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Amber’s illness began with overnight vomiting, which quickly worsened over a few days alongside diarrhoea, lethargy, and a complete loss of appetite. Her carers initially took her to her primary care vet for anti-nausea medication and pain relief. However, while resting at home, Amber suddenly became unresponsive. Her carers rushed her to an out-of-hours clinic, where she was incredibly pyrexic and collapsed. With severe dehydration, a low white blood cell count, and signs of kidney distress, the team acted quickly to stabilise her. But as her condition remained critical, she was urgently referred to our Emergency and Critical Care (ECC) team here at The Ralph.

When Amber arrived with us, she was barely conscious, with dark red gums, rapid breathing, and severe bloody vomiting and diarrhoea. Amber had round-the-clock monitoring and further diagnostic imaging. Interestingly, early scans showed a section of her bowel had temporarily folded in on itself (known as an intussusception). Due to her elevated kidney values, the decision was made to delay surgery, but thankfully the intussusception resolved on its own by the next day without the requirement for surgery.

After extensive testing, Amber was diagnosed with Acute Haemorrhagic Diarrhoea Syndrome (AHDS), a severe condition where the digestive tract rapidly loses massive amounts of fluid and blood. This sudden fluid loss caused her blood pressure to drop, leading to severe shock. Because her vital organs were temporarily starved of oxygen and blood flow, Amber also developed an Acute Kidney Injury (AKI), alongside neurological complications including seizures, confusion, and temporary vision loss.

Amber spent nearly three weeks in our intensive care unit fighting these life-threatening complications. To manage her treatments safely and keep her as comfortable as possible, our team placed a central line, a urinary catheter, and a nasogastric feeding tube to deliver essential nutrition. She was supported with carefully tailored fluid therapy to help her kidneys recover, anti-seizure medications, targeted antibiotics, and medication to protect against blood clots once her platelets stabilised.

Day by day, Amber showed encouraging improvement until she was bright, alert, and ready to head home. Her mental sharpness has fully returned, and while she still has some mild lingering vision loss, her steady progress gives us strong hope that her sight will continue to improve over time. It brings our whole team so much joy to see Amber doing so well, and we wish her and her devoted carers all the best for her ongoing recovery at home 💙