop the bleeding, but had not success. After a few more minutes we put him in the car and took him to the emergency vet clinic here in town.
The vet tried wrapping the paw in bandages and within seconds he bled through that. It was at this point the vet mention the possibility of Von Willebrand disease. For those who don't know, it's an inherited bleeding disorder and affects your blood's ability to clot.
The vet tried bandaging for a second and third time, again with the same result. The vet's tone changed at this point and my wife and I both could feel it. By this time Magnum had been bleeding for at least an hour.
The vet told us Magnum would have to spend the night and he would try a number of different methods to get the bleeding to stop. So we went home home.
About an hour later we got a call from the vet saying he finally got the bleeding to stop, and by the way can you come pick him up he seems to have some separation problems (pour baby was missing his mom and dad).
Long story short, after another trip to the vet the following day Magnum is doing better but he did get an infection in the wound and is in quite a bit of pain. The nail was ripped all the way out leaving nothing but a hole. He's on codeine and some meds for the infection. As far as having
Von Willebrand disease, he will be going for blood work.
For all the new dobe owners out there, or every owner for that matter, I strongly encourage you to get blood work done to find out if your dobe has this disease. It is very common in Dobermans. If we didn't have an emergency vet clinic here in Brantford, this could have been a different story.
http://www.dobermanhub.com/health/2009/01/02/what-is-von-willebrand-disease/