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Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Holly retic count
| Patrice & JoAnn you guys seem to have the most knowledge about this and could maybe help me to understand?? As I posted earlier Holly's PCV was up to 43.2 which is great, but her retic was 1.1, which is not that bad, but up .1 from her last blood work 5 weeks ago. At one point her retic count was down to 0.2 several months ago, but with each decrease of the prednisone the retic count kept rising. Received the fax today from the internist in Atlanta and she is wanting her to stay on same meds, 5mg of prednisone and the Azathioprine. She was trying to explain to me the reason for this, here is what she said: "In a dog with a normal hematocrit, there is no reason for there to be elevated reticulocyte count unless they are a)bleeding or b)hemolysing at a subclinical level because the bone marrow should not be stimulated to make new red cells if the hematocrit is normal." I am assuming that this means the anti-bodies are still atacking her red blood cells??? Thanks for any and all help. Linda |
| Linda Sapphire |
| Linda, The definition of the word “subclinical” is: “without clinical manifestations; said of the early stages of or a very mild form of a disease” Source Bailliere’s comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary so if Holly’s vet says one option is that there is "hemolysing at a subclinical level" my GUESS is (and it is only my guess) that the red blood cells are still being mildy attacked. This would be my GUESS rather the the option of bleeding since it can take a very, very long time for the attacking of the red blood cells to stop. Rather then be upset about this develoment, I would urge you to be pleased that you have such a great vet who wants to keep such a close watch on Holly and NOT reduce the meds too quickly. If more vets did this I am confident we would have a lot more AIHA/IMHA survivors. |
| Joanne MN |
| Thanks Joanne, and yes I think you are correct that no bleeding is going on, just still anti-bodies attacking her red blood cells, which is kind of what I thought also about all of this. Everyone has been telling me it doesn't matter about the retic count if the PCV is good, but Holly's Internist has always drilled in my head different and this in fact (retic count) has always been her NUMBER 1 concern. Thanks for you advice. Linda |
| Linda Sapphire |
This thread was discussed on 16/01/2008
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