On December 13, 2015 Toasted developed a high fever 105.5 and a strange wound. It appeared very suddenly on her chest. I'd seen something similar once before and the reaction is known to be from a a brown recluse spider bite.

Within a day, the wound became black and necrotic in the center and began to peel away from the edges. She was treated with fluids for the fever and antibiotics. Then prescribed a special topical cream (silver sulfadiazine) used for burn victims to apply to the wound itself. Right away, she began to act and feel like her old self and the wound continued to shluff off the necrotic tissue leaving a deep crevace that started to heal from the inside out. Pictures below are from Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3.

From outward appearance, all was healing well. But on the evening of December 28, little more than two weeks past the initial insult, Toasted had another 104 plus fever. The next morning, she didn't finish her breakfast. That same day we made an appointment at a friend's vet (we were out of town) to have some blood work done. Everyone including the vets were shocked to see her bloodwork as she had apparently 'adapted' to it and was showing very little outward signs. It was so odd that the vet recalibrated his machine and ran the blood again as well as double checking the numbers by hand on a slide and with the lab overnight.

Her bloodwork showed that she was in serious trouble, the medical condition is called PANCYTOPENIA, a deficiency in all types of blood cells; white, red and platelets. Her PCV was 15% indicating that she needed a blood transfusion. Toasted spent New Year's Eve at the Emergency Hospital getting and having extensive tests such as a bone marrow tap and CBC Pathology to rule out certain types of cancers and autoimmune diseases that might causes the pancytopenia.

To make a long story much shorter, over the course of a month Toasted saw MANY vets. She endured all the Specialty clinics where they don't allow owners to go with her for treatment and testing and everyone always came out loving her and her kind personality. We worked hand in hand with a Holistic Vet and 2 Internists, while getting many more opinions from Specialists (Dermatology, Therionology) and many many Vets. The plan was to continue doing the blood transfusions to replace red cells, and wait for the bone marrow to begin working again. She was getting injections called Neupogen to encourage the bone marrow to make white cells as well as several other medications and supplements.

The microscopic findings from the bone marrow biopsy showed "severe bone marrow hypoplasia of all 3 lines. The bone marrow aplasia is likely due to toxic injury." Most vets agreed that the spider toxin along with the deep vasculitis somehow got into her blood and insulted the bone marrow's function. Ultimately, without the white cells, Toasted succumbed to septicemia. The day before she died she was still hopping on the couch with her favorite toy and enjoying life without concern for her symptoms.

We miss both her personalities here; her evil silly side and her sweet loving devoted side!