Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - HELP, Holly is throwing up!

Well I am so worried right now. Holly has been throwing up since Thursday night. She did 3 times during the night, and had to go out all day on Friday, and came home to such a mess. Lots of throwup that looked like black mud. Kept giving her finger's with Peptmo Bismal on it and gave her 1/2 of pepcid. Her gums are looking very pale again, I don't know if just a bug or if she is crashing! We still have her on 5mg of prednisone and Imuran, but maybe with all her throwing up the pills are coming up. She threw up once last night and was normal kibble, and then again today which was her breakfast. Any advice on anything other then just maybe a bug? Thanks, Linda

Linda Sapphire

Hi Linda. So sorry to hear about Holly. Have you contacted your vet? You should get Holly in for a check right away if you can. A couple of weeks ago Duck threw up three times over the weekend. I got him in to see the vet first thing on the Monday morning and it turned out to be pancreatitis. But his vomit wasn't black. That would worry me. Please keep us posted. deb and Duck

Debbie BC Canada

Thanks Debbie, but our vet is closed until Monday. Emergency services are about 1 1/2 hours away, but the last couple of times, her throw-up has been not black mud, but just kibble. Linda

Linda Saphire

Hi Linda. How is Holly doing? Sorry I couldn't give you anything better to go on. I'm not saying that Holly has pancreatitis but will tell you about Duck's episode of it just in case it helps you somehow. When Duck was diagnosed with pancreatitis he had only vomitted three times but the last two episodes were quite close together. He was taken off food and water for 24 hours. That meant not giving him any of his meds either (which was scary). The reasoning for the fast was that it would give his pancreas a chance to settle down. Duck was also given a couple of shots of antibiotics. When we reintroduced the food, his first meal was just a cup of plain cooked rice. He was very lucky in that his episode was mild. I had another dog who had a severe case, vomitted until he was severely dehydrated and needed IV fluids and a long course of antibiotics. Pancreatitis can be very serious and life threatening. I think that any time a dog starts vomitting and it carries on, they need to be checked out. Would it be possible to take Holly to the emergency clinic? Good luck to you. I hope Holly turns around. Please give her a hug from me. deb and Duck

Debbie BC Canada

any dirohea, or blood in sick, my Beddlington, has just been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, he was very sick, before the blood etc good luck

Patricia Chapman patriciachapman86@hotmail.com

Hi Debbie, Again, I appreciate any and all advice. Holly is no better, I have a call into the vet pager system today, but so far no answer back. If not I will call first thing tomorrow morning and get her down there. She had 4 episodes last night all the way to 2am. The last time was a black bile. This morning my husband said she did a very hard black stool, and just about 1/2 ago, she threw up again, this time, a brown liquid, with just a few pieces of kibble in from breakfast. I just made a pot of plain white rice, and gave her a little of that. Funny part is that once she throws up she comes dancing around for food and acts like nothing is wrong. Her gums are still very pale also. Which now worrying because maybe she is not keeping her pills down. No diarraha or blood in stool, just the one this morning that was black but firm. Sorry to be so gross. I am now wondering if something to do with her WBC because last blood test on Jan 7, it was 3.2 (normal 4-15.5). Well hopefully the vet will call me soon, if not just have to make it through today and get her first thing in the morning to the vet. Thanks, Linda

Linda Sapphire

Hi Linda, I was under the impreesion that any time a dog vomits or has a bowel movement and it's black, that it means they are bleeding internally. I don't mean to scare you but I hope that you will be able to get Holly to the Vet ASAP. We will keep her in our thoughts and prayers. Please keep us posted. Jeanne in NJ Angelo & Archie

Jeanne New Jersey

I think that the Pepto Bismol may also cause black stool. With Abby's pancreatitis, she was vomiting bright yellow bile. It is encouraging to hear, though, that Holly was still dancing about so fingers crossed and lots of prayers that it's nothing serious.

Janet Montreal

Just wanted to update on Holly. Once I started giving her the cooked white rice yesterday afternoon, the evening was fine no more vomiting, she even had a cookie later on and some apple. Thought maybe this morning that maybe she just had a bug, and let her out and she came running in and jumped on bed and threw up brown liquid all over the sheets, blankets & quilt, so off to the vet we went. I didn't even call just went in as an emergency. He said her belly was a little tender and yes her gums were pale, but said she was also dehydrated so her PCV would probably down. She lost 1lb since her Jan 7th appointment and I am sure the lb lost was since Thursday. He ran a superchem and cbc with retic and will have back in the morning, gave me sucralfate (FINALLY) and told me to keep her on Pepcid. I asked him why we were never told to use these before to coat her stomach, he said well just going on everything the Internist was telling him to do. Believes might be an ulcer, but not perforated. After blood work the girl gave her a hard cookie and when we got out in waiting room to pay, she threw up and Dr came out to see and said okay, well goodd, not black or no blood. Said also to give her very bland diet (rice, boiled chicken (which we don't have any at the moment) or just water down her kibble and make it very soft. Anything not to irriate her stomach. I also cooked some carrots to give her. So will update tomorrow once the blood work is back. Thanks, Linda

Linda Sapphire

Linda...If your dog is dehydrated, the PCV will go up not down, because Holly will have lost fluids but not cells. Daisy had a PCV of 40 when she collapsed, once she was rehydrated the PCV went back down. The black stools are usually from bleeding and probably the brown vomit also. Pepto Bismo will give the dog or you black stools but it is from the bismuth. The Pepcid AC will not affect the stool color as far as I know. Ron

Ron B San Mateo

Thanks for the update on Holly. I have been following along here, keeping my fingers crossed. I will be praying that the lab work will be okay. Hang in there, Linda! Jess

Jess BC

Linda, I am so sorry to hear Holly is having a difficult time. I have been following along and am eager to hear how her blood work from yesterday turns out. Please keep us posted! I wish you guys the best. Layla & Tipsi

Layla Raleigh

Hi all, Just got the call from the vet and he faxed some of the blood work, here we go again, the CBC blood draw got clotted so they could not do the reading. I am so mad at this point. They have done this several times. So have to go back down on Thursday, as they are closed tomorrow for the CBC. The Superchem showed fine everything was NORMAL! The Alkaline Phosphatase was 278 just a little high but about her average and the GGTP was high at 15, again in her normal range. Now here is the kicker! Her reticulocytes skyrocketed!! Retic count is 11.4 absolute reticulocytes 412680 and corrected reticulocytes is 6.7. Her last blood draw on Jan 7, her corrected retic was 1.1. Our vet does not know what this is, he was faxing as we spoke down to the Dr in Atlanta, but again, she is off on Wed and so is our vet, but he was attaching his pager number. Plus I called and she was gone today so I left a message for her to call him asap. I asked him if maybe from all the vomiting, he said could be, but he just was not sure. Her gums are still very pale, but at least she has held all her food down, but we have not given her anything hard to eat. And she has been on the sucralfate since yesterday 3 times a day as well as pepcid twice a day. If anyone know if her vomiting would cause the high increase in retics, please let me know, otherwise will just have to wait until Thursday to find out. I really hate all this waiting, it is driving me nuts!!! Thanks, Linda

Linda Sapphire

Linda...if Holly is vomiting the brown fluid you described in an earlier post and it is from a bleeding ulcer, the reticulocyte count would be high because she is losing blood from the ulcer and her marrow is trying to replace it with immature RBCs being formed, hence the reticulocytes go up. In most cases the reticulocyte count is high because the dogs that have AIHA are destroying their own blood cells and new immature ones are forming and are in the bloodstream in too high of levels.

Ron B San Mateo

Thanks Ron. I think that is what our local vet as well as I was thinking regarding the retics. Do you know if the sucralfate will heal the bleeding ulcer?? The seemed to think because everything on her superchem was good that the ulcer had not pentrated the stomach. She did throw up once today, because the vet suggested introducing a little hard food last night, so gave her just two little pieces at different times last night of a treat/cookie that is hard, this morning was again soft diet and about 1pm she threw up, but my husband just recovering from a total knee replacement could not get to her in time before she ate it back up to see what was in it. Thanks, Linda

Linda Sapphire

This thread was discussed between 26/01/2008 and 30/01/2008

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