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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - High Reticulocyte count
| My Silky Terrier, Simon, was diagnosed with AIHA last April. He was 3. We've been working with a specialist in Boston since that time who has been monitoring all of his lab work. He's currently on 50mg 2x day of cyclosporine, 2.5mg 1x day of pred, and an antioxidant (prescribed by a holistic vet). We were on Immuran for about 2 months but noticed some bruising and it was discontinued. Our vet watches Simon's reticulocyte count (immature RBC's)very closely. For a while after he was stabilized the retic. counts were pretty normal, but recently they have been climbing higher and higher (last one was over 250,000), meanwhile his PCV has remained stable between 46-50. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Our vet seems baffled and I had the thought of uping his pred again. He's gotten all sorts of skin infections since being on all the immunosuppressents. |
| Rachel Massachusetts |
| Hi Rachel, Yes, we have Holly the dachshund, who is now 3 years old and we are having similiar problems. She was diagnosed last March, and at one point we had her retic count within normal range. She was started on 10mg of prednisone and .14 cyclosporin 3 times a day. Then did a trough test and found her body not absorbing the cyclosporin, so that was stopped. Imuran was then started and we slowly reduced prednisone down to 2.5mg once daily and retic was under control, and then her retic started climbinb again, so now we are back at 5mg prednisone daily and 2.5mg of Immuran. Her PCV has remained stable also through all of this between 38 and 43. It is finally so nice to hear another vet very concerned about the retic count, I was beginning to think I was the only one where Holly's Internist was very concerned in this. But Holly's retic is not as high as Simon's, her last blood work was 83040, but her Dr still wants it lower before reducing the prednisone again. So you might try upping the prednisone again to see if it helps. In fact we are off to the vet tomorrow morning, because our Holly has been throwing up for the last 3 days and not sure what is causing this. Her gums are also very pale. Linda |
| Linda Sapphire |
| Hi Linda, I'm sure Simon's vet will want to up the pred again. It's a hard decision though because he has sores on his elbows and pads that won't heal with the high doses on the drugs. He's actually been wearing a cast on his leg for the past few weeks to give them a chance to close up. I hope things go well with Holly tomorrow. Please let us know what happens. Rachel |
| Rachel Massachusetts |
| Hi Rachel, I just posted update on Holly, but just wanted to let you know how we are both watching the retic count, and after Holly's bout with throwing up for 4 days, her blood work came back today, with a retic count of 6.7, Absolute Reticulocytes of 412680!!! Not sure as of yet if this is from all her vomiting. Linda |
| Linda Sapphire |
| Hi Linda, How is Holly doing now? Is the retic count down? We did another retic count last week for Simon and it was down to 118,000 from 250,000 (no medication changes) so we're going to continue with his taper plan. This Thursday, we cut down from 100mg cyclosporine to 50mg per day. Hopefully, he'll be able to tolerate it. Rachel |
| Rachel Massachusetts |
This thread was discussed between 28/01/2008 and 05/02/2008
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