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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Bugy Update/Advice
| Hi All, Happy New Year. Thanks for all your respones and encourging words. I've been reading thru evryones posts and all the different stories. Boy do I hate this disease. Anyway we are starting week 4 and Bugy is still taking 60mg cyclosporine twice a day, 15mg predosone twice a day, 1/2 tablet pepcid and liquid aspirin once a day. I've noticed his poor belly is so blotted and looks like a balloon ready to pop. His fur has started to thin out. His poop is is still somewhat soft and his urine is very yellow. With his added weight he can't even jump on the couch. His legs can just about support him. Before his illness he weighed about 18lbs then dropped to 14 now he is up to 17--all in his belly. Is this what I should expect. Is there anything that I should be concerned about. From all the reading I think this is all to be expected but I trust the advice from all of you. Hoping for a Happy 2008 for all of us ( 2 & 4 legged). Lisa :) |
| Lisa Rhode Island |
| Lisa, Oh dear, how I grieve for you tonight. This is the hardest part of this, watching these side effects. I believe right now what you may be seeing are the side effects of prednisone on the liver. I know that Chance had similar problems with his liver. He was so uncomfortable that he could not lie on the couch anymore or climb into bed with me. He would struggle to lie on the floor and find some position which didn't hurt his liver. He would lay there panting... And then the hair started to fall out... in chunks. Soon his elbows were bald and raw. Then they cracked. His crotch was bald. He lost his muscle. If I held his paws they were literally just flimsy skin holding bones together. Today, months later he is back to normal. His liver values are nearly normal. He is covered with soft black hair again. He is strong and powerful and this morning he came upstairs to snuggle in bed with me. The vet saw him saturday and she was so surprised she exclaimed "he looks SO GOOD!" You will get there too, keep faith. When you have your CBC's done, ask them to do a mini chem screen (if they can break it down like that). You want them to do the liver values for you. You are probably going to see extraordinarly high numbers for these values. These will go down eventually as you reduce the prednisone. The liver can heal from this kind of injury. I would suggest you begin giving him something to help the liver. When Chance's liver numbers were really bad I gave him a veterinary product called Denamarin. It is a combination of Sam-e and the essense of milk thistle called silymarin. Here is a link for a source of this, however your vet does have to order it. http://www.heartlandvetsupply.com/cart/product_info.php?products_id=2567 Denamarin is very expensive so you can choose to use the over the counter Sam-e and milk thistle or a product I use called Country Life Liver Support Factors (I buy it at Vitacost for very little $). Your major difficulty is the dosage. I believe, but you must check with your vet, that the lowest dosage available for Sam-e is 200mg. I don't know what dosage the Denamarin has in it for your dog's weight. The Liver Support Factors could be cut in 3 or 4 pieces to be equivalent to what you need in dosage. I would also encourage him to drink plenty of water, keep fresh water available at all times. This, of course, means that you will have to let him out a lot more. I have a good ear so could hear Chance when I was sleeping to let him out. If you can't... you will need to keep him with you or sleep downstairs to help him out. Another nice treat is freezing some broth in ice cube trays and letting him chew those. Just get something with low salt. I believe if you keep him more hydrated, his urine won't be so yellow. These side effects are very hard on the dog and it's hard to sort out those from the disease. But to get to the other side of good, you have to go through these. I promise you it gets better when the drugs are reduced. I also want to mention that Chance was not particularly interested in being petted at this time, he was so uncomfortable that I felt it was best to not bother him too much. I handled him as little as possible so he would not get too stressed out. I put soft towels on the floor in a number of places for him to lie on, just a little cushioning so he wouldn't lose as much hair. I set small fans on the floor in some of these places for him to lie in front of. He seemed to like it. I will be thinking of you tonight. Patrice |
| Patrice New York State |
This thread was discussed between 31/12/2007 and 01/01/2008
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