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Treatment

Your dog will need to be hospitalized in an intensive care unit and treated aggressively for the underlying disease. Your dog's activity will need to be restricted to avoid incidental bleeding, which can occur as the result of even small and seemingly minor injuries. Fluid therapy, oxygen and blood plasma transfusions should be administered to the dog.

Your veterinarian may choose to use heparin to slow any further progression of clotting, but this drug will need to be used with extreme caution, as high doses can lead to fatal hemorrhaging.

Living and Management

If your dog has been diagnosed with disseminated intravascular coagulation, it must remain in the hospital until the bleeding has been brought under control and signs of improvement have progressed with reverse. Unfortunately, the underlying diseases that cause the body to react this way are generally very severe, and animals that are suffering from DIC, along with the causative condition, tend not to survive. Prompt and aggressive treatment is the only possible method for preventing a rapid and morbid progression.