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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - From Terry and Timmy
| Terry has asked me to post this, since he is not able to post: Timmys pcv went to 15 today and had to be referred to another animal hospital. He is being cross matched transfused and a new therapy from from a local lab called immune globulin human (IVIG) that will shut the immune ststem down for 5 to 6 days immediately.......we are hoping this buys the little 11lb guy enough time for a turnaround. Being his rbc at this time is showing little regeneration from a previous transfusion overload resulting in bone marrow supression. If his rbc does not show regeneration during the period the IVIG is working we are out of options.He said two things need to happen.....Cell generation and pred.. and cyclosporine to kick in......He is an intern dr.from a local university and has also found in the study's there that low dose asprin can add more dangers to the GI then any benefit.He said there was no evidence to support otherwise.I will know saturday what will be the outcome if he makes it that far....I am running out of funds so this has to work or I am afraid it will boil down to money making the decision for his survival....If that happens i will always feel that i have let him down...... I thank you and all the others who have been supportive with your advise,prayers and encouragement....I feel your pain and wish all your babies would be healed and made whole happy and healthy... Terry and little boy TIMMY |
| Brigitte BC Canada |
| Terry, this clearly does not sound good, but i know dogs have turned around from lower PCV and being non generative. I know the aspirin is controversial for some vets. It has been discussed often on this list. I don't have the answer to that, maybe somebody else can help. Keep asking your vet questions and be a pain in the neck! Maybe it would be a good idea to contact Dr. Dodds. She has helped many people here. Some vets think she is a bit of a rebel. I happen to like rebels! She is incredibly generous with her knowledge and of her time. You can contact her at hemopet. i don't have her contact info handy, maybe somebody else can give it to you. My thoughts are with you and Timmy. Best wishes, Brigitte & Kahlu |
| Brigitte BC Canada |
| Terry, here is the contact info for Dr Dodds: Phone: (714) 891-2022 Fax: (714) 891-2123 e mail: hemopet @hotmail .com (remove spaces) Good luck, Brigitte |
| Brigitte BC Canada |
| Terry, I'm really sorry to hear that your Timmy was diagnosed and you are facing this frightening road. But, there are a lot of really great resources there that I'm sure you have seen here. I know how scary it is when the bills start running up and you have to make decisions that are affected by your finances. Whatever you do, please try not to beat yourself up over it. Some vets do use Care Credit, which helps with a payment plan. We just went on a payment plan with my vet, who is a saint. Sometimes meds do take what seems like an eternity to 'kick in.' I can only share what we tried to convince ourselves: try to just take it one day at a time. I know it sounds cliche, but that was the only way I could bite off pieces of what seemed like an insurmountable road ahead. Regarding aspirin, I am one of the people who believe very strongly in the aspirin treatment. It has to be a low dose, and assuming your dog is on a stomach protectant like Sulfacrate or Pepcid, the benefits DO outweigh the risks when you look at the fact that many of our IMHA babies perish as a result of a blood clot. There have been a number of studies, and I know that both Joanne, and I think Patrice have posted links to some of them here. I'm hoping that they can help link you to these. Along with my incredible local vet, we were treated at Colorado State University, one of the top vet schools in the country, with many of their docs doing studies funded by the Meisha's Hope/Morris Animal Foundation. They were very certain that dogs who were given a very low dose of aspirin had a better recovery rate than those not treated with aspirin (as part of the complete treatment regimens for IMHA). Here is one such article from the NCBI database, read the last sentence of the abstract which states 'CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Treatment with a combination of glucocorticoids, azathioprine, and ultralow-dose aspirin significantly improved short- and long-term survival in dogs with IMHA.': http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=15934255 While deciding which meds should be between you and your vet, it's also ok to ask for another opinion and question decisions if you feel that it is appropriate and might save your dogs life. Please know you and Timmy are in our thoughts and prayers, and I hope that you are able to keep us updated, either through Brigitte or directly if you can. Hugs to you and Timmy. melissa and tiggs |
| melissa slc |
| Terry, First of all I am so sorry for all these set backs that Timmy is having. Be assured you are in my thoughts and prayers. Also I am sorry you were not able to post yesterday. I am glad Brigitte could post for you. You were mistakenly blocked and I have unblocked you and also sent you an email informing you that I had done so. If you have additonal problems posting please respond to the email I sent you. In regard to aspirin, Melissa has given you a good link to follow. Also check out this Web page http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/dvm/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=398258&sk=&date=&pageID=1 which says on the second page of ths article and I quote: "The best preventive against PTE, disseminated intravascular coagulation, hypercoagulable state and tendency toward thrombosis in dogs with IMHA appears to be ultra-low-dose aspirin (0.5 mg/kg PO q 24 h). Dogs that received prednisone, azathioprine and ultra-low-dose aspirin had the longest survival times." Please read the whole article and perhaps even print it and the abstract Melissa mentioned and share it with your vet. Keeping both you and Timmy in my thoughts and prayers. |
| Joanne MN |
| Terry, You also might want to read the March 2007 Success Story of Willy at my Web site http://www.cloudnet.com/~jdickson/archives18.htm There are several links at the end of the story that take you to articles about IVIG. |
| Joanne MN |
| Terry, my vet also questioned the aspirin when I mentioned it to them. I printed off the articles regarding the usage of low dose aspirin and the relative findings and showed them to our vet. Eventually they went on board. Like Melissa was saying above...maybe you can ask about the care credit. Like you I was overwhelmed with the initial costs in the beginning and then set up a credit system which has been working pretty good so far. I'm sure if you sit down with the clinic you'ld be able to work something out. I'll be keeping Timmy in my thoughts and prayers. Johnny & Tessy |
| Johnny |
This thread was discussed on 24/07/2009
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