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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Do yo evern want to rebuild the immune system
| This disease has me so confused. We nuke our dogs with prednizone to kill the immune system, but at what point if or when do you say okay now lets rebuild the immune system without triggering another onset. Laurie |
| Laurie CA |
| Laurie, Good question! You are thinking along the right lines! The immune system is quite complex and consists of many elements. You could probably search on wikipedia to get an overall view of how it works. The most important element for you to know is that in most cases of canine AIHA, it is the T-lymphocytes that are the culprit in the destruction of red blood cells. Prednisone is a suppressor of most of the elements of the immune system (and has significant side effects at high doses). I know we always think badly of it here on this list, but it is in fact a miracle drug and is widely used not only in human medicine but veterinary as well. Other drugs, like cyclosporine, target more specific elements. Cyclosporine was developed to help humans suppress only the T-lymphocytes when they were receiving transplanted organs. They found that if they kept these folks on prednisone, they had serious infections and might not survive the transplant. Cyclosporine helped them fight the rejection of the transplant without compromising the rest of the immune system. They stayed healthier and had a better chance of living. There are other drugs and their actions are similar to this. In any case, when I contacted Dr. Dodds, she made it clear that we needed to get Chance on lower doses of prednisone and onto cyclosporine asap. It certainly didn't happen overnight, but in carefully tailored dose reductions. Think of your treatment plan as a drug cocktail that targets the things it needs to suppress rather than total suppression of the whole immune system. my best patrice |
| Patrice NYS |
| Thanks for that explanation Patrice. I have often wondered about the same thing. deb and Duck |
| Debbie BC Canada |
This thread was discussed on 01/07/2008
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