Labs can be wrong? Or timing was off? BUT GOOD

I was just bee-bopping in to post on this, Tracy.  Thanks for asking.
 
Took Billy back up to have his ear looked at and that is improving. BUT, since we'd begun to back off the pred, we checked his blood and it PLUMMETED back down to 21. ACK!!!!
 
So *sigh* there apparently IS an auto-immune part to this after all. Back up goes the pred. *HUGE* sigh.
 
I don't think you 'failed' with Tonka -- I truly don't believe that.  I don't think we can kick ourselves when we did do the best we COULD for a dog.
 
I do think somehow in this life we ARE expected to learn from our ignorances and errors -- so altho I don't think you 'failed' Tonka at all -- I think you did learn something to be wary of 'next time'.
 
Like with Muffin -- I never knew to make SURE we kept track of his blood pressure during the renal failure.  When it went high it made the toxicity far worse.  By the time we 'found' it he was too toxic to keep anything down.  Particularly not high blood pressure meds. 
 
Did I fail him?  No.  I don't think so -- I think we did OUR **best**.  But ... HUGE BUTT ... I will scream down the ceiling to every single person who ever posts and has a dog with renal failure TO WATCH BLOOD PRESSURE.
 
I learned the lesson -- and hopefully it will help another dog.  To a degree in this life, I think the hard balance is between "what will be ... will be" and "doing your absolute BEST to 'be' all you can be". 
 
You didn't fail -- you just didn't know enough and got frustrated with your choice of vets. 
 
*laughing* I could get royally p.o.'d with 90% of the vets in THIS town.  And I'm WAY too verbal about some of them.
 
Anyone would think I wasn't shy or something ... *sigh*
 
 

Callie - I'm sorry to hear that the blood test showed a discouraging sign and that you're back with the prednisone.   Do auto-immune symptoms show up in conjunction with the body's fight against the "bug" thing that you thought was the answer?  That is, as that problem gets cleared up, will those other numbers improve, or are they totally unrelated?  The immune stuff is so complex and confusing.  It's a wonder any doctor or vet chooses to specialize in immunology.
 
What you say is so true - that we learn from our mistakes or oversights so we can do better next time or help someone else avoid the same issue.  That's one reason why I'm glad I don't have human kids - I would be one of those parents who would beat myself up for something I did or didn't do that led to some later problem or issue (health-wise, behavior-wise, whatever).  I guess I don't feel like I'm good enough to do things without a "tried and true" manual of the best things to do!  And Lord knows no one has written such a book for pet care, never mind child rearing!!
 
I hope a weekend of relaxing together brings some renewed strength to Billy, you and David.  Keep us posted.

No real way to know how related they are yet - altho the tick disease could have 'triggered' the auto-immune, just because we get that dealt with doesn't mean the auto-immune will just disappear.  *sigh*

 Callie; I'm really sorry to hear that Billie's blood level dropped; I know that IMHA is a very serious condition. Give him some ear scratches and belly rubs for me.