Hi Everyone,
I am just curious. How many IMHA/AIHA dogs are actually on this site?? Does anyone know? I am also on an Addisons Forum and there are 3800 dogs listed on it. I found that quite remarkable, and it got me to wondering how many of us are involved in this forum. It is truly amazing the information these sites provide. My vet is always astonished by the information I take to him and the questions I ask. Of course, that is all because of the people who so generously share their "personal stories" and information on how these diseases have affected their dogs, and how they have gone about getting proper treatment/diagnosis.
Thanks again, to all of you who have been so helpful answering questions I've had re: Mercedes. You have given me a lot of invalueable advice and information. It has benefited my dog greatly. Don't know what we would have done without your help thus far. I'm sure I will need to call on you for help/advice many more times before we finally beat this awful disease!!
Maureen and Mercedes

Mercedes,
Since this site is not one in which you need to register like some others, I am not sure how many frequent it. I have been been the "manager" of the site for many many years and in that time have seen countless people on it. There seems to be a big turnover on the site so I don't think one could ever get an acccurate count of how many it has helped but I know the number is HUGE!!

Although I personally do not post much any more due to other obligations I am so delighted to see so many people take the time to help others.

Hugs to your dear Mercedes and all the rest of the Canine kids whose caregivers frequent this site.

I've only been here over a year and have seen far too many!!! Can only imagine how many lurkers there are!

Johnny,
It is interesting to note that there is now a "reported number of cases of canine tick disease" map.
See:
http://www.dogsandticks.com/NA-map-lyme-disease-dogs/index.html

This is extremely detailed, but only indicates *reported* cases, not the ones that slip by without treatment and result in death.

So wouldn't it be great if there was the same detailed reporting for cases of officially diagnosed canine AIHA? Goes back to my idea that all clinics should be equipped with an AIHA emergency protocol kit. This could include a website link for a vet to register a reported case of AIHA. Then an official map could be made.

A young college woman doing a thesis about 5 years ago decided to compare the incidence maps of tick disease in humans and the incidence maps of Multiple sclerosis. I suppose you won't find it surprising that when she overlaid the two maps of the US, the hot regions were identical. She indicated in her summary that she felt this warranted further exploration with another study.

my best
patrice

I've seen quite a few tick maps but this one is by far the coolest I've seen so far!

it is a neat one, too bad it does not have all the tick illnesses on it

Maureen -- I have been on this forum for five years now, and like the others, I am aware of many dogs, but I couldn't guesstimate a number with any reasonable level of accuracy. I am amazed at the Addison's registry -- since my dear beagle Wiley was diagnosed with that in the last year of her life, I wish I had thought to look for a forum. I know I never bothered to check beyond the most rudimentary info, because I just trusted my vet to know.

It would be great if there were some officially sanctioned registry, so that people would have a place to go where a database could develop that would be useful veterinary researchers. I know when I read the Task Force Report on Canine Vaccinations, it said that vets are encouraged to report adverse reactions to vaccines, but the TF assessed that the response rate was low, for a variety of reasons. I think that some official organization -- like a veterinary research school or the American Animal Hospital Association or the College of Veterinary Internal Medicine -- put together a database for pet owners to input basic data, this forum could help serve as an advocacy group to get people to participate. The required data fields could be kept to a manageable number, and then researchers could use the data and the community behind it for more detailed inquiries. It would be great to reach out to particular clubs/societies of breeds that have been most affected -- like cocker spaniels, etc -- because that could help too.

Sorry! Guess I got carried away.

I do not wish to discourage anyone by this post but since I was on this site since 1997 and made the Rainbow bridge site and In Honor of site, there were about 300 furbabies that died in that time from 1998 - 2008 when I lost my server and could not longer update the site. I am pleased to say that this year I have a new server and am trying to update the Rainbow page first. On the in honor of page I had pictures of the doggies or cats their birthdays and when they died and what the diagnosis was. I was told by many that the site was very helpful to them and they could go visit the site with their furbabies picture and short bio. A lot has happened since we lost the server and it will be quite hard to research all the losses since then. I will however do my best.

Joanne, I do know what it is like to have to help the sick friend or relative as I went through that too as you probably remember. Just wanted to say you are in my thoughts and prayers what ever the problem would be. Love and hugs to you and David, Dolores

Brenda,
I agree, we need to get together as a group somehow and start gathering stats on the different breeds/cross breeds that have this disease. Pertinent info such as age, health status of parents etc. would also be helpful. There must be a way to channel this info to interested researchers. I believe IMHA is much more prevalent than most people think. If we could get some of the breed organizations interested, we may be able to encourage them to fund raise for a research project at a university such as Davis! I am participating (via the Poodle Clubs) in an Addisons research project, at UC Davis,as I have a poodle with that disease. If we can find genetic markers for these diseases we can eliminate them through health testing "before" we breed. I think some breeds are more susceptible to IMHA than others and if we could pinpoint those breeds, and bring it to the attention of the governing bodies of those breeds, then perhaps we could get a movement going to fund some research.
Anyone out there have any ideas re: how to go about this??? We could "ALL" be a part of the solution, if we were willing to start a forum to gather information!! 'UNITED WE STAND"!!
Maureen and Mercedes

In the many years I have been manager of this fourm stats on AIHA/IMHA have been collected from here at least four or five times that I know of. There was at least a couple of online sites where one could input these stats but those sites are no longer available. To the best of my knowledge nothing ever became of these stats because the info was incomplete. I personally beleive it is best to have this info come from vets rather then owner/caregivers.

I have discussed this idea with the President of Morris Animal Foundation and we hope that sometime in the future something may be worked out to collect data, but there needs to be a lot of planning involved and this needs to be a long term project.

There is currently research going on into Canine AIHA/IMHA funded by the Meisha's Hope AIHA/IMHA Fund #338 at Morris Animal Foundation:

http://www.morrisanimalfoundation.org/meisha

So far this Fund has sponsored or co sponsored 17 studies on the disease. I hope that everyone on here will stand united with this fund and donate to it. It is the only fund that sponsors studies on Canine AIHA/IMHA exclusively. I am truly convinced that this fund will lead the way to finding answers to the many questions that surround AIHA/IMHA but for this to happen we need the finanical support of all those whose lives have been touched by AIHA/IMHA