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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Harvey's Anxiety
| Hi, My dog Harvey is a 2 year old, 80 pound Golden Retriever. He was diagnosed with IMHA about 6-7 months ago. He's hanging in there with his last PCV at 39! But he's been very anxious the last 3-4 weeks. He doesn't want to go on walks around the neighborhood, which he once loved. And now he's afraid to go in the back yard. I'm not sure why he's become so anxious and I was wondering if its from the reduction in prednisone. Right now he's on 250mg of mychophenolate every 24 hours, 2 10mg of famotidine every 24 hours and 5mg of prednisone every 48 hours. Any ideas of why he's so spooked? Thanks! Ashlie & Harvey |
| Ashlie Atlanta |
| Ashlie, Has Harvey's thyroid ever been checked? I know that low thyroid (hypo thyroid) can have an effect on a dogs behavior and being on prednisone for a long time can cause low thyroid. Just a thought, probably something worth looking into. For the thyroid check I highly recommend to use Dr. Dodds labs at hemopet. There is only a few places where they can do the full panel and hemopet is one of them. Best wishes, Brigitte & the poodle boys |
| Brigitte BC Canada |
| Ashlie, I am happy to hear that Harvey has resolved his IMHA! That is a significant achievement! Congratulations. It is so tempting in many cases to attribute sudden new fear in a dog to some event that has happened that scared them. Dogs do have a strong ability to "imprint" an event and forever respond with fear to that thing. I think that if you went to your vet they might just say something like this and offer a doggy antidepressant. I don't like treatments like this because I feel that something this sudden and unusual may have an organic cause. I think it is often a good idea to do a bit of research into possible medical issues to see if there is anything wrong. Three things come to my mind immediately. The first is hypothyroidism. This condition can and will cause behavioral issues. Testing for this is not particularly inexpensive, but your vet might be able to do a preliminary exam to see if there might be good reason to go to this expense. Treatment is as easy as 2 small pills as day. Many many dogs, including Goldens, develop hypothyroidism. The second thing that is possible is that the level of cortisol in the body may be fluctuating too much and dropping too low. You have been administering prednisone in high doses for quite a while. This is essentially cortisol in higher doses than the adrenal glands normally make. You have been reducing the dose of pred very carefully and slowly to encourage the adrenal glands to wake up and make their own cortisol. What would happen if they are having a hard time waking up? What if the cortisol is too low at certain times in the day? Well, the body would have a hard time dealing with stress. And by stress I don't mean traffic jams! I mean the kind of stress that occurs just from getting up and moving or seeing a squirrel. Cortisol controls the heart and breathing rate, among many other things. Low levels of it might not be enough to say to the brain, "increase the heart and breathing rate (and blood sugar etc), we are going for a walk." There is a specific test for this condition and your vet can administer it in office, though it is lengthy. They will "challenge" the adrenal glands. Treatment might include small doses of prednisone daily. The alternative is to just go back to a more frequent dosing of prednisone to see if this resolves the fright. If it does, then that is a roundabout way of diagnosing something is wrong. However, make sure your vet supervises something like this. The other thing I was thinking about was increasing blindness or deafness. This can increase anxiety significantly. If you are taking Harvey out into the neighborhood or backyard and he can't hear or see as well as before, it might cause anxiety. I think a good physical exam is in order here, focusing on the kind of things that I mentioned. Your vet may have more ideas. However, I would encourage you not to consider a doggie antidepressant until you have researched some of these kinds of health issues first. A 2 year old dog should not need drugs to feel content. my best patrice |
| Patrice NYS |
| Ashlie, I'm so sorry that Harvey has to fight this disease. Now that he's got it almost beat you have to deal with these side issues...just not fair at all. Brigitte and Patrice gave you excellent advise above. I advise you get these tests done so that you can rule these out (or in?). Just another thing to think about in the meantime.... One of the major side effects of cellcept (mychophenolate) is anxiety (and even dizziness). Perhaps this might be a side effect from the drug you are seeing?? I'd get the tests mentioned above done and keep this in the back of the mind also. A reduction might be warranted in the near future if the labs allow it. My thoughts and prayers are with you both. Johnny & Tessy |
| Johnny |
This thread was discussed on 14/09/2010
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