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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Heres an update
| So I decided to wait until yesterday to get into our only internist, she spent about an hour going over everything. She agreed with everything my vet was she recommended an ultrasound because of her age, that its more likely an illess, like cancer or tumors. I said that was our next step and he was trying to rule infections first. Wylie has a pulpitis fang and he kept thinking that was a lot of her problems possibly sending infection to the liver. She had her ultrasound today and she has a 2 centimeter cyst on her spleen. So My vet thinks this is the cause and talked to the internist and they agreed the spleen needs to come out. her PCV was 34 so thats good and the internist said she was regenerating red blood cells. Part of me doesnt believe its the cyst though. Before the local internist was involved, he was consulting with one out of area and had said antiobiotics like amoxicillin have becoming more frequent triggers. She was just on amoxicillin for the pulpitis tooth. She had a hemocratic done a month ago and it wasnt showing the anemia. They still want to keep her on the 30 mg of prednizone, she is 50#. I dont know what would happen ifi she was on a stronger dose. She wets the bed every night. Anyone experience this? So I wait for the last blood tests to come in to make sure she is clotting and then its a go next week Laurie |
| Laurie CA |
| Laurie, I don't have much time to write now, but I wanted to say at least a few words to you. My dog Chance had a mass on his spleen about a year ago. My internist did an ultrasound and advised to have the spleen and the mass removed asap. While hemangiosarcoma is a possible scenario, in many cases these masses are benign hematomas. Removing the spleen and the mass when it is benign is considered curative and the dog should return to normal health. Dogs can live quite well without a spleen. There is no real way to tell from the ultrasound whether the mass is benign or malignant. Best to get it out. If your dog is relatively healthy now, she will recover fine from the surgery. Be sure to ask about the plans for giving her a transfusion during the surgery in case she needs it. Very Important. What the internist advised me and I caution you: until the mass is removed, *keep your dog very quiet.* These kinds of masses on spleens can rupture very suddenly and that would be a very bad thing as the blood loss would be great and sudden. Another dog of the same breed (and probably related) as Chance's died from just the same kind of mass on the spleen rupturing. That dog was a world champion and died at nearly the same age as Chance is now. If you have more questions I can answer them later, Patrice |
| Patrice NYS |
| Thank you for the information. She is hard to keep quiet even eat 11! but I will do it no matter what. They will take the spleen out next week if her clotting panel comes back good. Thanks for the info on the transfusion, I will ask about that. part of me would like the Emergency animal hospital to do it where the internist is since they are staffed 24/7 and they have a lrger vet staff Laurie |
| Laurie CA |
| Laurie, The internist told me that spleen removal is a very easy operation for most qualified vets. My local vets did it and it was successful, if not unusual for them. Unusual? The mass was 7.1 pounds, larger than they have ever seen! And that was attached to a very enlarged spleen. The incision is in the lower part of the abdomen, just above a male dog's parts. I can't tell you how an intact female's organs impact a surgery like this. They allowed me to watch the entire surgery. It was difficult for the surgeon because of the size and an assistant had to actually hold the heavy tumor and spleen in the air as Dr.C cut and tied off all blood vessels. I have a movie of that part and I can hear Dr. M saying "get those vessels clamped, it might rupture." One worry is something called DIC disseminated intravascular coagulation. You should read about this if you can, or at least ask a lot of questions about it. It can happen during this kind of surgery and is something that they need to be prepared for, if there is anything they can actually do... The transfusion would be needed immediately if the mass ruptured while being handled. Another portion of my video I can hear Dr. M ask someone to go to her house and get Jake (her family donor dog) right now. I looked over at the operating room next to me a few minutes later and there was a big fat happy black lab giving blood for Chance. About 1.5 hours later, after a transfusion, he was up, walking around and wanting to go pee. He walked to the car and came home with us. Mark partitioned off a corner of the living room with the two crates and laid down blankets for his recovery area. I slept right inside the area to monitor him. If you have the money, and you feel the staff at the 24 hour hospital will be available, do it sooner rather than later. While Chance recovered quite well from the surgery and was fine for two months, it was later that he began to slowly lose his ability to make both red blood cells and white blood cells. The internist cannot be sure what relationship these two things had with each other, if any. However, one of the sometimes recommended treatments for AIHA is removal of the spleen, so perhaps it helped him in his recovery, eventually. Cause and effect are very hard to nail down with AIHA. It can begin at the very beginning with a questionable breeding program of a breeder who either line breeds excessively or allows breeding with animals of questionable genetics. Nutrition, stress, hormones, tumors, tick diseases etc all can play a part in the development of AIHA. I count my blessings everyday that Chance is better because his number was called many times. Patrice |
| Patrice NYS |
This thread was discussed between 25/04/2008 and 26/04/2008
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