[Coletta]

Unfortunately I found this forum while looking for some info on my Yorkie, Bella, who is sick. She had bruising in spots on her body a week ago - we found them when giving her a bath. She otherwise had no symptoms or behavior changes. I took her to the vet who did blood work and told me her platelet count was really low - 20,000. Her temperature was normal and her red blood cell count was slightly low but I was told nothing to be concerned about. The vet put her on Prednisone and Melatonin and we did further testing for tick born illnesses, which turned out negative. A week later most of her bruising has cleared up, but now she is is showing (I think) some side effects of the drug - panting, thirsty, a bit more distant at times, not as energetic or "spurts" of energy. She had more blood work done and the vet says she is not responding to the prednisone and her white blood cell count is "skyrocketing". Her white cell count is 33.9 and normal range is 6-17. Her red cell count is also worse. It went from .40 to .36 and the vet said normal range is .39-.60 Now she wants to do x-rays, ultrasound, full blood work, and bone marrow testing but hasn't mentioned fecal testing or urinalysis. She seems to be leaning toward cancer but Bella hasn't shown any signs of cancer, only the changes I've seen from taking the steroids and melatonin. Any insight would be helpful. Not sure what to do and considering getting another opinion.