Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - Holly's continued fight and update

Just got home and had a fax of Holly's bloodwork from yesterday which was 10 days after last one and her set back of which we still have no idea what caused all of this two weeks ago. We are just at such a loss right now trying to figure out what happened. To refresh everyone, about 2 weeks ago she was vomiting for like 4 days, first day was black and then after that just all her food. She was then put on Sucralfate and pepcid which seemed to help keep all her food down and the vomiting stopped. Her bloodwork at that time went all off the charts!! Everything went wacky, her retics went up to 6.7 from 1.1, her Hematocrit dropped about 10 points WBC shot up 10.0 from 3.2 and more numbers were all off wack. So yesterday bloodwork shows retics are coming down and at 3.4, Hemoglobin is still low at 11.5, Hamatocrit still holding at 37.9, last was 36.4, before all this she was at 43.2. But now her WBC is back down low again to 3.9, platelets are still high, and something new on CBC says NRBC high at 3, which I don't know what this is. This disease is just so frustrating, especially when you don't know what might have caused this setback for her. We are still at 5mg prednisone and azathioprine same, but really thinking of switching back to cyclosporin and getting her off of the azathioprine. I am again waiting for the vet to call, he was suppose to be calling specialist in Atlanta today to figure out what to do next. Sorry to be so long, but sometimes you just need to hear some reassuring words from our friends here on the board. Thanks for listening! Linda

Linda Sapphire

Linda, I'm sorry I can't offer any answers but I do understand how stressful the uncertainty is. Two weeks ago Duck's PCV was 41 (all time high) and his blood looked absolutely normal under the microscope. Today PCV was 34.8 and the vet is seeing a small number of spherocytes under the microscope. What is even more worrisome is that she isn't seeing many reticulocytes in response to this anemia. We, as well, have no idea what could have brought this on. So ... I can relate to how you are feeling. Hang in there and gather as much information as you can from all corners. I really hope the specialist in Atlanta can shed some light on this for you and can give your vet a good idea how to proceed. deb and Duck

Debbie BC Canada

Hi Debbie, Did you do any kind of reduction for Duck to have his PCV drop that much? Holly has been on the same meds for 2 months now with no reductions. I did hear from the vet last night, but of course he was to busy to contact the specialist in Atlanta, and today she was off and he was closed, so now I wait until tomorrow (Thursday) and hope I hear something. Like you just wish we knew what brought on all this dramatic change! You hang in there also! Linda

Linda Sapphire

Hi Linda. Fortunately I had questions about the reduction and so I decided not to go ahead with it. I can't imagine what Duck's PCV would have been had I done the reduction. I really hope you hear from your vet tomorrow. Waiting is so hard. Good luck and please keep us updated. deb and Duck

Debbie BC Canada

Hi Linda, I dont have much information to add to this, but did they test for pancreatitis? Do dogs get food poisoning? I dont know. Its strange. Similarly, Kent had a reduction and his hematocrit fell from 36 to 31. We have been very worried for the last two weeks and today he is up to 35, but has not had an appetite much for at least a week. He also just threw up some apple he ate, so i dont know whats going on with his stomach. This road is rough, up and down roller coaster, and that's about all i know for sure. Before Kent was dropped down 5 mg pred to 15, imuran still at 25 for last two months, he had blood in his stool for over a month which we only now have got under control finally with baytril for bacterial infection we found through a urine culture, though i could have sworn and still think that he had a gi bleed. He may be getting tested for addison's soon. Please keep us posted, Christine

Christine Florida

Christine, All of her other blood work on the superchem was good! No signs of pancreatitis. They at first thought a bleeding ulcer, because she was never on pepcid or sulfcrate but now is. Once we started this all the vomiting stopped. The only conclusion that our vet and the internist came to was maybe a virus like from cold weather? Like people get. We had not changed anything at all in her diet, and she never once lost her appetite. The black vomit was just the one day and then the next 3 days was just regular vomit of all her food that she could not keep down. I guess from what they have told me this would increase the retics to go sky high. But just so disturbing because we were almost at a good point and now 3 steps backwards to get those retic back down. UGH! Linda

Linda Sapphire

Linda, You might want to get a hold of Dr. Dodds. She is a blood specialist and because she is non-profit she would do a reading really inexpensively. You can find all the info at her hemopet site. Good luck Penny

Penny Lytle Creek Calif

Linda, I'm so sorry to hear all that you've been going through. Penny is right, I'd be interested to hear Dr. Dodds' take on this latest turn. I'm absolutely as puzzled as you are as to what is going on with Holly. I hope Holly is hanging in there-keep us posted after you hear from the specialist.

Stephanie Chicago

I had contacted Dr Dodds two weeks ago after we got the bad news that her retics had jumped to high and PCV went down from all the vomiting. I actually sent her a spreadsheet of all of Holly's blood work from day one, and she responded that overall Holly was doing well. Of course she mentioned about getting her to a fish and potato dog food, and said that eventually she should be on 2.5mg of prednisone daily and Imuran three times a week with long term goal of 2.5mg prednisone every other day. Again we had at one point gotten her down to prednisone every other day, but then her retic's got up to high so had to raise back up. I had even e-mailed her a letter about the latest vomiting for 4 days, but she made no comment on that and why the bloodwork was all over the place. I am going to contact her again, I still have not heard back from our vet to see if he had gotten in touch with the specialist today. Just as always a waiting game, UGH! Linda

Linda Sapphire

This thread was discussed between 12/02/2008 and 14/02/2008

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